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Bay Area Feels Ripple Effect Of South Florida Power Failure

Tribune photo by MICHAEL SPOONEYBARGER

Crews with Progress Energy work on power lines along U.S. 19 just south of Enterprise Road in Palm Harbor.

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By NEIL JOHNSON | The Tampa Tribune
and KEITH MORELLI | The Tampa Tribune

Published: February 26, 2008

Updated: 02/26/2008 03:49 pm

TAMPA - A problem that apparently started in South Florida and quickly cascaded through much of the state's power grid sparked widespread outages throughout the Tampa Bay area and much of Florida.

A Florida Power & Light spokesman said the widespread power outages affecting Florida started when the company shut down a nuclear reactor at Turkey Point near Miami for safety reasons, but he did not explain further.

The spokesman estimated power would be restored statewide by midnight.

Tampa Electric Co. was fielding calls from customers whose power went out this afternoon, said Laura Duda, a utilities spokewoman. She said she didn't know how many people were without electricity but expected all customers to have power restored by 4 p.m.

None of TECO's plants were affected.

There is no indication that the power outages in Florida were the result of a terror attack, said Russ Knocke, a spokesman for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

About 30 traffic signals were out at Bloomingdale Avenue, U.S. 301, Sun City, Bruce B. Downs Boulevard and Fletcher Avenue, Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Debbie Carter said.

Blackouts left a hopscotch pattern across parts of Manatee and Sarasota counties. Mel Klein of FP&L said main feeder lines had gone out. Areas affected included 17th Street near Lime Avenue and U.S. 301.

The Sarasota Sheriff's Office also reported multiple traffic lights out across the county, including a stretch of intersections along busy University Parkway.

Part of the University of South Florida's campus and surrounding area was without power for about 45 minutes, USF spokeswoman Lara Wade said.

Outages occurred in the administration building, the library and Cooper Hall, USF spokesman Ken Gullette said.

USF police received the first report of a power outage at 1:09 p.m., and power started getting restored at 1:51 p.m., police spokeswoman Meg Ross said.

There were no reported injuries or crashes, Ross said. One person in a wheelchair in the library's sixth floor was assisted down by library staff and police.

Just before 2 p.m., Duda said, about 50,000 out of the 670,000 customers in the TECO service area were without power. She said most customers were switched back on remotely, and others were on a schedule to be switched on shortly. Those still without power "are in the minority," she said.

Whatever caused the outages, Duda said, "was something significant."

Whenever there is a disruption, the power system automatically shuts down certain areas that are low in demand so as to keep a balance, she said.

She said she thought outages were being reported from all over the service area, which covers Hillsborough and parts of Polk, Pasco and Pinellas counties.

TECO spokesman Rick Morera said most of the large-scale outages affected New Tampa and USF's Tampa campus.

Morera said the company suspected a major generating station in Florida went down about 1 p.m., draining power from the overall grid in Florida.

Tampa police also received calls about the outages.

Police spokeswoman Janelle McGregor did not immediately know how many people were affected, but she said police were getting calls from across the city about traffic lights being out.

The Brandon and Valrico areas east of Tampa lost power for about 45 minutes, coming back up shortly before 2 p.m.

Neither Brandon Regional Hospital nor the Westfield Brandon mall reported an outage.

The Hillsborough County Emergency Management Department was monitoring the power failures, department spokeswoman Holley Wade said.

Hospitals in the blacked-out areas have emergency generators to keep critical systems running, she said.

That is the case at University Community Hospital, said Jeff Oskin, a hospital vice president who oversees facilities.

Two University Community Hospital buildings that are not involved in patient care lost power for about 50 minutes about 1 p.m. today: a building that houses some of its business operations, and its warehouse building. The two buildings are on a different power grid from the buildings that house patients, which were not affected by the outages, Oskin said.

Emergency management was available to help any hospitals that lost backup power to move patients if necessary.

"That would have to be a critical situation. It would mean a full failure of their backup systems," Wade said.

Some students in Pinellas County schools may be late getting home if buses encounter traffic problems because of blackened traffic lights,

In Pinellas, about six schools reported they were without power, school district spokeswoman Andrea Zahn said. Outages also were occurring at the district's administrative offices and its transportation facilities and operations offices, both in Largo, Zahn said.

The affected schools were scattered throughout the county, including Maximo Elementary in St. Petersburg, Clearwater High School and Ozona Elementary in the Palm Harbor area, Zahn said.

In Pasco County, the government center lost power briefly. Generators kept the 911 and emergency management functioning, said Jim Martin, director of the Pasco County Emergency Management.

The county has not heard of any problems at critical facilities and hospitals, he said.

The Pasco County School District canceled all school activities scheduled for tonight, citing concerns about impending severe weather and the loss of power in surrounding counties.

In west Pasco, motorists traveling along U.S. 19 and Little Road from the Hernando County line to Pinellas County line were slowed because of dark traffic lights.

Pasco sheriff's deputies said drivers should treat intersections without working signals as four-way stops.

Deputies were at a number of major intersections help with traffic flow, Pasco sheriff's spokesman Doug Tobin said.

Withlacoochee River Electric Cooperative, which serves parts of Citrus, Hernando and Pasco counties, reported 19,000 customers were without power for about 30 minutes, spokesman David Lambert said.

Reports said areas of Miami, Doral, Westchester and Pembroke Pines were without power, as well as the Port of Miami. Police officers were called out to direct traffic at intersections in downtown Miami. Many stoplights were out, and some stores closed because they were without power.

A widespread power failure could cause some trouble for Hillsborough County's sewer system because lift stations overflow when pumps lose electricity.

At least 150 lift stations for pumping water and wastewater were without power.

"We don't know the consequences of that because we do have some excess capacity," said Deputy County Administrator Wally Hill. "We have some emergency generators, but not that many."

The FP&L failure in South Florida affected 2 million to 3 million people, said Mike Stone, spokesman for the Florida Division of Emergency Management.

"It just cascaded," Stone said.

A Miami-Dade Police Department spokesman said the department was working with FP&L to resolve the situation.

The state also received reports of failures in Brevard County that affected 180,000 people and a failure in Lake that affected 40,000, Stone said.

In addition, the outage affected downtown Sebring and Lake Placid.

An official with Progress Energy said that there were 1,200 homes in Lake Placid affected by the outage, although he did not comment on conditions in Sebring.

In Sumter County, about 15,000 customers lost power, but it was restored before 2 p.m.

News Channel 8 reporter Jackie Barron, TBO reporters Beth Gaddis and Daniela Velazquez, and Tribune reporters Adam Emerson, Marilyn Brown, Josh Poltilove, Elizabeth Bleau, Phil Morgan, Stephen Thompson, Rich Shopes, Richard Mullins, Ellen Gedalius, Billy Townsend, Carlos Moncada, Mike Salinero, Lisa A. Davis, Laura Frazier, Catherine Dolinski, Mary Shedden and Joyce McKenzie contributed to this story.

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