The economic costs of Wednesday’s blackout in Russia’s capital Moscow may total over U.S. $1 billion, an official with the city’s administration told ITAR-TASS Thursday.
“Of course, we don’t have any exact figures, but must take into account that almost half the city was shut down - stores and businesses were all paralyzed,” the official said. “There was also a major transportation disruption that shut down the metro and railroad lines,” the official added. More precise estimates on the effects of the blackout on the city will be available “only in a few days.”
The mayor’s office estimated that there were still about 1,000 apartment blocks without electricity, mostly located in the Southwest and Southeast administrative districts, as well as about 70 schools and healthcare facilities. The official added that all hospitals and emergency healthcare services were fully operational and were getting power from backup generators.
On Wednesday, Vladimir Resin, the first deputy mayor of Moscow, said that power should be fully restored by 2:00 p.m. Moscow time on Thursday.
"If (regional power utility) Mosenergo does not keep its promise, and power supplies are not resumed by tomorrow afternoon, this could lead to serious problems for the metro," Resin said.
Power outages were experienced in the Southern, Southeastern, Southwestern and in part of the Western and Central administrative districts of the city Wednesday morning and afternoon. According to different high-ranking government officials, the major reason behind the blackout was an explosion at a power substation in southern Moscow, which caused a switchboard for the central power grid, which provides power to most of the Central Federal District, to fail. In a domino-like effect, the failure overloaded adjacent power substations reportedly causing failures at the most worn-out of them. |