Hurricane Irma: Thousands Without Power In Polk County (UPDATES)

LAKELAND, FL — After Hurricane Irma barreled into Polk County late Sunday night, residents are seeing downed power lines and trees, property damage, outages and other impacts.

According to the Polk County Sheriff's Office, power outages are widespread, and downed power lines are hazardous on the roads. As of Monday morning, county officials said about 80 percent of Polk County is without power. More than 43,000 Duke Energy customers and 1,500 Lakeland Electric customers lost power.

Florida Light and Power said 3.6 million of its customers were without power Monday morning, while Tampa Electric says 300,000 of its customers, about 58 percent of its territory, is without electricity.

Residents in low-lying areas prone to flooding received mandatory evacuation orders over the weekend, and the county opened numerous shelters. Polk County, including Lakeland, Bartow and Winter Haven, were all in the hurricane warning area.

Watch: Hurricane Irma Weakens To A Tropical Storm, But It's Still Dangerous

Officials are focused on restoring power at the county's facilities. Almost all of Winter Haven Hospital is without electricity, but they are running on generator power. Most of Polk County's public shelters are also without power.

Polk County Utilities reports that one potable water plant is down. Other facilities are picking up the load, which is causing reduced pressures, but there currently are no health issues with drinking water. Several sanitary lift stations are without power, which may cause spillage to flow into areas near these lift stations, officials said.

Authorities continue to assess the widespread damage, and fire rescue services have been restored after being suspended as heavy winds hit the area. According to the Sheriff's office, two first responders became trapped in a patrol car when a live power pole and electric lines fell on it at Lakeland Hills Boulevard near Robson Street Sunday night. They were able to escape early Monday and have returned to work.

Polk County Sheriff’s deputies are driving all roads to assess which roads are impassible. Roads and Drainage division is sending crews to those areas to clear roads so that they are drivable, but downed powerlines are making this process take longer, county officials said. Crews are coming from outside the county to assist with further road cleanup and debris removal. Major roadways will be cleared first.

Polk County residents can report safety concerns to 863-401-2234 (local) or 866-661-0228 (toll-free). See Polk County's updated list of road damages here.

On Monday, Irma was moving toward the northwestern coast of the Florida Peninsula and was set to cross the eastern Florida Panhandle into southern Georgia in the afternoon as a tropical storm and move through southwestern Georgia and eastern Alabama Monday night into Tuesday, the National Hurricane Center said. The hurricane has downgraded to a Category 1 storm with sustained winds of 75 mph.

Image via Desmond Boylan/Associated Press