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Article: 60 million Brazilians left in dark ; Weather blamed for massive outage
- Article from:
- The Boston Globe (Boston, MA)
- Article date:
- November 12, 2009
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright 2009 The Boston Globe. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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RIO DE JANEIRO - Heavy rain, lightning, and strong winds caused
blackouts that left 60 million people in the dark, officials said
yesterday as they scrambled to restore confidence in the country's
infrastructure before soccer's 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Olympics.
The weather made transformers on a vital high-voltage
transmission line short-circuit, Brazil's energy minister said. Two
other transmission lines also went down as part of an automatic
safety mechanism.
"The problem was exclusively with the transmission lines," Energy
Minister Edison Lobao said yesterday.
The blackout cut electricity to 18 of Brazil's 26 states and left
them without power for up to four hours Tuesday night. The ...