Around 158,000 properties in São Paulo remain without electricity after the blackout, according to Enel

Four days after the storm, there are still 158,818 thousand properties without electricity in São Paulo this Sunday 14. In a statement, Enel said that the meteorological event that hit the state on Wednesday 10 was the longest since the National Institute of Meteorology (Inmet) began measurements and made the work of recovering the electricity network difficult.

According to the dealer, wind gusts reached 82.8 km/h and, for the first time since 2006, the Mirante de Santana meteorological station recorded such a prolonged sequence of winds exceeding 70 km/h in the city of São Paulo. According to the company, the prolonged gusts caused further interruptions while technicians worked to restore supply.

In another part of the note, Enel indicated that it had mobilized 1,800 teams since Wednesday morning.

The outage began on Tuesday 9, but intensified on Wednesday 10, after strong winds crossed the capital and the metropolitan region. More than 2.2 million customers were left in the dark, and as of Friday, the problem persisted for about 700,000 units.

The wind, with gusts reaching 98 km/h, was caused by an extratropical cyclone that formed in the south of the country and advanced towards the southeast. The winds affected the operation of São Paulo airports, which recorded hundreds of canceled flights.

Firefighters logged more than 1,400 calls for falling trees on Wednesday alone in the metro area. Sabesp reported that the lack of energy was compromising water pumping and distribution in different regions.

On Friday 12, the São Paulo Court accepted a civil action filed by the Public Prosecutor’s Office and the Public Defender’s Office and ordered Enel to restore, within 12 hours, power supply to properties still affected by the outage. In case of non-compliance, the concessionaire will be liable to a fine of R$200,000 per hour.