Massive power outage in Florida affects millions

A transmission glitch at a West Miami power substation knocked out electricity Tuesday to as many as 3 million people across Florida, halting public transportation, snarling traffic and cutting air conditioning in homes from Key West to Daytona.

Foul play was not involved, making the blackout mostly just “a massive inconvenience,” Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Alvarez said.

But on a day when the mercury climbed high into the 80s, the loss of air conditioning and refrigeration added to the stress of life in overdeveloped South Florida, already plagued with traffic and ubiquitous construction.

The Miami Fire-Rescue Department responded to numerous calls from people trapped in stalled elevators, including a very pregnant woman, said Lt. Ignatius Carroll. None suffered any injury beyond a few anxious moments, he said.

Office workers in high-rise buildings in Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Orlando and other cities evacuated as a precaution, some having to walk down 30 or 40 flights of stairs before discovering that the elevators were working again.

For most, the outage lasted less than 30 minutes. Florida Power & Light, the state’s largest electrical utility, said that service had been fully restored by nightfall. The utility put the number of people affected by the outage much lower than did state and county officials, saying only about 800,000 lost power.

Traffic lights in western suburbs of Miami continued to malfunction after most power was restored, forcing police to deploy to key intersections to direct traffic through the evening rush hour. As the commute got underway, long backups formed on the busy expressways that traverse South Florida.

Fender-benders at intersections without working signals clogged major thoroughfares and blocked freeway offramps, causing miles-long rivers of crawling cars on the interstates.

Power went out shortly after 1 p.m., compelling hospitals, airports and other essential services to fire up backup generators.

At Miami International Airport, the reserve power source kept the flow of travelers moving -- at least those who made it through the surrounding traffic congestion.

“I was certain we would miss our flight,” said Lydia Rodriguez, fanning herself with her ticket as she and her husband waited to enter the security screening.

They had spent more than an hour driving to the airport from the stricken Doral area, normally a trip of less than 15 minutes.

Concessionaires were on reduced power throughout the airport’s 25-minute outage while the generators ran, depriving travelers of cold drinks and hot sandwiches because servers couldn’t use the automatic dispensers or ovens, said Gerald Mejia-Fugon, a cashier at the Au Bon Pain bakery cafe.

The power outage was triggered by a malfunction at a Florida Power & Light transmission facility just west of here. That caused two nuclear reactors at the Turkey Point power plant south of Miami to automatically shut down, cutting supply to the statewide grid.

“The system trips itself to protect the reactors. It did what it was supposed to do,” Nuclear Regulatory Commission spokesman Kenneth Clark in Atlanta said of the Turkey Point shutdown. “This was not a nuclear problem. It was a problem in the electrical grid system.”

There were never any safety concerns during the outage, he said.

Another Nuclear Regulatory Commission public affairs officer, Holly Harrington in Rockville, Md., said that it could take as long as 24 hours to restart the nuclear reactors and get the power supply back to normal.

Miami’s Metrorail and Metromover train networks ceased running for about half an hour in the early afternoon but were back in service well ahead of the evening commute.

Miami-Dade and Broward counties’ public schools held up bus service for many homebound students to avoid their traveling while traffic lights were out.

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carol.williams@latimes.com