A major power outage struck Chile on Tuesday, leaving millions without electricity. According to the reports, the highly unusual blackout caused chaos across the country.

Blackout Affects Most of Chile

As a result, over 90% of Chile’s 20 million people lost power. The outage extended from Arica in the north to Los Lagos in the south. Notably, the Senapred disaster agency confirmed that this was the worst blackout in over a decade.

The power failure occurred in the afternoon, immediately shutting down Santiago’s metro system. Consequently, thousands of commuters had to evacuate the stations. Since the metro transports 2.3 million passengers daily, staff were quickly deployed to ensure safe evacuations.

Meanwhile, officials ruled out sabotage or an attack as the cause. Instead, they pointed to a system failure as the likely reason for the outage.

Streets in Chaos

With traffic lights out, severe gridlock followed. As a result, many people had to walk for hours in the scorching summer heat. Moreover, businesses and offices closed early, adding to the disruption.

“They let us leave work because of the power cut, but now I don’t know how we will get home because all the buses are full,” said Maria Angelica Roman, 45, in Santiago.

Likewise, Jonathan Macalupu, a 25-year-old bank clerk, said, “All operations at the bank where I work had to stop.”

President Assesses the Damage

To evaluate the situation, President Gabriel Boric flew over the capital. Meanwhile, Chilevision aired footage of people stranded on a high amusement park ride in Santiago before being rescued. Additionally, local media reported people trapped in elevators.

A Rare Blackout in Chile

Similarly, Valparaíso faced major disruptions. Shops closed early, and heavy traffic clogged the streets.

Although Chile has one of South America’s most reliable power grids, blackouts of this scale are rare. The last major outage occurred in 2010 when a power plant failure left hundreds of thousands in darkness for hours.