The number of people who have died in Florida due to circumstances related to Hurricane Irma now stands at 26, most of them the result of medical conditions and most of them occurring after the storm. The deaths occurred in 15 counties.
The eight elderly patients who died at a Broward County nursing home have not yet been included in the death toll. Neither have the eight reported fatalities in the Florida Keys.
According to the state Emergency Operations Center, Broward and Orange counties had the highest number of storm-related fatalities with five each. Most of those deaths were the result of either medical issues as they prepared for the storm or carbon monoxide poisoning.
Meanwhile, recovery efforts from Irma continue across the state.
Utility crews continue to work around the clock restoring electricity to Florida homes and businesses. As of 11 a.m. Friday, 1.8 million customers were without power. That number is nearly a million fewer than Thursday morning.
“Over the past few days, I have seen firsthand how Hurricane Irma has impacted our communities, and I know from talking with these families that power restoration is the number one thing they need to start the recovery process,” Gov. Rick Scott said in a written statement. “Right now, tens of thousands of people across our state are working day and night to get power restored and in three days, more than 65 percent of all outages have been restored. We will not stop until 100 percent of Florida homes and businesses have power so all families can get back to their normal lives.”
Miami-Dade County continues to report the most outages with more than 250,000 customers without power.
The state says it is working to restore power to assisted living facilities and nursing homes in the impacted areas. Officials are holding daily calls with those facilities to make sure they have everything they need to care for their residents.
For updates on efforts to restore power, click here.
Special disaster medical assistance teams are deployed to provide healthcare services to areas of the state that are in need.
More than 10,000 remain in over 100 shelters across the state. The Red Cross is opening four shelters in the Florida Keys.
For more information and updates on recovery efforts in Florida, click here.