Power restored after massive blackout darkens much of Florida

0 Comments | AFP, February, 2008

MIAMI, (AFP) — Relieved Floridians late Tuesday relished the simple pleasure of turning on their televisions and living room lamps, with power restored hours after a massive blackout had darkened millions of homes across the state.

The monster power outage had left millions of people in southern Florida bereft of electricity and forced the shutdown of reactors at a nuclear power plant, police and officials said.

Electricity was knocked out across an area stretching from Miami up to Daytona Beach, causing traffic jams as signals malfunctioned, and forcing some shops to close temporarily.

US government and local police said the widespread outage was not a result of a terrorist attack, but it remained unclear what triggered the blackout.

"We are...