43 people stuck in lifts
2005-11-12 08:15
Cape Town - The Mother City was plunged into chaos on Friday afternoon after a power failure at the Koeberg nuclear power station cut the electricity supply to the Cape Town city centre at 14:00 on Friday.
Offices were flooded with darkness and traffic lights stopped working, with rush hour traffic becoming a nightmare in the city.
At one Cape Town office, 15 people were stuck in an elevator. Kholofelo Mphahlele, 26, said she was stuck with 11 others for two hours.
"It was a very traumatic experience and I am still a little scared."
Filipe Vinagre, security manager at the elevator company Otis, said the company had received calls from 43 people stuck in lifts between 14:00 en 15:30.
Koeberg's Unit One was out for repairs on Friday and its Unit Two tripped, said Trish da Silva. "Their reactor shut down, the turbines shut down, which is all in accordance with normal safety procedure."
Reports indicated that towns as far afield as Hermanus and Swellendam had been affected.
Some shopping centres were evacuated for security reasons.
Power apparently had to be relayed from Mpumalanga and it took some time for electricity to be restored.
Economic expert Fanie Bekker said the power cut would have a huge impact on the eonomy, but that the extent of the damage could not be calculated now.
He said it could be millions.
Cape Town International Airport was unaffected as the airport's emergency power supply kicked in.