Brazil outage blamed on line problems

BRASILIA, Brazil, Nov. 11 (UPI) -- Brazilian officials blame weather for a massive blackout that affected an estimated 50 million people in Brazil and neighboring Paraguay.

Electricity was restored to Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo Tuesday night after a major hydroelectric plant was somehow disconnected from the grid that supplied one fifth of Brazil's electricity and nearly all of Paraguay's power.

Energy Minister Edison Lobao said in Brasilia "atmospheric problems," possibly heavy thunderstorms, disrupted the flow of power from the Itaipu hydroelectric plant.

Dow Jones Newswires described Itaipu as the second-largest hydroelectric plant in the world with a generating capacity of 14,000 megawatts.

A statement from the plant said the turbines continued to run during the outage and it appeared the problem was caused by disruptions at one or more points along the grid.