In case you missed it - Miami is without power. FPL had an oops - the substation near a nuke plant had a trip off on a hot day. The problem is that the system cascades in an event like this.
When a plant like Turkey Creek - two 700 MW plants - trips off, that drops the available power to the grid. Turkey Point is also right next to Miami (25 miles). This means that the power supply to Miami drops first. Since many electrical systems are damaged when the voltage drops, they drop off line. It is possible that more load drops off (because the voltage drop cascades) then the power plants. Now the system revs up with too much power supply ,causing the power plants to drop off line to protect themselves.
This can cause widespread blackouts:
The beauty of a major grid is that it allows supplies from a wide region to supply major cities. The problem is that they are very delicate things. Investment in maintenance is critical but can frequently be the lowest priority.
Last Thursday I was in meetings in FPL's headquarters in Juno Beach. If the meeting had been today I would have been standing in the security area getting a note that the meeting was canceled. The guys in the control room at FPL are fighting alligators right now.
Hope no one you know is in an elevator in Miami - they could be there a while.
Update Here is a link to the South Florida Sun Sentinel story.