- (AFP) -- Several parts of Italy were still without electricity
well over a day after the worst blackout in the country's history, as debate
raged over who was to blame for the devastating power failure.
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- The power cut paralysed the country for several hours
since the lights first went out early Sunday morning, stranding thousands
on trains and escalators, and claiming the lives of at least three elderly
people.
-
- By Monday morning, electricity had been restored to most
parts of the country with teams working overnight to restore normalcy to
the areas still deprived of power.
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- The company in charge of Italy's power supply, GRTN,
said there was no danger of any power cuts for Tuesday and no need for
local distributors to prepare back-up measures.
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- As for Monday, the company said there would be no further
power outages through to 1000 GMT, but inhabitants of several regions in
the south woke up Monday to find that power had yet been restored to their
areas.
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- The civil protection services said electricity had not
returned to parts of the provinces of Enna and Caltanissetta on the Mediterranean
island of Sicily as well as the southeastern Puglia region due to problems
on the local distribution network.
-
- The authorities have promised that there should be no
further power cuts for the bulk of the country Monday morning, even though
"programmed" electricity interruptions could take place later
in the day.
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- As Italians asked themselves how the electricity supply
could fail across the entire country, the press rushed to heap the blame
on the government of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.
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- Only the island of Sardinia was unaffected by the cut,
which left about 50 million of Italy's 57 million inhabitants without power
from about 3:30 am (0130 GMT) Sunday and up to 30,000 passengers trapped
in trains.
-
- For the left wing daily La Repubblica, the power cut
was proof of Berlusconi's "inability to manage the problems of a modern
society, to cope with daily uncertainties, to resolve the most banal technical
incidents."
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- After the dramatic power cut which hit the United States
in mid-August, Berlusconi had assured Italians that such a disaster could
never happen in their country.
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- Meanwhile the La Stampa daily issued a plea to the government:
"Don't tell us now that it's the fault of the Swiss and the French
and at the end of the day it could have been worse and thank God it was
a Saturday evening."
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- "No, say it clearly. The breakdown reminded us of
a reality for which we are absolutely not prepared," it said.
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- Italian officials have blamed the failure on problems
outside the country, and French distribution network RTE said Sunday the
failure orginated in Switzerland. But Swiss officials have denied their
country was alone responsible.
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- La Repubblica predicted there would now be a serious
debate between the three countries over the causes of the blackout.
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- "Our system is vulnerable because we depend on foreign
supply," said GRTN prsident Andrea Bollino.
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- Bollino said it would take until Tuesday for the situation
to return to completely normal, and that the utility would remain on heightened
alert on Monday.
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- The Corriere della Sera, the country's best selling newspaper,
blamed the power cut on policies "that did not know how to govern
an (electricity market liberalisation) that was so complicated and delicate."
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- Two of the elderly victims of the blackout were killed
after falling down their stairwells in the dark, while a third died after
her clothes caught fire on a candle.
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- Hospitals in the affected areas switched to emergency
generators following the cut, which followed blackouts in London as well
as Sweden and Denmark.
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