Power outage hit 2014 World Cup host city

Many Brazilians were left with no electricity last week after a power blackout hit across the country’s south eastern region. Several metropolitan cities, including Belo Horizonte, Recife, Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo and Taguatinga, had experienced power outage after a large hydroelectric dam stopped functioning.

The cause of the blackout remains under investigation, although Edison Lobao, Energy Minister of Brazil, said that the storm-hit trees near the Itaipu dam could be the reason. However, the company that runs the plant, Itaipu Binacional, said that the hydroelectric dam had been normally functioning, but it was unable to transmit energy on Tuesday night because the power lines were defective.

Electricity came back in Sao Paulo three hours after the outage, yet most of the city parts still stayed in the dark. The blackout caused confusion on the city streets, as traffic lights stopped to function.

Meanwhile, thousands of passengers were trapped as the subway system shut down just after 22:00. People were forced to leave the train carriages and to walk along the subway train’s track to return to stations.

Residents of Rio de Janeiro, host city of the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Olympic Games, were worried how power blackouts could affect the city’s image. Law student Igor Fernandes said that the incident should not happen to a city that will host both major sporting events.

Itaipu’s power dams provide approximately 20 per cent of Brazil’s electricity need and over 90 per cent to Paraguay, which also suffered a power outage last week for less than 30 minutes.