It was on Monday morning, around 9:30, that millions of people found themselves without electricity. The regional management of EDF in Marseille, contacted by AFP, believes that an “incident on a high voltage line” might be the cause of this regional outage. According to the Var prefecture, the origin of the incident comes from its department, where two 400,000-volt lines were damaged by violent storms. The heavy rains that have hit the region for more than 24 hours are being blamed. By late morning, power was gradually returning to different neighborhoods of Nice and throughout the department. The exact origin of the outage was still unknown at 12:00.
“Sorry, we are closed due to power outage”
In the center of Nice, tramway cars came to a halt. Shopkeepers found themselves in the dark, forcing them to escort customers to the exit. Refrigeration units stopped working and credit card terminals too. In a supermarket of a large chain in the heart of Nice, employees are inviting customers to leave, while cashiers secure the money. The people of Nice heard the same phrase all morning: “Sorry, we are closed due to power outage”.
But beyond businesses, an entire way of life was heavily disrupted. Traffic lights went out and underground parking garages ceased to function. Trains stopped operating between Toulon and Nice, causing significant disruptions. The Nice Airport, however, continued its activities, as it has an independent electrical system.
At 12:30, all households in Var were reconnected. In the Alpes-Maritimes, 10 to 20% of households were still without electricity. For now, no serious incidents have been reported in the region.
