Blackout hits Panama three days after the arrival of Pope Francisco | World

According to an AFP journalist on the spot, the city of Panama dominated the city of Panama ineligible exchanges and inactive traffic lights. The metro operations were interrupted and the stations emptied.

At 11:42 am local time (2:42 pm in Brasilia), a power outage took place in Panama and in major areas of the province, said Gilberto Ferrari, director of the transmission company Elétrica, SA (Etesa), adding that 70% of the service has already been restored.

Other Central American countries, such as neighboring countries Costa Rica and Nicaragua, were also affected.

"There has been an event in the integrated national system that has affected the electricity service in various parts of the country.The teams are working to restore the service as soon as possible," he said. Etesa on Twitter earlier.

Without defining the causes of the electrical fault, Etesa had indicated that the service was beginning to be restored "gradually".

However, shortly thereafter, the company declared that an electrical incident in Nicaragua had caused it to lose "the cargo that had been recovered". He did not explain what had happened.

Despite the power outage, the Tocumen International Airport and the Panama Cbad have maintained their activities.

Water Supply Concerned

The power outage affected the water supply in several areas of the country, where water treatment plants have not been able to supply water. not functioning, which primarily feeds the Panamanian capital.

The water treatment facilities "are out of use due to a power grid failure", according to the Institute of National Aqueducts and Sewers of Panama (IDAAN ).

The President of Panama, Juan Carlos Varela, called for calm after the incident.

"All security and emergency protocols were activated immediately … We call on the country to maintain its normality," Varela said at a press conference at the headquarters of the United Nations. ETESA.

The trustee denied that the failure was caused by an overload of electrical installations due to increased demand related to preparatory activities for the pontiff's visit, which will run from Wednesday 23rd to Sunday November 27th. January.

"This is an incident that is not related to a demand issue," said Varela, accompanied by Ferrari.

Ferrari reported that the cut was caused by power line problems connecting La Chorrera to Panama City, but said the causes had not yet been determined.

Domingo Espitia, coordinator of the Panamanian security forces during Francisco's visit, said that "all the planned emergency plans" had been successfully activated during the incident and that the country was ready to face this type of situation. .

This is the first visit of a pontiff to this Caribbean country since 1983, when John Paul II made a trip to Central America.