Governor who is speaking about the state of things in his state. in the northern part of the state, so far, there have been 262,000 accounts that had lost power, have been restored. there are more than 250,000 accounts that are currently out of power and in need of restoration. as you d imagine, the counties that have the highest percentage of power outs ages in the main pathway of the storm. counties like dixie, taylor, jefferson and columbia. eutility workers are actively working to restore power in all affected areas. they have started doing that as soon as it was safe to do so. so those restoration efforts are ongoing. we do anticipate you could have power outage numbers could go higher, but the restoration numbers are going to go higher as well.
And partner with agriculture to find out where we can get a shrlt close by so once the storm is done, they can be reunited with somebody that s extremely important to them and go home safe live together. the other thing working with these folks in our private sector partners even if it s down in florida where people need fuel, working with our fuel suppliers, other things to work the logistics out of that. certainly state of emergency and other tools that we have to help in that regard. to make its way to his state of georgia. now we have seen idalia evolve several times today. it went from category 4 to category 1. but don t let that fool you. the next 12 to 24 hours bring huge danger for millions in its path. the director of the national
Flash and urban flooding and places like columbia, south carolina. we have the peeshl of storm surge aboveground level in savannah and charleston. that s going to develop into the high tide cycle later this evening and into tonight. there could be coastal flooding. if anybody has been asked to evacuate, we edge encourage them to do so. there s the potential for hurricane-force winds inland in georgia and then with tropical storm warnings for much of south carolina and coastal north carolina. you maybe start eed to answe my next question, which is you have people who are looking around and saying the storm seems to have slow ed. the wind isn t so bad. the water isn t so bad. there s not a lot of rain.
Spiking throughout the state. thank you so much. the governor of the state that you re in, the governor of georgia, is answering reporters questions along with his team. let s listen in. you can help us. this is still a bad storm that s coming through. we just got a report that a tree went through the roof. so it s a dangerous storm. people need to be ready when it s coming through. either move a county or two up if they have the ability to do that. if not, make sure they are in a secure location. watch out for downed power lines and things of that nature and if they got an hour or two before the storm gets here, get a little extra bottled water. we have a lot of information on the website and obviously the phone number people can call.
We want want the to think about what else is going on in florida. florida governor desantis put the entire state on notice. hurricane idalia poses a multibillion dollar threat. john berman is in tallahassee. what are you seeing there now? reporter: one of the first rain-free moments we have had. you mentioned ron desantis running the state response from tallahassee, which saw it s own damage and destruction in the storm. the storm passed by and we are now getting reports of extensive tree damage along the roads. you can see behind me some of the trees that line these streets. all around this area, trees, much bigger than this. much bigger than this have fallen down and blocked the roads it s going to be very hard