As reported by Reuters, I can confirm the national power grid has failed. The entire country is in a blackout. I have four minutes of battery left. Further updates will be available when power returns. Not sure when. Power started cutting out in the morning but it came back earlier today and then went out again.
Unfortunately, this means a lot of people won’t have water either as many homes use an electric pump to store water in a holding tank. The place I am staying at currently has neither water nor electricity.
Anyways gotta go before my laptop battery dies.
The sound of generators now fills the streets of Dhaka – power hasn’t come back since last night. I was kind of hoping that this would be like other blackouts I’ve experienced – where some regions would have power and others not. But, after talking to relatives in Shantinagar, Mohakhali DOHS, Gulshan/Baridhara – it seems like this is a city-wide blackout. That’s a first during my stay here in Bangladesh.
The BBC is reporting that at least fifty people are reported dead in the coastal regions of Bangladesh. Unfortunately, not many people in Bangladesh will have access to news – no electricity, means no TV. The cell phones and celluar internet connections still work though which is how I’m able to post this blog.
I plan on going out later today and hopefully will have some photos that I can share. Apparently, after talking to a relative in another part of town, exploding transformers like that one I saw yesterday was not an uncommon occurrence last night.
