Major power outages in Central and South Florida

[Brent]

http://cbs4.com/local/FPL.power.electri ... 63084.html

[flwxwatcher]

The power here between Orlando and Tampa was out for awhile and just came back on . I hadn't realized it was so widespread.

[feederband]

Fox is showing South Florida right now..They say there is alot of people trapped in elevators..

[Brent]

CNN saying 4.4 million people affected.

[flwxwatcher]

On the Baynews9 website there are saying the outages are widespread throughout South Florida but areas in Central Florida and even around Tallahassee are having outages.

http://baynews9.com/content/36/2008/2/2 ... er+outages

[flwxwatcher]

Sounds like reactors at the Turkey Point power plant went down and this started the problem..

[RL3AO]

Sounds like reactors at the Turkey Point power plant went down and this started the problem..

Sounds like the reactors did their job then. Thats one positive.

[x-y-no]

Sounds like reactors at the Turkey Point power plant went down and this started the problem..

Actually, the first thing that apparently happened was a substation failure - and that caused an overload that triggered the automatic shutdown of the nuclear generators. As RL3AO said, that's a case of things working as designed at the plant.

But then, apparently, the loss of that power caused a domino effect up the state.

It's interesting, I haven't seen even a blip here.

[flwxwatcher]

Power was out here for maybe 15-20 Minutes and it came back up. I didn't think much about it until I saw the news online once power was restored.

[Canelaw99]

Here in Homestead, our power flicked off but back on immediately. Took 5-10 minutes for the internet to come back on, but that was it. I didn't realize it affected so many until I got the breaking news email from NBC6 about it. Let me tell you, though, I am SOOO grateful, living within 5 miles of Turkey Point, that the things worked as they were supposed to. I would not want to be hearing the siren out there for real....the monthly tests are one thing....

[HURAKAN]

It was off by about 15 minutes at around 1 PM.

[Tampa_God]

Yeah, all of Pasco County schools were affected. The power was out for a few minutes before coming back on. Back the district has suspended all after school activities due to this.

[Canelaw99]

Latest from S FL is that FPL is saying power will be restored by 5:30pm/6pm. Universities are all having classes. After-school activities and sports are cancelled. Heat game will be played.

* edited to note this info is coming from local NBC 6 news * (nbc6.net)

[Cryomaniac]

Interesting. Seems like a routine thing though.

[JonathanBelles]

I didnt lose power, at least if I did, I didnt notice it. I was outside at the time.

[Canelaw99]

Definitely not routine. What NBC 6 is saying now, per the Nuclear Regulatory Committee (I'm greatly paraphrasing here), is that there was an issue with lines between Miami and Dayton (I think it was supposed to be Daytona, but newscaster said Dayton) which tripped the 2 nuclear units at Turkey Point.

In the 6 yrs. I've lived here in Homestead, and the 10 1/2 yrs. in Miami I know this outage has never happened except following a hurricane. There isn't usually an outage that affects almost the whole state, so definitely not a routine event Thankfully, though, FL officials are used to dealing with outages following storms so they are quick to react to traffic lights being out, etc.

[feederband]

We didn't lose power here...But my son said his school was without power for over a hour..

[HURAKAN]

Agree. It's nothing routine. We're not used to things like this that affect almost the entire state. Not even during hurricanes this happens. It's usually a portion of the state, but not something from Tampa to the Keys. I have lived in Miami for almost 9 years and had never seen anything like it.

[JonathanBelles]

Is this the same problem that happened in NY and the east coast a few years back, only from a different place? ( I was affected by that one)

[Brent]

Is this the same problem that happened in NY and the east coast a few years back, only from a different place? ( I was affected by that one)

Kind of, but the 2003 blackout was MUCH MUCH worse.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northeast_Blackout_of_2003

According to system logs, a massive power fluctuation affected the transmission grid at 4:10:48 p.m. EDT. Between 4:12 and 4:15 p.m. EDT, outages were initially reported in Cleveland, Akron, Toledo, New York City, Baltimore, Buffalo, Albany, Detroit, and parts of New Jersey. This was followed by other areas initially unaffected, including all five boroughs of New York City and parts of Long Island, Westchester County, Rockland County, Putnam County, New Jersey, Vermont, Connecticut, and most of Southern and Northeastern Ontario, including Toronto, Hamilton, Ottawa, Kingston, Sudbury, Kitchener, London, and Windsor. It was estimated that the blackout covered an area of roughly 9,300 square miles (24,000 square kilometers). Eventually a large, somewhat triangular area bounded by Lansing, Michigan, Sault Ste. Marie, the shore of James Bay, Ottawa, New York, and Toledo were left without power. According to the official analysis of the blackout prepared by the US and Canadian governments, more than 508 generating units at 265 power plants shut down during the outage. 22 of these were nuclear power plants.

50 million people affected in two countries, so this was definitely not as widespread.