Florida Power & Light Company reported that a majority of the customers who lost power in the wake of Tropical Storm Gabrielle will have service restored by late tonight. The remainder will be essentially restored by the end of the day tomorrow.

FPL said its first priority has been to restore service to the largest number of customers by working on outages associated with major lines. Once those lines are repaired, workers are able to move to neighborhoods and individual customer service problems.

"We appreciate the patience of our customers and are working hard to restore power safely and as soon as possible," said Armando Olivera, FPL senior vice president of power systems.

Approximately 7,000 employees and contract workers are involved in restoration efforts.

FPL continues to urge customers to be careful in storm-damaged regions. Stay away from any dangling wires or downed poles and do not walk into standing water. If you see any sparking wires or downed lines, or to report an outage, please call 1-800-4OUTAGE (1-800-468-8243).

FPL will keep customers updated on restoration progress via the news media and its "Storm Center" site at http://www.fpl.com/ .

As of 9 p.m. Saturday, FPL had approximately 120,000 homes and businesses without power. Outages by county were:

  Southwest Florida        Northeast/Central Florida
  Charlotte -  7,000       St. Johns - 10,000
  DeSoto -     3,000       Putnam -     3,000
  Manatee -   45,000       Flagler -    2,000
  Sarasota -  50,000

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SOURCE: Florida Power & Light Company