“We are in the Superintendency of Electricity and Fuels (SEC) supervising the situation of electricity cuts due to the rains. We can confirm that there are 159,149 customers without electricity, of which 68,179 correspond to the RM. Remember that you can report on the website of the SEC”, assured Claudio Huepe, Minister of Energy this Saturday through Twitter. The figure was lowering during the day.
This Saturday, July 9, the frontal system announced by the Chilean Meteorological Directorate began, which will bring rain, wind and snow to the mountains throughout the weekend.
The National Emergency Office of the Ministry of the Interior (Onemi) initiated an early preventive alert, the director of the RM, Miguel Muñoz, assured that they have “no declared emergency, we cannot prevent the events from happening, emergencies we are surely going to have. We have set up this Committee for Risk and Disaster Management for the RM to coordinate, allocate all the resources and capacity of the system to be able to respond as quickly as possible and deliver help to people in need.”
“We want to call on citizens to stay in their homes as much as possible, there will be high problems of bad weather,” said Constanza Martínez, presidential delegate of the RM.
“There are many people who live in tents in the Metropolitan Region, boys, girls, today there are more than 230 shelters with available spaces, there is capacity to accommodate them, because it is going to rain a lot,” said the governor of the RM, Claudio Orrego.
It is worth mentioning that the Ministry of Social Development activated new emergency shelters for homeless people. You can alert the number 800 104 777 option 0 and in developmentsocialyfamily.gob.cl.
Due to the arrival of the bad weather front, in the Valparaíso Region, the Navy issued an “Abnormal Swell” notice.
According to the authorities, gusts of wind have been witnessed that have even reached over 70 kilometers per hour in the coastal area of the region.
Commander Gonzalo Concha, from the Valparaíso Meteorological Center, told meganews that “as a result of the passage of the frontal system, strong swells have been recorded on the coast, between the regions of Coquimbo and Los Lagos. Regarding the intensity of the wind, until now the maximum intensity of 42 knots has been reached, equivalent to 78 kilometers per hour”.
“The ports remain closed due to this condition of bad weather and swells… We maintain the recommendation not to approach rocky sectors,” added the uniformed officer.
From the Navy they also commented that the waves could exceed five meters in height during this day.
