Hurricane Irma Power Loss, Structural Damage Minimal Among South Florida Condos
Sunny statistics from FirstService Residential, a high-rise condo management firm, show that condominiums across the region fared well in terms of power outages and structural damage, according to the Miami Herald.
Although Florida Power & Light (FPL) reported that 4.5 million customers lost power during Hurricane Irma, which made landfall Sept. 10, FirstService Residential’s newly released data shows that many area condos only lost power briefly, and others retained power throughout the storm.
FirstService, which represents a total of 350 properties across Broward, Miami-Dade, and Palm Beach counties, reported that 69 percent of its properties regained power within just four hours of the storm. By the 72 hour mark, 93 percent of its affected condos had regained power.
In the Brickell financial district and downtown Miami — two neighborhoods with visible, widely broadcast flooding — FirstService reported that 81 percent and 100 percent of condos, respectively, did not lose power at all.
On Sept. 18, eight days after the storm, FPL reported 43,100 customers without power; meanwhile, 99 percent of FirstService condos had power by the same date.
South Florida condos also saw little structural damage. Per the Herald, no structural damage was reported for condos in Brickell, downtown Miami, and Edgewater. Similarly, property management service company Cervera Management, Inc. said it received fewer than 25 incident reports across its more than 300 properties.
The Herald attributes condominiums’ positive performance to the Miami Z1 Zoning Code introduced in 2008— the code, which received an award for excellence from the American Planning Association, requires stricter construction practices by developers, and much of the condo boom began in 2011.