Several Thousand Without Power as Sandy Moves Along the Coast
Friday, October 26, 2012
By: Tom Parkinson

October 26, 2012 | WMFE - As Hurricane Sandy blows north along Central Florida's coastline, the area is experiencing high winds with strong gusts. Along the coast in Brevard and Volusia Counties gusts of 40 to 50 mph are reportedly blowing onshore. A Tropical Storm Warning is in effect for Florida's East Coast from the upper Florida Keys to Flagler Beach.

 
There are numerous reports of debris on the roads and downed trees and power lines in Central Florida’s coastal counties.

Florida Power & Light says there are several thousand customers without power this afternoon in Brevard County. The outages are reported in Melbourne, Palm Bay, Cocoa Beach and several other cities. 

Progress Energy reports about 1300 customers without power in the Deland and Debary area as of 12:30 this afternoon.

Rob Sumner of Progress Energy says they are working to get those customers back online but, he warns, others could go dark as the high winds continue.
“If you recall when Tropical Storm Debby sat off the coast, we would get people back on and then another feeder band would come through and it would knock more people off. So it’s just an ongoing thing we have to monitor.” Sumner says.

Tropical Storm Debby caused extensive flooding and high winds across much of Florida in June as it moved slowly along the Gulf Coast.

The 11:00 am briefing from the National Weather Service has Sandy about 250 miles southeast of Melbourne, moving north at about six miles per hour. The storm is now a Category One hurricane with top winds of about 80 mph.
By Saturday afternoon, forecasters say Sandy will be well away from the Florida coastline, and they predict sunny and drier conditions for the weekend.