Blowing at a speed of 200 miles per hour, Hurricane Irma poses larger destruction to power supplies compared to the impact of Harvey in Texas. At this rate, Irma could set millions of households and establishments powerless for weeks.
“When Harvey made landfall in Texas, it made it fully inland and weakened pretty quickly Irma, however, could retain much of its strength,” according to Commodity Weather Group’s meteorologist Jason Setree. The destruction that the storm Harvey made is attributed to its heavy rainfall. On the other hand, Irma’s damaging impact is driven by its gravely strong winds, the strongest among the hurricanes in Atlantic’s history. Recent forecasts show Irma will sweep through the entire Florida peninsula. It made its landfall in the Carribean, killing several people already and shattering islands.
Classified as Category 5 storm, Hurricane Irma’s strength is serious enough Florida’s biggest power provider, Florida Power and Light (FPL), will be shutting down its two nuclear power plants. This is in addition to the warning of its officials that they may need two weeks to rebuild parts of its power system. “With a storm as powerful as Irma, we want customers to prepare for damage to our infrastructure and potentially prolonged power outages,” states Chris McGrath, FPL’s spokesman.
