Millions of people in Sao Paulo are left without power and water 24 hours after a hurricane that killed six people

Millions of residents of São Paulo, Brazil’s largest city, and several cities in the capital region were left without electricity, water and internet at 4:30 pm this Saturday (7:30 pm in Lisbon), 24 hours after a major hurricane. It hit the metropolis on Friday afternoon, killing six people as walls and trees collapsed. The energy concessionaire for Sao Paulo and 23 other cities in the region, ENEL, sent all its emergency crews to the streets, but the situation was far from resolved at that time, given the scale of the damage caused. more than an hour of heavy rain and mainly with wind speeds of more than 103 km per hour.

According to ENEL, at least 2.1 million residential, commercial and other properties, where many millions of people live or work, have been without power since 4 pm Friday, at the worst point of the storm, and there is no way to respond to everyone soon . This Saturday, the company has prioritized restoring power to hospitals, other essential services such as public safety, rail and water stations, and schools as millions of students will take part in the ENEM, the National Secondary School exam, this Sunday. , which gives access to universities across Brazil and other countries including Portugal, but the most optimistic forecast is that it will only approach normality on Tuesday or Wednesday of next week.

On Saturday afternoon, there was a power outage in all areas of the vast city of Sao Paulo, with a population of 12 million people, but the southern and western zones were the worst affected. There was no electricity in particular in the areas of Moema, Morumbi, Santo Amaro, Campo Limpo, Ipiranga, Guarapiranga and Vila Mariana in the southern zone, in Perdizes, Butantan and Zumara in the western zone, as well as in Peña, Vila Prudente and Arikanduwa, in the eastern zone, but throughout the capital São Paulo, even where there was electricity, the supply fluctuated greatly, with interruptions occurring throughout the day.

Without electricity, several regions were also left without internet access and without water as pumping stations could not function. Water concessionaire Sabesp asked residents to save as much as possible as there was no forecast for when the situation would fully return to normal.

During the storm, much stronger than what usually hits Sao Paulo, more than 1,200 trees (number updated this Saturday) fell or were uprooted by the force of the wind, taking with them wires and power poles. According to the concessionaire, there are areas where almost the entire power grid has been destroyed, and repairs will have to be done practically from scratch and may take several days.

In addition to the chaos caused by the distribution of power and water, Friday’s storm killed six people, all of them passers-by injured by falling walls and trees. This Saturday, almost all parks, museums and libraries in the capital Sao Paulo were closed to the public, and many important streets and avenues remained blocked by huge trees that fell during the hurricane and were cut down by a legion of firefighters and city employees. to clear the roads.