Bob McCarty Writes

Officials are hesitant to share details about the possible cause(s) behind a power outage hitting several South Florida counties and leaving more than 4.4 million residents without power at approximately 1:30 p.m. Central. News of the outage prompted many to speculate as to the cause.

Following Russia’s punishment last year of Estonia with, according to a recent Washington Post article, “a suspension of rail traffic and a cyber-attack on its government’s computer system in a dispute over a Soviet war memorial,” I couldn’t help but wonder whether the outages in Miami might also be the result of a foreign government — be it Russia, China, Iran or another — testing their cyber-capabilities against the United States.

Thinking along a different path, I thought of the scenario recently dramatized in the Bruce Willis movie, Live Free or Die Hard, in which computer hackers took down the transportation system first, then the communications system and, in the end, the power grid.

Developing…

UPDATE #1 — 1:55 p.m. Central: While Fox News reported the 4.4 million figure above, the Miami Herald reports only 680,000 here.

UPDATE #2 — 2 p.m. Central: Fox News reported that the larger number (4.4 million) describes the number of people statewide — as far north as Daytona — without power, while the smaller number (680,000) applies only to the Miami metro area.

UPDATE #3 — 2:04 p.m. Central: Ken Clark, a spokesperson for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, told a Fox News Channel anchor that five nuclear reactors in South Florida shut themselves down and are now in a “hot shutdown” mode, meaning they could be turned back on fairly rapidly.

UPDATE #4 — 2:05 p.m. Central: Miami Mayor Carlos Alvarez told reporters at a press conference that power should be restored within two hours after a power outage due to “something technical” and having nothing to do with terrorism occurred early this afternoon.

UPDATE #5 — 2:19 p.m. Central: The Critical Miami blog is reporting that the “whole area is without power.” One comment on the site reads, in part, as follows:

I’m watching Channel Seven and they’re hyping the hell out of this, throwing in that it could have been a possible terrorist attack in this post 911 world.