DUBAI, 10 June 2005 — Dubai experienced a major power disruption for more than three hours yesterday following a technical fault at Jabel Ali power station. There was no power in Jabel Ali, Deira and Bur Dubai areas from 9.40 a.m. Power technicians were able to restore the electricity by 1 p.m. in some areas. The outage caused discomfort to residents and visitors, as air conditioners went off in a season when temperatures climb to over 40 degrees Celsius.
Traffic signals failed causing minor chaos at junctions. Policemen were deployed to direct the traffic manually. Police sources said there were only a few minor accidents. Traffic built up along Sheikh Zayed Road, Emirates Road, as well as many other main thoroughfares.
Landline telephones were not affected, but mobile telephones were unable to pick up signal in several areas. Water supply was also cut in some areas. Lifts went off in hotels and office towers. Many employees were sent home from work. Media City, Internet City and Knowledge Village were also affected by the outage.
Services at Rashid Hospital were partially affected but Dubai Hospital managed to maintain normal operations. Police stations and civil defense offices were not affected as they have stand-by generators. Neither did the black out affect the functioning of Dubai International Airport.
Bank ATMs were down. Since services at Dubai petrol stations were suspended due to the outage, petrol stations in the neighboring emirate of Sharjah were very busy.
