Massive blackout hits Italy

ROME -- A massive blackout struck almost all of Italy early Sunday, leaving millions of people without power, stranding planes and trains, and leading to traffic accidents as drivers sped through darkened streets.\nMost of Italy's 57 million people were affected -- more than in North America's biggest blackout which left 50 million people without power in Canada and the United States on Aug. 14.\nAs in the North American blackout, the early hours of Italy's power outage were filled with confusion as to the cause and finger-pointing among neighboring countries. Italy blamed France; France denied responsibility.\nEventually, it emerged that a chain reaction that started in Switzerland and moved through France caused the blackout in Italy, which imports most of its electrical power.\nIn Switzerland, a falling tree disabled a power transmission line which caused another line to overload. At about the same time, two French high-voltage lines failed -- a problem caused by lightning during heavy storms in the southeast, Italian energy officials told the ANSA news agency\n"After that, all connections to Italy dropped out," said Rolf Schmid, spokesman for the Swiss power company Atel.\nAll of Italy except the island of Sardinia was affected.\nAt the Vatican, the blackout left St. Peter's Basilica -- normally lit up overnight -- in darkness. When Pope John Paul II delivered his weekly address, the Vatican had to amplify his remarks with a backup generator, while journalists huddled with candles and flashlights in the Holy See press office.\nElectricity returned to much of the north by mid-morning and to most of Rome, though erratically, around noon. Parts of the south were still without power.\nAt a darkened cafe in Rome, manager Massimo Purificato complained he was losing business without his espresso machine and the ability to make croissants.\n"All the ice creams are melting. It's a disaster," he said. "We've lost money and clients."\nFabrizio Volpi, a 21-year-old student, was briefly stuck in a nightclub when the lights went out. "There was panic, especially from the women," he said.\nHospitals used generators to keep crucial equipment running, emergency centers were flooded with calls, and traffic accidents occurred as drivers zoomed toward intersections without traffic lights. Airports turned on generators to light up runways, though many flights were delayed and a few canceled, the ANSA news agency said.\nSome 110 trains were stopped across the nation with 30,000 passengers on board, and hundreds of people were stranded during an all-night festival in Rome that kept museums and restaurants open around the clock, ANSA reported.\nThe city had encouraged Romans and tourists to use public transport, but many stranded travelers ended up sleeping in the out-of-service subway stations.\nAuthorities urged citizens not to panic.\n"Everybody stay calm," said Civil Defense chief Guido Bertolaso. "There is no major crisis at the moment."\nPremier Silvio Berlusconi was closely following events, his spokesman Paolo Bonaiuti said.\nMany cities were tormented by the din of burglar alarms tripped by the power cuts.\nPower also went out for about three hours in Geneva, Switzerland, earlier in the night. Austria, Slovenia and Croatia -- Italy's neighbors to the north and east -- reported no problems.\nIn Italy, politicians acknowledged the domestic energy system was insufficient, making the country too reliant on imported power.\nSome Italians have worried that new power plants could damage the environment -- a position that has slowed new plant constructions. Also, national demand has shot up in recent years, prompting energy officials to warn of possible blackouts.\nItaly was hit with partial power cuts in June, when Italians -- suffering in the scorching summer -- overloaded the system with air conditioners and other electricity-guzzling appliances. That was the first time in more than 20 years that the national operator of the electrical grid ordered power cuts.\nLast week, nearly 4 million people in eastern Denmark and southern Sweden were without electricity for more than three hours after a rare power outage plagued parts of Scandinavia.\nOn Aug. 28, power briefly went out in parts of London and southeast England, shutting off traffic lights in the British capital and stranding hundreds of thousands of people on subways and trains.\nAuthorities are still investigating the British outage, as well as the Aug. 14 blackout in Canada and the United States.