That doesn't include any electric customers in the Tampa Bay area, where Tampa Electric Co. and Progress Energy Florida Inc. have restored service to a combined 77,000 customers. Juno Beach-based Florida Power & Light Co. expects to return power to the remaining 5,200 customers out in Manatee and Sarasota counties by tonight.

Executives of Florida Power & Light Co. called the destruction to their electric system the worst they had seen.

On Monday, the fast-moving Wilma cut a 180-mile swath through the company's territory, knocking out power to about 75 percent of its 4.3 million customers, affecting an estimated 6 million people.

Nearly 3 million customers still did not have electricity Tuesday, as about 6,000 utility workers and tree-trimming crews from Florida Power & Light and other utility companies worked around the clock to restore power. An additional 3,000 electric workers are expected to join in by Sunday, and more will be called in later.

"It's not going to be an easy restoration," said Armando Olivera, Florida Power & Light president, asking for customers' cooperation and patience.

One of those customers is Deirdra Christian, 44, who cooked corned beef hash on a grill outside her 1979 home at the Palma Nova mobile home park in Fort Lauderdale as she thought about the prospect of life without electricity.

"In a day or two, it's going to be hot again," she said. "These [mobile homes] are unbearable when it is hot."

"I'm going to go crazy without my computer and TV," she said.

As head of a utility that dealt with Hurricane Andrew in 1992 and seven hurricanes in the past year, Olivera said this is "one of the most challenging times for our customers in recent history."

Florida Power & Light delivers electricity to nearly half the population of Florida, almost 8 million people. Its territory covers about 22,000 square miles and stretches across 35 counties from Manatee down to Collier County over to Miami-Dade County and up to the Space Coast.

The Category 3 storm, with sustained winds between 111 and 130 miles per hour, snapped wooden and concrete power poles, wrapped wires around trees and hurled debris into transmission lines and substations, company officials said.

No power plants were damaged. But about 200 substations, which help move electricity from power plants to homes and businesses, and many large power lines were severely damaged, Olivera said.

"In prior storms, we had not really seen much damage to these facilities," he said.

Utility officials said they couldn't explain why debris lodged in or wrapped around so much equipment from this storm and not from others.

Hardest hit was Broward County, where every substation suffered. Geisha Williams, Florida Power & Light vice president for distribution, said 98 percent of Broward, home to Fort Lauderdale, was without power.

Fort Lauderdale residents spent Tuesday cleaning yards and homes as they realized it could be a long time before power returns. Residents took to the streets to tour the area, surveying thousands of downed trees and power lines.

Doug Millard is learning how expensive it can be when power is out. His eight Lil' Rascal preschools and two Dairy Queens in Miami-Dade lost power during the storm, and he couldn't guess when they might reopen.

The lack of power will cost him $200,000 a week in revenue, and he spent part of Tuesday trying to find enough cash to pay employees who helped him remove downed trees and debris from his businesses.

"I know people say that insurance will take care of things," said Millard, who was unnerved he hadn't heard from his insurance agent by the afternoon. "But nobody wins in a hurricane. Nobody comes out ahead."

While Millard talked with managers about getting cash, workers tried to hoist a downed palm tree.

Workers pushed and heaved on the tree as Millard's son, Craig, used a rope to pull it up with a Chevrolet pickup.

While they struggled with the tree, Craig Millard cooked a large tin pan filled with barbecued pork on the engine.

"You've got to make the most out of it," he said.

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