Hurricane Helene churned toward Florida's Panhandle region, bringing the threat of a potentially deadly storm surge to much of the coastline.
Helene has intensified into an extremely dangerous Category 4 hurricane, and it is nearing the northeast Gulf coast, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said on Thursday. It was expected to make landfall this evening.
The utility company with the largest number of customers affected was Florida Power & Light Company (NEEPWR.UL), which had 137,897 clients without power.
It was followed by Duke Energy (DUK.N), opens new tab, with 133,948 customers cut off in the state.
"We anticipate landfall will bring the most significant damage to our infrastructure in the Panhandle and Big Bend area that will likely cause extended outage durations," Todd Fountain, Duke Energy storm director, said in a statement.
