Major electricity power cut due to lightning bolt across the whole island of Tenerife

**zarion** · 26th March 2009 16:13

Jose Manuel Bermudez, said that Unelco estimated that within two or three hours the problem may be solved.

TITSA: Has a five-bus operation to pick up passengers who were on the tram line.

In the minutes before an afternoon, much of the island of Tenerife are without power due to one or more failures caused by a storm on the premises of the company Unelco.

In the central Las Caletillas (Candelaria), it has been declared a fire because residents have seen smoke coming out of the facility.

Arrangements are being made to avoid incidents in the traffic.

Unelco technicians are currently working to replenish the supply, although the company has provided no estimate of when they could be restored to normal.

In Santa Cruz, some passengers who were riding the tram at the time of the power cut were trapped.

Source: El Dia

**scottie** · 26th March 2009 16:14

Im in the centre of las americas, it went off at 12.45pm roughly and has just came back on ten minutes ago. But bars along the road from me are still off.

**cyberhiker** · 26th March 2009 16:20

It's back on here in Chayofa.

**zarion** · 26th March 2009 16:29

Carolina Darias confirmed to Reuters that the Unelco-Endesa electricity company expects that the electric is fully restored in the next hour, after a total blackout at noon on the island of Tenerife.

Darias said that the incident had become the label of "zero" as it has affected the whole island, ie more than 886,000 residents on the island.

Among the first hypothesis is that the power cut origin could be due to a lightning strike at one of Unelco's facilities at the center of Las Caletillas, between the municipalities of Guimaras island and Candelaria.

She added that already they have power supply restored in most areas of the metropolitan area (Santa Cruz de Tenerife and La Laguna) and the south of the island.

She also stressed that the government are aware that there have been no major incidents and recalled that it was concerned by the effects that could be caused from the a blackout in the tram service.

In addition she insisted that the government's priority was to inform the public.

The island has been without electricity for about an hour.

Unelco noted that the supply disruption occurred at about 12:40 pm and "affects the whole island of Tenerife."

They indicated that at this time, they are continuing to try to restore full supply, raising the power of the affected parts of the island but still are not fully aware what caused the blackout to occur.

Source: El Dia - Updated at 14:55

**bertiebasset** · 26th March 2009 16:36

Perhaps it's the gods unleashining it's fury on scammers and con artists. Those who rip off tourists and slowley kill the island.

**zarion** · 26th March 2009 16:58

An electrical blackout affected the entire island of Tenerife today from 12:30pm.

At the time, the cause was unknown, but the first point of the unstable weather and lightning was in the area of Caletillas, where the main central Unelco station is.

One of these lightning bolts could have hit line 220 on that plant.

Also, the town has confirmed that the supply is zero throughout the island.

Unelco shuffled from the possibility that one of the towers had fallen and eyewitnesses spoke of the dense smoke in the bottom of the towers in Caletillas.

Furthermore, the Coordinating Center for Emergency and Security (Cecoes) 112 have stressed that there are no major incidents during this time, though many people are trapped in elevators.

The spokesman for the Metropolitan Tenerife, Santiago Correa, has told Radio Canary that autonomous trams were stopped when the power cut happened.

People who were inside the tram as it passed through the tunnels had to remain inside for about 20 minutes.

Titsa has arranged a bus to take passengers to their destinations from the tram, and stated that the incident occurred at a peak time for transport and communications on the island. There are major traffic jams and police are trying to regulate traffic.

In addition, most companies and trade had to stop their activities because of the blackout, since lack of light has prevented them from continuing with their normal activities and many workers can be seen on the streets waiting outside the establishments, until the situation is resolved.

The Ministry of Education has suspended classes this afternoon in Infant and Primary Schools in Tenerife.

Also, mobiles are experiencing difficulties in functioning due to overloading on the network.

At the moment there is a major storm in certain areas of South Tenerife and the first sound of thunder was heard in the capital of the island this morning. A storm warning was issued this morning and is expected to last the next 36 hours including affecting the island of La Gomera.

The weather prediction for the next few hours is plenty of sun with intervals of clouds, showers and locally heavy thunderstorms.

The wind in the south is mild and the temperature is expected to remain the same.

Source: Canarias7 - Updated at 14:31