Welcome to

Is Florida ready if the lights go out? As Matt Galka tells us, lawmakers say the state needs to start paying attention to potential threats to our power system.

20 million Floridians rely on electricity to perform basic tasks every day. But what would happen if that was all taken away?

That should be a concern according to a panel of experts who met at the Capitol Monday.  Former CIA officer and current security adviser Dr. Peter Pry says an electromagnetic pulse attack on the power grid could be catastrophic.

“American people can’t survive from a blackout that lasts even a year. The Congressional EMP commission which I served estimated that 9 out of 10 Americans would perish from a blackout that lasted that long,” he said.

The warnings have received the attention of lawmakers. Representative Ray Pilon (R-Sarasota) says if private companies don’t make security a priority, then the legislature could step in.

“We protect our nuclear plants very well, I think utilities need to take a lot of that to heart,” said Rep. Pilon.

Bryan Koon, the state’s emergency management director, says preparing for an EMP attack is lumped in with other drills the state performs, but there are still plenty of questions.

“How do you measure the preparedness for the types of events that are certainly going to have significant impacts but happen so infrequently so that you don’t necessarily have the infrastructure in place to measure the readiness for them?” said Koon.

Part of preparing the grid also comes in the form of cybersecurity. The state already dealt with a cyber attack earlier this year when the Florida Standard’s Asessment was rolled out

That attack caused headaches in public schools. But the panel warned that the state, and Floridians, would be dealing with more than just the inability to take a test if a major attack were to occur.

Experts on the panel suggested that Florida lawmakers spearhead a state plan instead of waiting around for a federal plan to be implemented.