A major power outage left much of Chile in darkness, disrupting daily life, halting transport, and forcing businesses to stay shut on Tuesday. The government declared a state of emergency and imposed a mandatory curfew until 6 am Wednesday, (local time) as officials scrambled to restore electricity.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. Water shortages were also reported as electric pumps failed while hospital and government buildings resorted to functioning on emergency generators.Traffic lights failed and subway services in Santiago along with other cities were put to a standstill, leaving passengers trapped in dark tunnels. Daily activities such as classes, football matches and restaurants and cinema business were also suspended, leading to revenue loss around the country.Interior minister Carolina Toha described the situation as a crisis, though the exact cause of the outage remained unclear. “Our priority is public safety,” she said, announcing that security forces had been deployed to control traffic and prevent 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?Chile’s grid operator, the National Electrical Coordinator, attributed the blackout to the failure of a disrupted high-voltage transmission line that was the backbone of the system carrying power from the Atacama desert of northern Chile to the capital in the country’s central valley. However, the exact reason for the breakdown of the grid, still remains unknown.Present situationSpeaking to news agency AP, a Santiago resident Jorge Calderón described the scene as “chaos.” He worried about food spoiling in the summer heat, while others feared being trapped in lifts or stuck in their homes without working elevators.Authorities worked to evacuate people from subway stations in cities including Santiago and Valparaíso, while transport minister Juan Carlos Muñoz urged residents to stay home, warning that just merely 27 per cent of the capital’s traffic lights were functional.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. In the capital city of Santiago, people used their mobile phones as torches in the underground metro, while police were seen helping evacuate buildings.Efforts to restore electricity continued through the night, however, with millions still in darkness, the government remained on high alert.
Massive power blackout pushes Chile into chaos
