Italy is in the dark!

[wx247]

ROME, Italy (CNN) -- Much of Italy is without power after a blackout swept the country early Sunday morning.

There are no reports of any injuries resulting from the outage, with authorities still trying to find out what caused the power to be cut.

First reports of the blackout came at about 3:30 a.m. local time (0130 GMT). Officials told CNN the entire country of some 57 million people -- with the exception of the island of Sardinia -- lost power at some point.

Both of the lines importing electricity from France failed at the same time, something officials called an "extraordinary event." Italy imports most of its power from France and Switzerland.

A lightning strike or fallen tree, related to stormy weather overnight, may have caused the powerline interruptions, Italian officials said.

One of the lines has been partially restored, allowing much of the north and portions of southern Italy to regain power, officials said.

The French state-run exporter of electricity insisted that it was not responsible for the Italian power outage.

In the capital, Rome, daybreak brought some relief, but CNN Bureau Chief Alessio Vinci said most of the city still seemed to be without power.

Streetlights, traffic lights and public transportation across the city were all hit by the outage.

Italian television showed darkened streets and stranded travelers sleeping in a subway station.

Officials said restoring power to Rome was a top prioirity since it is the center of television and other communications systems for the country.

Emergency services say the timing of the outage -- early in the morning with most of the country asleep -- means they are expecting few if any casualties.

Hospitals and other emergency centers were operating using reserve power generators.

[weatherlover427]

:o What is it with all of these mass power outages lately? First the Northeast and Canada, then *forgets the one after that* *thinks it was England*, now Italy! :o Who's next!! :o

[wx247]

Good question. I really hope these are all just coincidences. :o

[Colin]

Hmmm...not good! :o

[TexasStooge]

Oh no, NOT ANOTHER ONE!!!!

[wx247]

It really makes you wonder. I mean seriously... are these just coincidences?

[ColdFront77]

We haven't heard there being a serious problem, i.e. terrorism. These power outages can easily be power outages and yes Joshua the one that occurred after the Northeastern United States was in England.

[wx247]

I am not saying they are terrorist related, but I mean... what are the odds. Maybe power outages are more frequent than I think (and I mean on a large scale...like an entire region or country). Anyone care to enlighten me?

[Lake Effect1]

Really makes you wonder tho.

[StormCrazyIowan]

It makes me wonder anyways! And makes me sorry for all the vacationers who lost power!!

[Guest]

Italy buys 80% of its power from abroad.
The cause has been unofficially identify in a tree that collapsed on a power line in Switzerland, and the coincidence of a failure of the back-up line from France, interrupted by a lightining...

Funny isn't it? A tree and a lighting that stop not a city, but an entire nation (one of the 8 most industrialized).

In 1987, further to Chernobyl accident italians decided to stop all our nuclear plants. Green parties caused the closure of many power plant runned by carbon and oil, due pollution. Unfortunately no one took care of giving alternative solutions, then we are now buying power from nuclear plants in France, that are 30km away from our borderline. Of course should one of these explode, we will die happier, because at least we cannot be blamed.

Now the nuclear is up again, new power stations will be build within 2005 (working with carbon and oil) and everybody suddenly realised that we are not producing enough power to run our marvellous country.

You know, all those stories about hipocrisy... We are leaders

Ciao
Paolo

[JCT777]

Thanks for posting, Paolo. Is the power back on across all of Italy?

[Guest]

Power is back and things are normal now. The light returned first in the north within 1 to 4 hrs, then in the center (Rome included) after 12/13 hrs
and finally, 20hrs after, it was back in Sicily, our deep south, the one Lega party call North Africa

Currently Italy's blaming Switzerland, Switzerland's blaming Italy black.

[JCT777]

I am sure it is all France's fault!