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In the wake of
Hurricane Irma, Going
many South Florida

residents who lost Underground?

power wondered
why--25 years after By Tim Hernandez
the widespread

devastation of

Andrew--more ndergrounding of utility lines is thought by many to improve
reliability and reduce weather related outages caused by wind
utility lines have Uand downed trees. It has the added aesthetic benefit of
not been placed creating a more beautiful streetscape and the environmental benefit of
an enhanced tree canopy.
underground.
Shortly after Irma, the Sun Sentinel surveyed communities in Broward
and Palm Beach Counties and found that “communities with
underground lines generally fared better”. Following is an excerpt from
that October 5, 2017 article, written by Marcia Heroux Pounds:
In Parkland, all communities west of University Drive have underground
power lines, and “they fared quite well during the storm,” said Todd
DeAngelis, public information officer for the city. “There were minimal
outages and only for short periods, [such as] one day,” he said.

But east of University Drive, where there are largely above-ground
utilities, communities “suffered larger scale outages and for longer
periods of time,” DeAngelis said.
Weston was built with underground utilities in its major subdivisions.
Only Bonaventure doesn’t have underground lines, and it was without
power after Irma for several days, residents reported.
Still, FPL said about one-third of its customers in Weston were affected
by power outages in Irma, which it is still investigating. “Generally, we
are aware that underground-related infrastructure was impacted by
Irma, [such as] transformers and underground cables damaged by
flooding and uprooted trees,” utility spokesman McGrath said.
Some local communities with underground lines lost power in the storm
because they are connected to a power source outside the community
that failed in Irma, observers say.
Seven Bridges, a new western Delray Beach community with homes
priced from $750,000 to $2.5 million, lost power in Irma. “Our
homeowners were wondering what was going on,” said Rick Elsner,
vice president of development for builder GL Homes.
While it’s hard to get to the bottom of it, but he believes that at
Seven Bridges, “there was a [downed] transmission line somewhere
off our property.”
Transmission lines are what moves the power from a plant to a
substation. So when transmission is affected, underground distribution

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