The subway was paralyzed, traffic chaos prevailed on the streets, several people were trapped in elevators, while the tram was also shut down in some areas.
Ecuador suffered a power outage of at least one hour on a “national scale” on Wednesday afternoon (local time) due to a serious problem in the distribution network, Energy Minister Roberto Luque announced.
“There is a fault in the network that caused successive disconnections, so we do not have electricity in the whole country,” Mr Luke said via X, without elaborating.
The power outage took Ecuadorians by storm, especially residents of the capital Quito and subway passengers, at around 15:20 (local time; 23:20 Greek time). Electricity began to be restored gradually, in one district after another, an hour after the failure, at least in Quito, a city of about three million inhabitants, AFP journalists found.
“The event must be very important” since it even affected “the subway of Quito,” which uses an “autonomous system,” Pavel Munios, the capital’s mayor, also commented via X.
The subway was paralyzed, necessitating the hasty evacuation of thousands of passengers. City officials were rushed to patrol intersections amid traffic chaos as the traffic light system was also shut down.
Traffic chaos also prevailed in Guayaquil, a major port on the Pacific coast, an AFP correspondent reported, according to which many were trapped in elevators in office buildings and apartment buildings.
The tram in Cuenca, a city in the southern part of the country, stopped working.
The extent of the damage is not yet clear exactly. Energy Minister Luke was expected to hold a press conference.
In April, Ecuador also suffered power outages – however planned – lasting up to 13 hours due to prolonged drought, as the level of hydroelectric reservoirs dropped to a minimum, as well as due to aging infrastructure, according to the authorities. The holidays stopped in May when the rains started.
The country was hit by a wave of bad weather over the weekend, which triggered a landslide that killed 17 people and injured 19 others.
The disaster had the effect of suspending the operation of the private oil pipeline OCP, with the manager invoking force majeure.
Source :Skai
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