Hurricane Irma Power Outages

The power outages in Texas caused by the recent passage of Hurricane Harvey haven’t all been repaired yet. Now a whole lot more people next door in Florida are finding themselves without electricity thanks to the arrival of Hurricane Irma. According to the latest update on Irma from the United States’ National Hurricane Center:

The center of Hurricane Irma made landfall at Cudjoe Key in the
lower Florida Keys at 9:10 am EDT. A gust to 106 mph (171 km/h)
was just reported at the National Key Deer Refuge in Big Pine Key.

SUMMARY OF 910 AM EDT…1310 UTC…INFORMATION
———————————————-
LOCATION…24.7N 81.5W
ABOUT 20 MI…30 KM ENE OF KEY WEST FLORIDA
MAXIMUM SUSTAINED WINDS…130 MPH…215 KM/H
PRESENT MOVEMENT…NNW OR 330 DEGREES AT 8 MPH…13 KM/H
MINIMUM CENTRAL PRESSURE…929 MB…27.43 INCHES

Here’s how Irma looked from the Suomi satellite whilst crossing the Straits of Florida:

and here’s a NOAA video showing Irma making landfall at Cudjoe Key:

This is the National Hurricane Center’s storm surge forecast for the next three days:

The red area represents a greater than 10% chance of a surge of nine feet and over. Finally, for the moment at least, here’s Irma’s current forecast track from slightly earlier in the day:

Already over 750,000 premises across Florida are without electric power.

 

[Edit – September 11th]

Here’s a video from ABC about the effects of Hurricane Irma on Florida’s electricity distribution infrastructure:

Another video in which Rob Gould of Florida Power and Light says:

What we will see on the west coast is a wholesale rebuild of our electric grid.

At 9 AM this morning British Summer time the lights have started going out in Georgia, and over 4.5 million premises across Florida are without electric power.

 

[Edit – September 11th PM]

Florida Governor Rick Scott reports on the impact of what is now Tropical Storm Irma:

There are now over 6.5 million premises across Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas without electric power.

4 thoughts on “Hurricane Irma Power Outages

  1. An update on the side effects of Hurricane Irma from the United States’ Energy Information Authority:

    Hurricane Irma struck Florida on September 10, 2017, and knocked out power to 6.7 million electricity customers—64% of all customer accounts in the state—according to reports compiled by the Florida Division of Emergency Management. About 100,000 customers (1% of the state total) remained without power as of September 19.

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