UPDATE - Friday, 4 p.m.: We have substantially completed restoration after Ian swept through our area this week and began causing widespread outages in our 14-county service territory on Wednesday. We expect all remaining members without power - about 1,000 hit hardest in Lake, Marion, Putnam and Volusia Counties - to have their service back by Saturday evening. The storm caused several individual outages that take longer to restore and some areas have more extensive damage to repair. Crews will work until power is restored to every member.

(8:45 a.m.) About 6,000 Clay Electric members remain without electricity due to Hurricane Ian as of Friday morning, Sept. 30. We have restored service to about 24,000 accounts (80 percent) since Wednesday. At the height of the storm, 30,000 accounts were without power.

Outside crews from West Florida Electric Cooperative and numerous contract crews are assisting Clay Electric’s personnel in the restoration process. Our district offices will remain closed to the public on Friday, Sept. 30 to allow our personnel to focus on restoration efforts.

Here are some things to keep in mind:

• There are still some low-hanging or downed power lines in our area at this time. These lines may still be energized, so please avoid going near them and never touch them.
• If you or a family member depend on power for medical reasons, have somewhere to go that is out of harm’s way, or have a generator handy.
• If you use a generator, know how to operate it safely, and do not hook it up to your home’s wiring system. It could backfeed into our distribution system and kill or injure personnel making repairs.
• The MyClayElectric mobile app and web portal is set up to inform members that Clay Electric is aware of their outage. If members still need to report outages, they may report them through MyClayElectric or call 888-434-9844.

Information and updates will be shared on Facebook and ClayElectric.com throughout the restoration process.