Alert for power outages in Uruguay after heavy rains

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – After registering in Montevideo in just one hour its monthly average of rainfall, the public company According to Uruguay’s National Administration of Power Plants and Electric Transmissions (UTE), reported that around 6 PM (local time), roughly 14,000 customers remain affected throughout the country.

“Likewise, 300 damaged columns have been identified, and problems persist in seven flooded substations as a result of the storm,” the company said after an intense storm was recorded on the night of January 16.

According to UTE, the storm caused more than 120 poles to fall and left more than 25,000 people without electricity last Saturday in a large part of the country, and more than 75% of the service has already been restored.

According to local media, 10,367 people were reported without power at 10:45 AM (local time), 1.8 percent of the service.

The Ministry of the Interior reported that “as a consequence of the weather, Firefighters attended 248 requests for interventions in different parts of the country, of which 164 were evacuations, 67 tree falls, nine column falls, and eight landslides”.

The mayor of Montevideo, Carolina Cosse, remarked that no deaths or injuries had been reported so far. In response to users’ opinions in networks and journalists about the collapse of the drainage system, the official said that “the capacity of streams, ravines, large pipes, and micro and macro drainage was exceeded”.

“It has nothing to do with sanitation”, said Carolina Cosse, who referred that the drainage system was not prepared to receive so much rainfall.

The Uruguayan Institute of Meteorology (Inumet) reported that between 50 and 100 millimeters were registered in Montevideo and between 50 and 120 millimeters in Canelones “being more intense the rains between 5 AM and 7 AM local time”, at the same time that the Emergency Coordination Center of Montevideo, stated that only in one hour more than 100 millimeters of water fell which represents the same volume of rainfall expected for a month.

Néstor Santayana, Inumet’s chief forecaster, indicated that “these situations of rains and storms will be repeated, affecting one area and then moving to another, with episodes of temporary improvements”.

Another meteorological event that impacted the South American territory was the heatwave that invaded Argentina, which borders Uruguay.

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