Brazil: Leader Waits For Blackout Investigation

BRADLEY BROOKS

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Brazil's president said Friday that he's waiting on a federal investigation to say anything more about the cause of a massive blackout earlier this week that affected 60 million people.

President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva backed off earlier claims by his energy minister that bad weather caused a failure in transmission lines after the government's own satellite imagery showed that lightning strikes were neither close enough nor strong enough to cause such damage. "There must be an investigation that follows all leads to find out what really happened," Silva told reporters in Sao Paulo. "If the system is robust and efficient as we believe, and we produce energy at will, why did we have this disaster?"

The blackout hit 18 of Brazil's 26 states and left 7 million people without water service after energy from the massive Itaipu dam, the source of one-fifth of Brazil's power, went completely offline.

Brazilian Energy Minister Edison Lobao on Wednesday said it was caused when lightning, wind and rain hit vital transmission lines running from Itaipu to two electric substations in Sao Paulo state. He said three key transformers short-circuited because of the weather.