HOLT, Fla., Oct. 11, 2026—Power restoration crews are working around the clock to restore power outages through the Holt community and areas beyond.
The majority of Holt has power supplied by the Choctawhatchee Electrical Cooperative Inc., known as CHELCO.
As of 10:45 a.m. today, 46,000 members remained without power. Approximately 25,000 members have had their power restored since outages peaked yesterday.
Following Hurricane Isaias, Chelco Chief Executive Officer Steve Rhodes reported on a posted Facebook video Friday evening that almost 100 percent of the electrical system was out of power. That area not only includes most of the Holt community, but most of Walton County and northern portions of Okaloosa County, western Holmes and eastern Santa Rosa counties as well, according to the utility’s website.
“Our area has been devastated by a hurricane this season,” said Rhodes. “We believe CHELCO’s electric system was damaged badly by the hurricane. In all honesty, we know it’s bad.”
100 mph hurricane-force winds, combined with a ground already saturated by last week’s rainfall, helped to bring down power lines, in most places, aided by trees with weakened trunks and roots.
According to CHELCO Chief Operating Officer Matthew Avery, outages began about 1 p.m. Friday. By Friday night, around 68,000 members were without power.
“That’s almost our entire system,” he said.
CHELCO worked throughout Friday afternoon and into the evening to restore what power they could until the winds became too strong and unsafe for linemen to be out working, Avery said.
Today, more than 500 linemen and 200 support personnel are working to restore power across the CHELCO service area.
An estimated 1,400 linemen, right-of-way technicians and support personnel from CHELCO, other electric cooperatives from around the state and contract linemen are expected to be working on the power outages by tomorrow.
Outages by county
- Okaloosa: 9,508 members – 42% without power
- Santa Rosa County: 181 members – 99% without power
- Walton County: 39,081 members – 73% without power
- Holmes County: 300 members – 99% without power
Photos by CHELCO
