The Minister of Agriculture, Esteban Valenzuela, described the magnitude of the frontal system that affected several communities in the O’Higgins region at midnight on Thursday as an unusual situation. Strong winds and rainfall continued until early Friday morning, causing serious damage to the population.
Following a meeting held at the headquarters of the National Disaster Prevention and Response Service (Senapred) with regional authorities, where an assessment was made of the situation generated by the meteorological phenomenon, rarely seen in the region, the head of the Agriculture portfolio highlighted the work that has been done through the Presidential Delegation and Senapred, to respond to those affected in an effective manner.
Valenzuela indicated that the winds recorded at midnight were close to 180 kph in the Biobío region and in other areas of the O’Higgins region were abnormal, registering 120 to 130 khp, which are caused by climate change, as pointed out by many international experts.
“There are no major impacts on watercourses and rivers,” said the minister, thanking the workers of the Canal Workers Association for their work, because when watercourses are not clean, they end up affecting agricultural land.
Valenzuela said that “there is a lesson we have to learn from this event, where the wind was the main factor in the damage, and based on this, we are going to hold a meeting with the Presidential delegate, Senapred, Seremi de Energía, CONAF and the MOP, because we have had hundreds of fallen trees on many rural roads (…) and also in the cities.”
He also indicated that a national working group has been ordered to be set up in the different regions to have better coordination and announced that last week the Senate Agriculture Committee approved that CONAF have the mandatory cadastre, in conjunction with the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development (Minvu), to assess the trees that are most relevant to the territory, to drought and winds.
The meeting with the Minister of Agriculture was attended by the Presidential delegate, Fabio López; Senator Juan Luis Castro; the director of Senapred, Marcelo Montesinos; the Seremi of Energy, Claudio Martínez; the regional director of the Superintendence of Electricity and Fuel (SEC), Felipe Lerzundi; and the Seremi of Agriculture, Cristian Silva.
Fabio López: significant impact on electricity customers
In this regard, delegate Fabio López pointed out that this frontal system was expected to be accompanied by strong winds and this is what happened, causing trees to fall outside the maintenance zone of the CGE company, generating significant impact on customers, without electricity supply.
Fabio López said that the power supply was affected at around 122 thousand customers, who were left without electricity service throughout the region and that the service was gradually returning to normal and that as of midday on Friday it was at around 94 thousand.
Juan Luis Castro: An affectation never seen in years
Senator Juan Luis Castro also expressed his concern about the effects of the frontal system in the region, which, in his opinion, had never had such a high number of people affected by the supply of electricity in years.
“Nowadays, people are very sensitive to the problem of the cost of electricity, because of the consequences of the increases that have been announced and therefore, with greater reason, we have asked the authorities and the CGE to urge the rapid replacement and for people to make their claim explicitly (…) because the discount is appropriate,” said Castro.
The senator said that the O’Higgins region has been greatly affected by power cuts, which not only affect nighttime activities, but also affect work, academic and school life, and he called on the distribution company to resolve the power cuts as soon as possible.
Juan Luis Castro announced that the National Superintendent of the SEC and the Minister of Energy were summoned to the next Senate session, because “it is evident that while a Law is being discussed that will improve subsidies, climate situations today also affect a service that is already expensive, and if it goes up more, people will not understand successive increases if they are not clear about the origin and mitigation of that.”
Claudio Martinez: He exceeded all expectations
The Seremi of Energy, Claudio Martínez confirmed at that time that there were about 94 thousand customers without electricity, who were concentrated mostly in the Central Valley, in Pichilemu, and in the large cities of the region, such as: Rancagua, Rengo, San Fernando, Machalí and in others that have been gradually resolved.
Martínez announced that the restoration of electric service in the entire region was expected during the day. He also called on people, since this is a phenomenon that “exceeded all expectations,” so they should be a little patient for the restoration, since there are crews working and the Energy Superintendence will analyze whether it was force majeure or not, as was initially said.
Felipe Lerzundi: Electricity will be restored as soon as possible
Felipe Lerzundi, director of the SEC, said that they are focused on ensuring that the electricity supply is restored as soon as possible for the known reasons, affecting a greater number of customers, those dependent on electricity, rural health services and health centers.
“Our focus is on the gradual restoration and we are continuously monitoring the situation,” said Lerzundi, who added that all of this is complicated by the intensity of the wind, which at certain times puts the safety of the people working on the restoration at risk,” said the official.
Marcelo Montesinos: Preventive Alert remains in place
Finally, the director of Senapred, Marcelo Montesinos, announced that the O’Higgins region is still on Preventive Early Warning, due to the meteorological phenomenon and cold frontal system, and the warning from the meteorological department of Chile is still in effect due to the electrical storms that will be present this Friday throughout the region.
Montesinos added that the meteorological alerts for winds and precipitation have been cancelled and that they have carried out very strict monitoring with the communes, of which 18 were affected by the wind and a total of 935 people were affected, of which 48 were victims; 183 houses with minor damage and 15 with major damage that were not habitable.
“The alert for strong winds was completely unusual, causing disruption to the power supply and that has been the biggest concern we have had in the last 12 hours and we are working to provide a solution as quickly as possible to restore the power supply to the homes that are experiencing this difficulty at this time,” explained the director of Senapred.
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