Nearly 6,000 Manatee County homes have been affected by power outages as Hurricane Helene churns through the Gulf of Mexico. As of Thursday afternoon, Florida Power and Light reported outages for 2,950 customers, with the number likely to increase as the powerful Category 3 storm continues to move north toward Florida’s Big Bend area.

As Hurricane Helene brings dangerous storm surge, high winds and flooding rain to Florida, a look at power outages around Sarasota, Manatee County.

Hurricane Helene, now with winds at 125 mph, has sent rain, wind and storm surge into Sarasota and Manatee counties.

Florida Power & Light and Peace River Electric Cooperative are Manatee County’s electricity providers. Both providers have online maps that show local outages in real-time. The maps also show how widespread the outage is and when the power might return.

At 11 a.m. Tuesday, Helene was moving toward the northwest near 12 mph with maximum sustained winds of 45 mph. This general motion is expected later Tuesday and Tuesday night, followed by a faster northward turn to north-northeastward motion on Wednesday and Thursday.

For the Bradenton area, expected impacts include 5 to 8 feet of storm surge, tropical storm force winds of up to 73 mph and up to 6 inches of rain, according to the National Hurricane Center’s latest forecast.