Power outage turns South Florida dark

[Speciesamused]

Source: Miami Herald

Power outages are cascading through many parts of South Florida, with Florida Power & Light and others reporting blackouts in portions of Miami, Doral, Westchester, Pembroke Pines, Miramar and Boca Raton.

Many traffic lights are not working and nine accidents were reported in Miami-Dade County between 1:04 p.m. and 1:26 p.m. Police agencies were dispatching officers to as many intersections as possible.

The lights flickered off at several South Florida hospitals, which had to switch to generator power.

"We had a blip here and the generators kicked in immediately," Jackson Memorial Hospital spokeswoman Lorraine Nelson said.

Mount Sinai Medical Center in Miami Beach and Baptist Hospital in Southwest Miami-Dade reported similar situations.

A spokeswoman for FPL said the company was investigating the extent and cause of the problem.

In one part of western Pembroke Pines, the outage began about 1:15 p.m., but service was restored within about 10 minutes.

The service failures came during an unusually warm February day in South Florida, with temperatures reaching near-record highs. At 1 p.m, Miami and West Palm Beach reported a reading of 84 degrees; it was 83 degrees in Fort Lauderdale.

Some air conditioning companies reported summer-like levels of service calls.

Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/854/story/434104.html

---

Another part of our infrastructure that has been
showing signs of stress. The electrical grid
in this country has been in need of updating.
Along with everything else. Peace.

[DS1]

1. Florida sucks so much it turns dark midday when the power goes out

tis a black hole of suck. The only thing that escapes is death, which is why old people naturally gravitate towards Florida

[Demeter]

2. I Hope Your Mood Is NOT the Result of Florida Sunshine!

Or Madison Avenue is sunk!

[heliarc]

36. More likely...

the result of years and years of living with Cuban-American, Bush Voting Gusanos. I'm thrilled that I no longer live in the mosquito infested South of Florida. The mojito drinker neglected to mention that if he or she wanted to spend even an hour without getting soaked in sweat they wouldn't be able too poolside or not. And don't get me started on the corruption. Miami is really the heart of the mess, but there's a very similar breed of "hippies go home" throw-back segregationist bigotry in Central Florida too.

You can keep Florida.

[Warpy]

3. My mother would've loved you

She said she loved to see all the high rise condos going up because their weight would make Florida sink just that much faster.

I read the OP as "Power Outrage Turns South Florida Dark." It sounded like the Jebbie years to me and I expected a political article or at least an expose of the new Catholic paradise being built on the southwest coast.

[SteppingRazor]

6. When I'm sipping mojitos while sitting poolside and watching the sunset this evening...

and it's about 75 degrees with a nice breeze blowing, I'll think of you. :hi:

[DS1]

7. I'll be enjoying a nice cool rain

thanks for the thought

:hi:

[SteppingRazor]

9. In Massachusetts?

Sure ya will. Don't you mean a freezing rain with temperatures hovering in the mid-30s? :P

[DS1]

11. low 40s

but after our winter, that's merely long sleeve shirt weather

[SteppingRazor]

12. Heh. That's one thing living down here has changed.

I lived for several years in Colorado and Missouri before living in South Florida. But now that I've been down here for the better part of a decade, 50 degrees might as well be 20.

[MaineDem]

14. Oooooh, we're getting 14" of snow tonight

The mojito by the pool sounds so much better...even in the dark.

Enjoy.

[SteppingRazor]

16. We lost power briefly here, but it seems to be back up...

at least in my little corner of South Florida.

As for the snow ... yikes, I don't envy you. Like I said elsewhere in this thread, I used to live in Colorado, and I lived up in the mountains there, so I can sympathize.

[jpak]

27. I'd rather shovel snow than have my home destroyed by a hurricane

Make mine Allen's Coffee Brandy by the wood stove tonight...

:evilgrin:

[mainegreen]

33. We are?

I hope you're FAR north of me, and that we wont be getting that down here on the coast!
:scared:

[heliarc]

37. Pour me one too...

But you're not fooling me. I lived in Miami for 18 years and by my guess you have about 3 more days of 75 degree weather this "winter" before its 98 and 100% humidity for the rest of the year. Try doing anything besides sit poolside in that kind of weather and your looking at feeling exhausted all day and maybe even end up in the hospital with heatstroke. (Not to mention the amount of mold you have to fight day in and day out).

[Zhade]

28. My parents live there. I grew up there.

Don't be such a total dick.

[pattmarty]

4. Keep up the privatization, things are working great.

[gateley]

5. I'm watching a live feed from a helicopter on CNN - but no voice overs.

Since it's daytime, it's a little difficult to tell what it's like on the ground - the cars seem to be moving along okay from the vantage point I'm viewing.

I hope they get up and running before dark.

[Speciesamused]

8. First thing that popped into my mind..the dark

I live in Daytona Beach. Thanks for the
first hand info. Much appreciated. Peace

[DS1]

10. CNN has copters out for a power outage?

:rofl: :rofl:

[Speciesamused]

13. ???There are 4.4 million people without power right now.

Helicopter worthy I would say.

[DS1]

15. Do they start eating each others' brains?

The power will return. :eyes:

[Zhade]

29. One day, this will happen and the power WON'T return.

The helicopters will be out then - to film the riots.

[hunter]

17. Godzilla's gotta be down there somewhere...

[DS1]

18. JJ Abrams has already signed the rights to "EarlyBirdSpecialField"

:rofl:

[gateley]

24. I think they're concerned about the traffic - which is heavy on the best days.

I've heard there have been a few accidents.

It's newsworthy when that many people, businesses and hospitals in a large metropolitan area lose their power.

[grantcart]

19. Nuclear Power Shutdown Causes Massive Power Outages in FL

Source: ALL MAJOR MEDIA

MIAMI, Florida (CNN) -- Massive power outages struck Florida on Tuesday afternoon, with power reported out from Miami to Jacksonville on the east coast and as far north as Tampa on the Gulf Coast, police and utility officials said.


Motorists try to navigate an intersection after traffic lights go dark.

About 4.4 million customers across South Florida were affected, Florida Power and Light Co. officials said.

The outage struck shortly after 1 p.m. ET as scattered thunderstorms passed through the region.

But the cause of the outage was not immediately known.

In Washington, officials at the Department of Homeland Security said there was no immediate concern that terrorism was behind the outage.

Stan Johnson, a spokesman for the North American Electric Reliability Council, said eight power plants were off-line across the region.



Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/02/26/florida.power/index.html

[hunter]

31. Is there any connection between your headline and the article you cite?

Sounds to me like thunderstorms may have knocked out their network and they had to shut down the nuclear plants because the power had no place to go.

"A "significant equipment failure" at a substation west of Miami triggered Tuesday afternoon's blackouts around southern Florida, a Florida Power & Light official said."

[demo dutch]

32. Nothing to do with the weather- Power outages caused by nuke plant shutdown

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/sfl-226power,0,7392346.story

We were down for 3 1/2 hours in Miami, some areas are still not up

[hunter]

35. It's still sounding like a network failure.

The nuclear plant did what nuclear plants do. It shut down.

We shall see.

:shrug:

[Synnical]

FPL: Widespread power outages caused by nuke plant shutdown

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/sfl-226power,0,7392346.story

A nuclear reactor south of Miami was shut down Tuesday afternoon, triggering waves of power outages spreading from South Florida to the Keys and as far north as Tampa and Daytona Beach.

A spokesman for Florida Power & Light said the Turkey Point reactor was shutdown for safety reasons but would not elaborate.

[Synnical]

20. FPL: Widespread power outages caused by nuke plant shutdown

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/sfl-226power,0,7392346.story

A nuclear reactor south of Miami was shut down Tuesday afternoon, triggering waves of power outages spreading from South Florida to the Keys and as far north as Tampa and Daytona Beach.

A spokesman for Florida Power & Light said the Turkey Point reactor was shutdown for safety reasons but would not elaborate.

[Divine Discontent]

21. I just heard from a person just last week

who lives in FL who was visiting me and he said that he belonged to the HAM operator club, and he heard the HAM operators were given a conference by HL Sec. that would tell them what was going to happen in the event of a problem at a Nuke facility and how they would self contain the area, and block the highways and check people coming from the affected area for radiation....

The biggest surprise was - if there were a LOT of people, they would stop them and put them in camps. The HAM operators would receive radiation pills.


bizarre.

[RantinRavin]

34. oh my

As a HAM operator I'm sitting here laughing my ass off that anyone would believe this story.

[RL3AO]

22. Just for the record, nothing is actually damaged at Turkey Point.

Turkey Point gets power from another station (non-nuclear) and that lost power which sent Turkey Point into an emergency shutdown.

[Divine Discontent]

23. good to hear! eom

[eowyn_of_rohan]

39. Where did you find that info and how reliable is it?

Surprised that was not made clear to the public on the local TV news - I heard nothing about it on the Jacksonville TV news, other than that there had been a malfunction in a nuclear plant but that it "was not terrorism". Not too comforting on any level!

[geomon666]

40. It wasn't the power plant. It was a malfunction at a substation.

http://cbs4.com/local/FPL.power.electricity.2.663792.html

MIAMI (CBS4) ― FPL and government officials plan to find out what catastrophic failures in a West Miami Dade power substation led to Tuesday's blackout which touched off a chain reaction in the power grid shutting down power stations across the state.

FPL said the problem at the substation should not have brought down the power grid, and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission wants to know if there were any violations of federal reliability rules governing the nationwide power grid.

[jtrockville]

25. So... once a nation is "developed", but doesn't maintain

the developments, the terms "3rd world" or "developing" don't seem to apply. What term would you use for a country who's "developed" infrastructure is crumbling to the point where it compares unfavorably to infrastructure in "developing" nations?

[oneinok]

26. it will turn out to be

I bet it is from a $2.00 computer chip that you can buy at Radio Shack.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

38. "former empire"

The so-called "Dark ages" began in the period after the fall of Rome. The phrase refers to a time when the unifying cultural, social and political systems associated with the Roman empire gave way. A largely unified Europe fragmented into a collection of warring tribes. There was a decline in scholarship. The churches kept alive some written knowledge as monasteries were to become centres of study but much was lost and education was limited even for the aristocrats. Trade and commerce declined across Europe. Roman cities and their associated technologies fell into disuse throughout most of the former empire.

http://medieval.etrusia.co.uk/medieval_beginings/

[MilesColtrane]

30. Inevitably, the argument will be made that the only way to fix this kind of problem..

...is for the deregulation of the Florida electric industry.