Strong Winds Leave 200.000
Without Electrical Power and Water
Strong gusts of wind caused havoc
around the country yesterday causing more than 200.000 people
without electrical power. The Compañía Nacional de Fuerza y Luz (CNFL)
and the Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad (ICE) reported
hundreds of calls of power problems.
In some of the cases, work crews were able to restore power in a
matter of hours, however, some communities are still without power.
Fructuoso Garrido, head of power distribution at the CNFL said that
early in the morning calls began to come in, in total yesterday work
crews could get to only 419 of the calls, 259 of which were for
minor problems, while the rest were serious, involving high voltage
lines and the falling of at least 10 poles.
At ICE the situation was more of the same, as it received some 800
calls which led to many areas to be without electrical service
affecting at least 100.000 ICE customers.
In Pavas and Rohrmoser, residents lived all day without any water
service. The Acueductos y Alcanterillados (AyA) - water and sewer
utility - restored water service after 9:30pm, blaming the
electrical service problems that runs the pumps, affecting water
levels at the local reservoir.
Cellular customers may start to feel the effects of the strong winds
this morning. The Ericcson company that operates one of the two GSM
cellular networds reports electrical power problems may cause the
cell tower radio bases to shut down once the batteries are depleted,
affecting thousands of cellular customers.
The company says that the batteries can last up to 4 hours of
service, however, after that the towers go dead if electrical
service is not restored. The company would not say how many of the
radio towers are affected.
The strong winds were also the cause of much damage to many roofs
homes in many areas, including Central Pacífico, Heredia, Coronado,
Pérez Zeledón, San José de la Montaña, Sacramento (Heredia),
Guadalupe, Moravia, Coronado, Rancho Redondo, Guanacaste, Alajuela,
San Isidro de El General and the Northern Zone.
Tin roofs are no match for the gusting winds that reached up to 70
Km/h in some places.
The Instituto Meteorológico Nacional (IMN) says the strong winds,
heavy rain in the Caribbean province and light drizzling rain in
other parts of the country will continue into the weekend.
Temperatures are between 5 and 6 degrees Celsius below normal. |
|
|
|
|
|
