Thunderbolt Exercises Helped Florida React During Blackout - Government Technology

Thunderbolt Exercises Helped Florida React During Blackout - Government Technology

Jan 14, 2009, By Jim Reilly

The cascading power outages that took place in Florida on Feb. 26, 2008 -- the Florida Blackout -- resulted in power losses from Miami to Daytona to Tampa. As the investigation continued into how an apparently isolated event produced such wide-scale outages, this much is clear: Once the outages took place, the performance of the response systems -- both electric reliability coordination and emergency management -- was admirable. The outages were extensive throughout the state, so extensive that many thought that what had occurred was similar to the New York blackout of August 2003.

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