Crews were still working Tuesday to restore power after more than 440,000 Georgia residents experienced power outages after Hurricane Matthew.
About 76,000 Georgia Power customers were without power about 11:30 a.m.
“Significant progress has been made restoring service to approximately 264,000 customers,” Georgia Power said in a statement. “Over 340,000 customers were impacted by Hurricane Matthew.”
Another 14,000 customers of the Georgia Electric Membership Corporation were without power across the southeastern part of the state, down from 100,000 at the height of Matthew.
Georgia Power said it plans to restore service to more than 90 percent of its customers by Wednesday.
“Savannah was one of the hardest hit,” the utility said. “We are working to have 90 percent of Savannah back on midnight tomorrow.”
Tybee Mayor Jason Buelterman called Matthew the worst hurricane in more than 100 years. A tidal gauge at Fort Pulaski, just outside town, hit a record 12.56 feet, which exceeded the previous high of 12.2 feet set during Hurricane David in 1979. Flooding typically starts at 9.8 feet.
A Category 2 storm when it hit the Georgia coast early Saturday, Matthew killed at least three people in the state. Officials were unsure if a fourth reported death was caused by the storm. The death toll reached the hundreds in Haiti, 11 in North Carolina, nine in Florida, three in South Carolina and one in Virginia, according to ABC News.
Tens of thousands of evacuees started returning home to coastal Georgia on Monday, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.
Residents of St. Simons Island were initially prohibited from going home due to a sewage system shutdown. Officials said the limited sewer capacity created “a potential severe public health issue” and issued a boil water advisory.
That advisory was lifted at 9:30 a.m. Tuesday and residents were allowed back in their homes at noon.
“All service connections in Brunswick have been found to have been unaffected by the outage,” officials said in a news release.
Residents will have to show a valid ID listing their St. Simons residence to be allowed pass a checkpoint onto the island.
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