Cable Theft Extends Leme Blackout Into Sunday Afternoon in Rio

Overview

• Power went out around 5:30 p.m. Saturday and was still off in parts of Leme and Copacabana past 1:30 p.m. Sunday.
• Light said the outage stemmed from a subterranean system overload following large-scale cable theft.
• Twenty-five repair teams were deployed and generators were installed to mitigate the impact during repairs.
• The company had projected service would return by noon Sunday, but full restoration had not occurred by early afternoon.
• Businesses, including a supermarket and several hotels, relied on generators, and residents reported smoke and blasts from manholes; a separate bicycle shop fire in Copacabana was contained with no injuries.