The combination of daylight and receding flood waters in many sections of Miami-Dade County are providing FPL crews an opportunity to further assess neighborhood electrical systems and to begin restoring service in some flood damaged areas. Other areas remain underwater and restoration efforts in those areas continue to be slow going. FPL is working closely with the South Florida Water Management District to determine when FPL crews can get into the flooded areas. At 11 a.m., FPL reported 8,500 customers still without power. Power has been restored to 83,500 customers since torrential rains began pelting South Florida on Tuesday.

In the heavily flooded Hallendale area of south Broward County, approximately 200 customers are without power, primarily as a result of requests by local officials for FPL not to restore power until authorities have verified that flooded homes and businesses can safely receive it.

"We remain very focused on making sure we get all of our customers back with full electric service as quickly and safely as we possibly can," said Armando Olivera, senior vice president of power systems. "It is possible that additional individual outages will be reported as customers who were evacuated from flooded areas return to their homes. We will repair these outages as quickly as our crews can safely access underground equipment." To report an outage, customers should call FPL at 1-800-4OUTAGE.

Until flood waters have receded, FPL cautions customers to be extra careful when walking in standing water since downed power lines and other electrical equipment such as ground-level transformers may be obscured from view and still may be energized and dangerous. FPL is continuing efforts to phone customers in flooded areas to keep them posted on restoration status.

Additionally, FPL cautions residential customers who may be returning to a flooded home to observe a few basic safety guidelines:

* If you have any doubts about the integrity of your home electrical system as a result of flooding, check with local officials or a licensed electrician.

* Do not stand in water when operating switches, plugging or unplugging appliances or resetting breakers or replacing fuses.

* Do not attempt to reset breakers or replace fuses until all water has receded. Use caution, since some circuits above the flood level may still be energized.

* If breakers will not reset and continue to trip, call a licensed electrician. This condition might indicate a short-circuit in your electrical system.

* Before re-plugging electrical appliances into wall sockets, be sure the appliances have been checked for water damage and all cords and other parts are dry.

  Customer outages as of 11 a.m.

  West Miami -- 2,300      Kendall -- 2,100   Olympia Heights -- 1,000
  Hialeah --      700      Perrine --   500   Miami --             400
  Miami Lakes --  300      Medley --    300   Miami Beach --       200
  Sweetwater --   200      Other --     300   Hallendale --        200

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SOURCE: Florida Power & Light Company