Hurricane Katrina Chronology of Events

With Tropical Storm Katrina projected to make landfall on Florida’s southeast coast early Friday morning, FPL prepares to mobilize its resources to be ready to restore lost power as soon as possible after the storm passes.

FPL’s General Office Command Center in Miami and its physical distribution center in West Palm Beach are fully staffed at 7 a.m.

Throughout the day, as FPL’s storm team continues to closely monitor the strengthening storm, employees are alerted to the possibility of deteriorating weather conditions; they are notified that Thursday is a normal work day.

Employees with storm assignments are told to check with their storm supervisors and make the necessary arrangements to report to their storm assignment after the all clear is announced.

Thursday, Aug. 25

During the morning hours, Tropical Storm Katrina continues to move toward the southeast coast; it is expected to slow somewhat before coming ashore near the Broward-Palm Beach County line.

The storm is still projected to make landfall sometime early Friday as perhaps a Category 1 hurricane before moving west across the state, exiting in the Fort Myers area early Saturday.

Tropical storm force winds are anticipated to begin on Florida’s southeast coast this evening; the slow movement of the storm is expected to increase the chances of heavy flooding and lengthen projected restoration time.

Employees at most FPL facilities are released from work at 3 p.m. and told to contact their supervisors or call their storm information lines on Friday to determine when to report to their post-storm assignments.

Employees on the west coast are working a normal schedule but monitoring storm information lines for further instructions.

By afternoon, Katrina’s speed is not slowing and the storm begins a slight and unexpected jog to the south.

Power outages begin to be reported due to high winds, particularly in Broward and Miami-Dade counties.

Now a Category 1 hurricane, Katrina comes ashore south of Fort Lauderdale at approximately 7 p.m. with punishing 80 mile per hour winds and higher gusts.

As the storm moves slowly to the southwest, parts of Broward and Miami-Dade are deluged with 12 inches or more of driving rain.

Katrina makes her way slowly across southeast Florida, leaving 1.45 million FPL customers without power, mostly in Broward and Miami-Dade counties.

The Treasure Coast – so devastated by Hurricanes Frances and Jeanne in 2004 – experiences less than 14,000 outages.

Palm Beach County also is largely spared with less than 98,000 customers affected.

In Broward County to the south, 551,000 lose power. And further south in Miami-Dade County, nearly 791,000 customers are affected.

Friday, August 26

Day 1 of the restoration process begins.

As weather conditions permit, FPL personnel assess damage to the electrical infrastructure; the early assessment allows the company to establish aggressive restoration goals in an effort to get everyone’s lives back to normal as quickly as possible.

In the early morning hours, severe weather conditions remain in some areas to the south, but work crews are able to begin restoring power to those affected in the Treasure Coast and Palm Beach County.

Out-of-state crews that were standing by are already on their way to join in the restoration effort and will be operating out of one of 10 pre-determined staging sites.

FPL urges customers to take extra precautions to be safe in the aftermath of the storm with special emphasis on staying away from downed power lines; Katrina has left flooding and fallen trees and debris across South Florida, posing a very dangerous situation for the public.

An initial workforce of nearly 12,000, including 7,600 FPL field and support workers and more than 4,000 out-of-state line and tree personnel is committed to restoring power.

By early afternoon, only a few hours after the storm has passed and while damage assessments continue, power is restored to approximately 350,000 of the 1.45 million customers affected.

Assessments reveal that the storm has not damaged FPL’s power plants or seriously affected its major transmission lines.

The number of downed poles is relatively small; most downed power lines are the result of trees toppled by Katrina’s surprisingly strong winds.

In many older neighborhoods, massive felled trees must be cleared before line crews can have access to make repairs.

Heavy flooding is also preventing access for repairs and crews must wait until the water subsides; in Broward approximately 57 percent of lines are underground; in Dade, 41 percent...

While FPL works to restore power to critical infrastructures such as hospitals and police and fire facilities – the first step in the restoration process – work also begins on repairing main feeder lines serving other customers.

The first estimated times of restoration are provided; FPL tells customers that all of Palm Beach County should have service by the end of Saturday.

In Miami-Dade and Broward, the company says 90 percent of customers should have service restored by no later than Tuesday night – and many will have power before then.

The remaining 10 percent of customers with more localized damage are given an estimated time of restoration by Friday, Sept. 2, if not before.

The estimates are contingent upon available resources, flooding conditions, clearing toppled trees and accessibility into heavily affected areas.

In Miami-Dade County, approximately 648,000 customers, or more than two-thirds of the county, are still without power.

In Broward County, 469,000 customers, or more than one half, are without service.

Nearly 30 percent of FPL’s more than 18,000 miles of power lines serve the urban areas and neighborhoods of Miami-Dade and Broward counties, and all of these lines must be checked and repaired as needed to complete restoration.

By 9 p.m., a relatively rain-free day has given FPL the opportunity to access damage while continuing its restoration efforts; within 24 hours after Katrina’s landfall, power is restored to nearly one-third of customers impacted by the storm.

Restoration is already complete in the dozen counties north and west of Palm Beach County that were affected by the storm, and less than 4,000 customers remain without service in Palm Beach County.

Despite the still-difficult conditions in Miami-Dade and Broward counties, outages there are steadily being reduced as crews begin to work through the night.

During Day 1, 428,000 customers have power restored.

Saturday, Aug. 27

With continued favorable weather, Day 2 of restoration begins with a growing army of workers approaching nearly 15,000.

By Saturday afternoon, slightly ahead of schedule, the few thousand remaining customers without power in Palm Beach County have service restored.

Concentrated restoration efforts in Miami-Dade and Broward counties result in restoration to approximately 350,000 additional customers.

Power is restored to all hospitals in Broward County; in Miami-Dade, power is restored to all but four hospitals, which each have partial service.

After less than two full days of restoration, more than half of the nearly 1.45 million customers affected by Hurricane Katrina have their power back on.

Work continues through the night to get the remaining customers without power – 242,000 in Broward and 446,000 in Miami-Dade – back in service.

Sunday, Aug. 28

As Day 3 of restoration unfolds, overnight numbers show power restored to 66,000 more customers in Broward County and to 105,000 customers in Miami-Dade leaving about 517,000 still without power – 176,000 in Broward and 341,000 in Miami-Dade.

In addition to FPL personnel, the restoration force now includes almost 6,000 additional workers from 72 utilities, contractors and other companies in 25 states; workers operate out of 10 staging sites set up in Miami-Dade and Broward counties to facilitate the restoration process.

Accessibility to make repairs continues to be the number one challenge faced by restoration workers; additional tree trimming personnel are brought in to total nearly 2,900.

As the day progresses, it’s clear that FPL is on track to meet its restoration target time to get power back on for 90 percent of those affected no later than Tuesday night– and do even better.

The company is also on target to get the remaining 10 percent without power due to more localized damage back to service no later than Friday night.

In some areas, FPL announces it is ahead of schedule and expects 100 percent restoration by Tuesday night, including all customers in Broward County north of Commercial Boulevard, all customers in Miami-Dade County south of Eureka Drive, or 184 th Street., and all of Key Biscayne.

In other areas with a considerable amount of toppled trees and debris – including Coral Gables and Coconut Grove in Miami-Dade and Hollywood and Dania in Broward – progress is more difficult.

With schools scheduled to begin Monday, the vast majority of schools that can receive power in Broward and Miami-Dade are restored; the balance will receive power by Monday night.

In addition, all hospitals are restored and the vast majority of traffic lights in the two-county area are functioning by nightfall.

The company announces it will provide customers with additional and more detailed information on estimated times of restoration on Monday.

By evening, nearly one million customers have had their power restored since the storm passed; 381,000 – 119,000 in Broward and 262,000 in Miami-Dade.

Monday, Aug. 29

Day 4 is again favorable for restoration efforts and overnight numbers show more than 1.1 million customers of 1.45 million impacted have power restored; 314,000 remain without power.

The company announces it is still on track to meet its target of getting power back on for 90 percent of affected customers no later than Tuesday night and the remaining 10 percent no later than Friday.

Work is essentially completed on the main power lines and crews are now repairing damage neighborhood by neighborhood and house by house.

By afternoon, FPL is able to provide customers with more specific restoration information, citing sections of Broward County and Miami-Dade County that will be totally restored Wednesday and Thursday.

Maps are given to members of the media showing estimated times of restoration for specific areas for dissemination to the public; they also are made available on the company’s Web site at www.FPL.com, which has been utilized to provide the public with storm and safety-related information since well before Katrina struck South Florida.

Power is restored to all but 1 percent of the top critical infrastructures in the tri-county areas of Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade. This includes all hospitals and licensed nursing homes, as well as all public schools in Palm Beach and Broward County.

In Miami-Dade County, power is restored to 98 percent of the public schools and those remaining should have power no later than tonight.

With eyes toward the Gulf Coast and Hurricane Katrina’s latest landfall, the company says FPL crews will be supporting that area’s massive restoration efforts once restoration is complete in South Florida.

By late evening, FPL crews restore power to 87 percent of Broward and Miami-Dade counties and the company reiterates that it will meet the targets provided for those who remain without power.

Tuesday, Aug. 30

By early morning of restoration Day 5, updated figures show 89 percent restored with many customers expected to receive service sooner than expected.

In Broward County, 37,000 remain without power; 118,000 outages remain in Miami-Dade County.

By mid-morning, FPL’s targeted goal of restoring electric service to 90 percent of its customers impacted by Hurricane Katrina by tonight is met – nearly one day early.

With crews working in tree-topped back yards and other hard-to-access areas, efforts are redoubled to restore power in the hardest hit areas.

By 9 p.m., crews have completed 94 percent restoration; only about 13,000 remain without power in Broward County with 71,000 still without service in Miami-Dade.

Wednesday, Aug. 31

With many crews working house to house to restore service, progress is slowed by as Day 6 begins, 95 percent of the 1.45 million customers who lost power from Hurricane Katrina have power.

The number of outages in Broward County is down to just over 9,000; in Miami-Dade, the number is reduced to slightly more than 60,000.

Some of the most heavily-damaged areas in Broward and Miami-Dade counties are scheduled to have power restored by the end of the day or sooner; all of Broward County customers should have power by tomorrow (Thursday) night.

All remaining Miami-Dade customers without power should be restored by Friday night or sooner.

By nightfall, with restoration completed to 98 percent of its customers, FPL announces the release of approximately 1,000 out-of-state line personnel and tree trimming workers to assist in restoration efforts taking place in the Gulf area.

Some 13,000 field crews and personnel remain and are on track to restore power to all FPL customers in the hardest-hit areas by Friday or before.

Thursday, Sept. 1

As Day 7 of restoration begins, overnight figures show that 99 percent of customers are restored; only 1,580 customers are still without power in Broward County and less than 14,000 outages remain in Miami-Dade County.

As FPL crews finish their restoration efforts, utility companies in the Gulf states are just beginning the restoration process there; the first 1,000 out-of-state workers released by FPL are on their way to help.

Additional crews will soon be released as restoration winds down in Broward and Miami-Dade counties.

As restoration continues, FPL announced that the company is donating $100,000 to be split equally between the Hurricane Katrina Relief effort of the American Red Cross and the Salvation Army; a dollar-for-dollar match of all FPL employee contributions up to $250,000 will go to those relief organizations.

By late night, FPL meets its announced target of restoring electric service to all customers in Broward County; only about 2,000 remain without power in hardest-hit Miami-Dade County.

Friday, Sept. 2

Work continues on Day 8 to restore the few remaining outages in Miami-Dade County; 100 percent restoration is expected to be completed by tonight’s announced target time.

As the restoration winds down, FPL releases additional out-of-state contractor and utility crews to help in the Gulf area restoration efforts.

Early morning convoys of workers are leaving from Gulfstream Race Track in Broward County and from Hialeah Race Track in Miami-Dade County.