Power outage in Flevoland has police saying stay off the roads, don’t call 112
The outage was largely resolved. The A6 was reopened by 6 p.m., according to Rijkswaterstaat.
Two incidents at electricity substations in Flevoland left parts of the province without power on Friday afternoon. Police there asked people to stay off the roadways just before rush hour was set to start, with a warning that people should not call 112 in the area unless they are in life threatening danger.
"It is one big madhouse," said a spokesperson for the fire department to Omroep Flevoland. "There are fires burning all up and down the A6, electricity cables are said to have snapped."
Grid operator TenneT said the power failure involved their high-voltage connection between Lelystad and Dronten, and said it was “caused by a short circuit in our network.” They added that power was restored by about 4:45 p.m. “there is still a fire at our installation near Dronten; Luckily no injuries as far as we know.” Utility company Liander said the failure was a major incident that they were trying to resolve.
On Dronterweg, witnesses said high voltage cabling had slackened, and was hanging just ten meters above the ground, according to the regional broadcaster. Traffic was being rerouted as vehicles were not allowed to drive under the high-voltage cables, said the ANWB. Authorities shut down the A6 in both directions between Lelystad and Emmeloord, Rijkswaterstaat said. Traffic was mounting in the area as a result. TenneT said the traffic was being diverted as a precaution.
The power failure also meant that all trains were stopped between Lelystad Centrum and Dronten, said railroad infrastructure firm ProRail. This was expected to continue at least until 8:30 p.m. At least one train had to be evacuated, according to Omroep Flevoland.
Many elevators were stuck, water locks could not be operated, and turbines at the Zeewolde windpark were stopped. The disruption not only affected Flevoland, but extended further. Outages were also reported in parts of Gelderland, according to the Noord en Oost Gelderland Security Region.
The problems started at about 3:10 p.m. when disturbances were reported at a substation in Dronten and another in Lelystad. Within seven minutes, the incident was declared a Grip 2 regional emergency. The declaration is made when a situation affects an entire city and the surrounding region.
The protocol calls for the rapid establishment of a regional command team to coordinate the efforts of all emergency services leaders. The affected mayors and their staffs are also kept informed and involved.
