JEDDAH, 16 February 2005 — A 30-minute blackout in Alkhobar caused a lot of inconvenience to residents in this Eastern Province city yesterday. Traffic jams were reported in many parts of the city after the sudden power failure at 6.30 p.m. “It was so horrifying that the whole city went black,” said Fahd Mohammed a 26-year-old Saudi who works for a private company. The power went off while he was at an Internet café.
He said he had to drive down to his apartment located at Al-Raka district where he saw the leading roads were completely in dark. “You can only see headlights of cars,” he told Arab News by phone.
On his way, Mohammed spotted a compound, which had turned on their emergency generators. “That was the only lighted place in the area, it was beaming like a shining alley,” he added.
Incidentally it appeared that the traffic lights and the streetlights were not backed up by emergency generators and with the heavy rains that struck the city, the area had almost plunged into chaos.
“The situation forced motorists to slow down leading to a number of traffic jams, but people were careful while driving,” he said.
