Florida Power & Light will bill customers for its fragile grid
By Imani Sutton · Reporting from Atlanta ·
After Hurricane Isaias wrecked the Gulf Coast, Florida Power & Light and local drainage districts will pass the cost of their neglected infrastructure straight to the people who suffered.
Florida Power & Light and the municipal governments of the Gulf Coast are wrong. They treat the collapse of the grid and the flooding of streets as "acts of God" to avoid the cost of maintenance. But when 105mph winds hit, the failure isn't the wind. The failure is the decision to leave the infrastructure fragile. They let the load break, and then they ask the people who suffered to pay for the repairs.
The grid is a bill we all pay
Hurricane Isaias made landfall near Destin, Florida, as a Category 2 storm. According to WESH, over 430,000 people in Florida lost power. Governor Ron DeSantis noted that 325,000 of those outages belonged to Florida Power & Light. The company will call this a disaster. I call it a ledger.
The mechanism is the same as Hurricane Maria: a catastrophic failure of the electrical grid's physical infrastructure during a storm, leading to prolonged power outages. In both cases, the physical lines cannot handle the stress of the environment. We are told the future is smart and resilient. In reality, the grid is just a series of wires that fall over when a tree gets too heavy.
The 2021 Texas power crisis showed us what happens when people rely on dangerous makeshift power sources like generators because the grid fails. We saw that pattern again in Escambia County. Sheriff Chip Simmons reported that a man died from carbon monoxide poisoning. He was running a generator in a garage that was not properly ventilated. Four other people who were in the house were taken to the hospital.
When the utility fails to keep the lights on, the risk shifts to the kitchen and the garage. The company keeps its profit. The resident takes the risk.
The drainage is a lie we are told
The storm was more than 300 miles away when the flooding started on Manasota Key. Gulf Coast News and Weather reports that high surf and high tides pushed water into homes along Gulf Boulevard. Manasota Key Road became a river.
Residents are not surprised. Lisa Gassert told reporters that her street has drainage issues and nothing has been done. This is engineered scarcity. The city doesn't "lack" the ability to drain water. It lacks the will to fund the pipes. They let the water rise until it becomes a crisis, then they call it an emergency.
In Milton, Florida, the roof of an apartment complex was blown off. In Gulf Breeze, a Shell petrol station canopy collapsed. These are not just weather events. They are failures of building codes and maintenance. We are told to evacuate, but we are rarely told that the places we return to are built to fail.
The generator is a desperate gamble
The human cost of this neglect is four deaths: two in Alabama and two in Florida.
Governor Kay Ivey warned people to get reliable information. But information doesn't stop a tree from falling on your roof. Joey Williams told the BBC that he managed to squeeze out of his home, but his wife did not make it.
This is the pattern of the South. We take the heat first. Then we are told that the disaster was "unprecedented" or "hazardous." But there is nothing unprecedented about a tree falling on a house in a storm. There is nothing surprising about a grid that shuts down when the wind picks up.
The reporting from KOMU 8 shows that nearly 900,000 customers across Florida and Alabama lost power. That is a massive failure of the physical load. When the power goes out, the world shrinks to the size of your flashlight beam. You are left to gamble with carbon monoxide or wait for a crew to clear the debris.
Florida Power & Light will likely petition the Florida Public Service Commission for a storm cost recovery surcharge. They did this after Hurricane Ian under Docket No. 20220210-EI. They will argue that the repairs are an extraordinary expense. They will add a fee to your monthly bill. You will pay for the privilege of having a grid that breaks every time a storm enters the Gulf.
Meanwhile, the homeowners on Manasota Key are left with ankle-deep water in their living rooms. They are left with the knowledge that their drainage districts ignored them until the street disappeared.
Florida Power & Light and the local drainage districts will not absorb these costs. They will pass them down. The utility will get its surcharge, and the municipal governments will hide behind sovereign immunity to avoid lawsuits over their broken pipes. The people of the Panhandle will pay the bill for a resilience that never arrived.
Sources
- BBC: Four dead and thousands without power after Hurricane Isaias lashes US
- WESH: Impact of Isaias: Officials confirm 2 storm-related deaths in Florida, 430K without power
- KOMU 8: 4 dead from storm as Isaias brings threat of floods across the Southeast
- Gulf Coast News and Weather: Hurricane Isaias causes flooding on Manasota Key, impacting homes and roads
- BBC: Four dead and thousands without power after Hurricane Isaias lashes US