On Thursday morning, tens of thousands of Floridians woke up without power following a series of harrowing storms. According to a local news report, areas in South Florida were impacted the most severely by the storms, with Miami, Miami Beach, Coral Gables, Aventura, North Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Pompano Beach and West Palm Beach suffering power outages.
By 6:30 PM local time, at least 41,000 people were still without power, according to PowerOutage.us. The power company Florida Power & Light reported on Thursday that more than 59,000 customers in the Miami-Dade County were without power, as well as more than 24,000 in Broward County, and 21,000 in Palm Beach County.
“Our crews are working to restore service safely and as quickly as possible,” Florida Power & Light said in a statement. “We urge customers to monitor the weather and stay safe. This includes staying far away from downed power lines or other damaged electrical equipment.”
Wind gusts of up to 60 miles per hour (MPH) were also present in those areas, which prompted warnings through Thursday afternoon.
The storm system, which originated in the Gulf of Mexico and the east coast of Florida, eased away from the state on Thursday, according to meteorologists. But before making its way out, the storm system left the southeastern region of Florida with up to 10 inches of rain in some areas, including Miami. During the storm more than 7 million people were also under flood watches and warnings.
Dozens of flights were also delayed, and a public school system in the Miami metropolitan area closed for all of Thursday.
By Thursday morning, however, the flooding began to recede and meteorologists eventually removed the flood watch from the area. And despite light rain throughout the region, forecasters noted that wind from the storm system could actually help dry drenched areas faster.