Cities in the metropolitan region of São Paulo facing a blackout since Tuesdaywith just over 10% of residents without electricity after the passage of a cyclone with winds exceeding 100km/h.
Early this evening, a group of residents from a neighborhood on the banks of Via Anhanguera, known as “Vila da Biquinha”, at km 19, in the Pico do Jaraguá region, north of the capital of São Paulo, completely blocked the road towards the capital. The protest started around 7pm.
Professional course teacher Leila Lasnaux lives at the other end of the city, in Jardim Orly, south zone. Without power since 10am on Wednesday, she summarizes the situation as one of chaos. The biggest difficulty for his family of four is the loss of food.
In Jardim Orly the problem started with a tree that fell, knocking down wires, a few streets below Leila’s. Enel attended the site yesterday, but stayed for a short time and did not carry out repairs. According to neighbors, the company reported that repairs were not carried out due to the city’s failure to remove the tree. The tree remained in place until 6pm this Thursday (11).
It’s not Leila’s first blackout. In November last year, the region was without power for five days. “It was chaos too, and it only resolved after it went to the press when it went on TV, then they took action and our fear is whether the same thing will happen again”, he explained.
The family also had to reorganize. The house has an electric gate, which makes it difficult to move around with the car, which has been outside all day. He lost food, especially fish and meat, but he is also starting to lose vegetables. Today they already had to have lunch out, also taking their parents, who live on the same street and, as elderly people, have restricted diets.
“We thought it was going to be regularized. Enel was saying at first that it would fix the energy in 15 hours, then it went to 18 and that was delayed and in the end, in the end, it still didn’t work. For the cell phone to be working, we had to acquire a generator, gasoline, but it has low power, so we can charge the cell phones, trying to charge it here in the refrigerator, but it’s not enough”, adds Leila.
Food is also a concern for screenwriter Erica Chaves, a resident of Butantã. She has been without power since 12pm on Wednesday (10). “I was arriving home from the market and discovered the house without electricity. I had done the week’s shopping, with meat, fish, yogurt, and now I’m trying alternatives so as not to lose everything”, he says.
Unlike Leila’s situation, Erica doesn’t know where the problem lies. According to her, there is no fallen tree or burned transformer. Enel changed its repair forecast at least five times in 24 hours. She was unable to charge a cell phone, which already proved to be a problem this Thursday morning.
“With the return scheduled for 10 am, we waited. I had a meeting at 11 am. At 10:10 am I had to leave the house to look for an alternative and charge my cell phone. I passed by a Municipal Guard base, also without electricity. I walked four blocks until I found a neighbor, arriving at a house that had power, and which allowed me to charge enough to keep my appointment. The worst thing for me was this neglect, this helplessness, because the predictions simply don’t come true, and there is no planning possible”, complains Erica.
Generator supply is also starting to face problems. Resident of the Raposo Tavares neighborhood, professional property manager Regina Mantovani has also seen the change in forecasts since mid-afternoon on Wednesday. The condominium where she lives and where she is the manager of one of the seven towers has a power outage, affecting common areas and almost a thousand units. The towers run on diesel generators, but there was great difficulty in obtaining the fuel to keep them running.
“Residents sometimes end up thinking that it’s our fault or that we’re not taking action. Today I’ve already made three trips to buy fuel, to bring it here for our generator. I’ve been to three, four stations in the region here. It’s not that there’s a lack of fuel. As there’s no power, they can’t move the pump to supply us. As our gallon is 25 liters, it lasts two hours”, explains the manager
She says she also faces difficulties, as she does not have stability on the internet that she uses to work from her apartment.
“Every time we call Enel and make a protocol, they give us an estimate. Now, apparently, it seems like it’s only midnight (on the 12th) that they’ll fix it. If the company comes here, it only takes two minutes, because all they have to do is turn on a switch up there (on the transformer). But there are times when they don’t even answer us anymore, so it hurts,” says Mantovani.
THE Brazil Agency He questioned Enel about the delay in service in the three neighborhoods, without success. Until the conclusion of this report, there was no response from the concessionaire.
