A significant power outage left little of Chile in darkness, disrupting everyday life, halting travel, and forcing companies to be shut on Tuesday. The authorities declared a state of emergency and imposed a necessary law until 6 am Wednesday, ( local time ) as officials scrambled to restore power.
The blackout, which began in the late afternoon, took down the internet and mobile networks, stranded public transport, and even obstructed the country’s crucial copper mining operations. Additionally, electric pumps that failed while hospitals and government buildings resorted to running on emergency generators were reported.
With passengers trapped in dark tunnels, Santiago’s subway systems were interrupted after traffic lights failed, along with other cities. Additionally, daily activities like those at schools, football games, restaurants, and cinemas were suspended, causing a loss of money all over the nation.
Carolina Toha, the interior minister, described the situation as a crisis, though the cause of the interruption is still a mystery.
She stated that “our priority is public safety,” adding that security forces had been put in place to halt traffic and stop disorder. ” Obviously, this was something no one planned for”.
By 10 pm, more than five hours into the blackout, none of the 14 affected regions had fully recovered electricity, leaving at least 7 million people without power.
Why did the blackout happen?
The National Electrical Coordinator, Chile’s grid operator, attributed the blackout to the failure of a sluggish high-voltage transmission line, which was the backbone of the system that transports power from northern Chile’s Atacama desert to the nation’s central valley. However, the exact reason for the breakdown of the grid, still remains unknown.
Present situation
Speaking to news agency AP, a Santiago resident Jorge Calderón described the scene as” chaos”. Others feared being stranded in lifts or stuck in their homes without functioning elevators, while others worried about spoiling food in the summer heat.
Transportation minister Juan Carlos Muoz urged residents to stay home, warning that only 27 % of the capital’s traffic lights were operational while authorities worked to evacuate people from subway stations in Santiago and Valparaso.
At Santiago International Airport, emergency power was activated, though officials cautioned that flights might be disrupted. Meanwhile, Chile’s state-owned copper giant, Codelco, also confirmed its mining operations had been severely affected by the outage.
Videos circulating on social media showed scenes of confusion across Chile, a country stretching over 4, 300 km (2, 600 miles ) along the Pacific coast. People in Santiago, the capital city, used their cell phones as torches in the underground metro, while police were seen assisting in the evacuation of buildings.
Efforts to restore electricity continued through the night, however, with millions still in darkness, the government remained on high alert.
