Massive blackout sweeps Italy

[seraph]

ROME, Italy (CNN) -- Much of Italy is without power after a blackout swept the country early Sunday morning.
There are no reports of any injuries resulting from the outage, with authorities still trying to find out what caused the power to be cut.
First reports of the blackout came at about 3:30 a.m. local time (0130 GMT). Officials told CNN the entire country of some 58 million people -- with the exception of the island of Sardinia -- lost power at some point.
Both of the lines importing electricity from France failed at the same time, something officials called an "extraordinary event." Italy imports most of its power from France and Switzerland.
A lightning strike or fallen tree, related to stormy weather overnight, may have caused the powerline interruptions, officials said.
One of the lines has been partially restored, allowing much of the north and portions of southern Italy to regain power, officials said.
In the capital, Rome, daybreak brought some relief, but CNN Bureau Chief Alessio Vinci said most of the city still seemed to be without power.
Streetlights, traffic lights and public transportation across the city were all hit by the outage.
Italian television showed darkened streets and stranded travelers sleeping in a subway station.
Officials said restoring power to Rome was a top prioirity since it is the center of television and other communications systems for the country.
Emergency services say the timing of the outage -- early in the morning with most of the country asleep -- means they are expecting few if any casualties.
Hospitals and other emergency centers were operating using reserve power generators.

[elektro80]

The BBC tells of 110 trains with being stuck for hours.

More:

In Rome, the power cut struck as thousands of people celebrated the city's first "White Night" - an extravaganza of street events.

The failure halted the free underground service provided by the city, and left passengers stranded in underground trains.

Heavy rain had already stopped a number of attractions.

"We're not happy at all. Everything was fine - then it all happened at once and now we're angry and wet," a drenched Roman told Reuters news agency.

The lights also failed inside the Vatican, although emergency generators are now operating there as they are at Rome's hospitals and key government ministries.

Planes are landing and taking off as normal from all Italy's main airports.

Emergency services coped fairly well with the situation, says the BBC's David Willey, although several accidents have been reported as a result of the failure of traffic signals.

The civil protection agency has appealed to people not to make telephone calls, except in an emergency and not to use their cars.

Italy suffered partial power cuts in June, when the system was strained by heavy use of air conditioners and other electric items.

The national grid operator has repeatedly said power demand is growing faster than supply and that imported electricity would not make up for insufficient production in the long term.

[elektro80]

i found this comment at the BC news site:

I'm so happy we had a blackout! I live in Rome and I couldn't sleep until 0300 (0100 GMT) for the chaos in the streets during the so-called "White Night" of our Mayor, Walter Veltroni, who is looking for personal promotion on mass media. After the blackout all became quiet and silent and I've been sleeping very very well. Good night Veltroni!
Marcello Medilisano, Italia


More comments at:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/talking_point/3146268.stm

[seraph]