Power outage turns South Florida dark

Miami Herald ^ | February 26, 2008

[Fawn]

Florida Power & Light is reporting massive power outages throughout South Florida, including Miami, Doral, Westchester, and Pembroke Pines. Reports of outages extended into Palm Beach, an FPL spokeswoman said.

The company said it was investigating the problem.

[Fawn]

The blackout is actually scattered throughout the state.....

[fireforeffect]

Rush IS on from Palm Beach.

[Slapshot68]

Kind of a dumb headline. lol

[Rome2000]

Had a quick brownout about 20 minutes ago in deep south Dade but it came right back.

[Izzy Dunne]

Hmmm. I thought it was the suntan oil...

[steve86]

Rush is burning some diesel right now

[Moonman62]

It’s back on where I’m at. I was outside during the whole thing, so I had no idea.

[SF Republican]

Dark at 1:30 in the afternoon?

[dawn53]

We’re in Pinellas. My folks are only a half mile from me and their power is out. Weird, I’m fine.

[Clemenza]

I used to live in Doral. Brownouts were common there, as in all of South Florida. FPL is used to dealing with blackouts/brownouts, so things should be up and running soon.

[domenad]

Hope it spreads to Tampa because man do I want to go home right now.

[Fawn]

Yeah...they are reporting that the keys are turned back on....and they are working at miami dade, broward and parts of palm beach....and I hear it affecting people as far North as Daytona Beach.......

Transmission Line failure is the culpret according to FPL.

[Rick.Donaldson]

I was thinking... “Wow... it put out the sun?”

[MindBender26]

Orlando fine

[oldsalt]

I'm in Columbia County just north of Gainesville and I just had a dropoff that came right back...just enough to knock out all my satellite connections,(TV,computer), and make me reset all the appliances' digital clocks.

I hate that!

[Lorraine]

We lost power here in Orlando at approximately 1:15 and just got it back on.

[Red Badger]

I hope it’s BIODIESEL!!!!............

[grannie9]

We were out for about a half hour here in Cape Coral, (west coast) but it’s on now.

[Alice in Wonderland]

Same here in Ocala. I have Clay Electric.

[steve86]

LOL. Actually a real bad choice to use as a stored fuel...at least in the northern states.

[Fawn]

Yeah..I hate that too...I have a bunch to set.... they are reporting all kinds of serious traffic backups and some accidents.....Port of Miami OUT of power....

[Fawn]

Tampa Bay is out of power now

[MindBender26]

Now moving into Central Florida. Parts of Brevard County, (Melbourne, Cocoa, Cape areas) out. City of Apopka (15NM NW of Orlando) out.

[jonrick46]

I wonder if the transmission line failure is the result of hackers getting into the computer control system?

[b4its2late]

Voter suppression!

[Dog Gone]

Cascading power failures can eventually spread out of state unless wise operators cut the transmission lines.

It sounds like Florida is in the midst of that right now.

It would be better for all of Florida to go dark than to allow it to spread throughout the entire eastern grid.

[TYVets]

It was one of those oil drilling rigs off the coast that cut the electric transmission lines.

[Nailbiter]

Buy a wind up clock, LOL

[Fawn]

Naples is hit too...lol.....boy does that grid jump the state!

[NautiNurse]

Tampa Bay is out of power now

Still on the grid here in Tampa Bay...for now...

I am wondering if this is a test for what's in store under our Green Governor Crist. We can have rolling blackouts just like his awesome buddy Ahnold in California.

[Fawn]

They were almost laughing on the local news coverage I’m listening too saying “NO, it’s not a terrorist attack”...as if that’s funny!? That’s the first thing I thought of....

[blam]

"It was one of those oil drilling rigs off the coast that cut the electric transmission lines."

You mean...Florida has been buying electricity from Cuba?

[Fawn]

Good point....i wouldn’t doubt it!!

[Greg F]

Try using the John at work with no power. Pitch black . . .

Lights back up now.

[Fawn]

COOL....tornado warning in Broward county.....

[NautiNurse]

I just heard that Apollo Beach (east Tampa Bay) was out for 2.5 hours. They have TECO, not FPL.

[Joe Brower]

The juice is still on in Sarasota county. If it wasn't, this post wouldn't be here. $:-)

Florida Freeper

[TYVets]

ABC Radio News at 2PM:

Street lights are out in the area.

/s

[Dog Gone]

It’s more complex than I can begin to understand, but each state is different with smaller subgrids of power lines making up the larger one.

When one gets knocked off, it causes the others to become unstable trying to compensate, and when it starts cascading to adjacent areas, it’s hard to stop.

You have to sever the connection or it’s like a virus that will spread. And it’s hard to get them all back up again. It require finesse at the power generating stations to bring them back up where they are synchronized. It’s way more complicated than simply turning an ignition switch on.

A lot of coordination is involved.

[NonValueAdded]

Fox Radio News just speculated that the storms in Georgia might be the cause. WTG, Lisa Brady ... didja sleep through Geography?

[SE Mom]

Ok here in Seminole (Progress Energy)

[Red_Devil 232]

8 power plants down.

[Fawn]

Jeez...they must be interconnected somehow.....

They just said over 4 milion people are affected....

[Old Professer]

Proceed toe first, stop at first curved obstruction, listen for echo...

[synbad600]

No problems in Vero. Yet. If y’all don’t hear bac

[SWAMPSNIPER]

O.K near St. Augustine, but there is a T storm coming in, possible tornados. I can hear the storm now, sounds like near Palatka. Got the AC running, tomorrow I’ll need heat!

[Fawn]

They also issued a tornado warning in Broward a few minutes ago...it’s moving North.... ‘warning’ not watch...

[George from New England]

Still on north of Tampa. 33523. I have TECO and no interruption even.

[Fawn]

I’m in Boca right now and am not affected..., but some places in Boca were affected....strange grid.

[Doomonyou]

Dark at 1:30 in the afternoon?

Maybe they have an eclipse today.