Meralco: Outages hit NCR, 6 provinces due to ‘Pedring’

(Updated 5:54 p.m.) All 16 cities in Metro Manila, along with six other nearby provinces, experienced power outages Tuesday as strong winds brought by Typhoon Pedring toppled power lines all over Luzon, the Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) said. A list of affected areas posted by Meralco through Twitter at 1 p.m. Tuesday showed that seven cities and 57 towns outside the capital region were affected by power cut-offs. [For the complete list of affected areas, click here] In an interview over GMA News TV's "Balitanghali," Meralco customer assistance coordinator Len Nazario said the outages were caused by damaged power circuits. 1.9-M households experienced outages She added that 44 percent of the power company's service areas covering 1.9 million households experienced outages due to “Pedring." GMA News’ Facebook page was inundated by complaints posted by consumers expressing frustrations and the inconveniences they were experiencing with the power outage. “’Yung mga phone po namin, lowbat na. Sobrang dilim. Wala rin po kaming mabilhan ng candle because nagmistulang ilog ‘yung kalsada," Nelson Pingol of Nueva Ecija posted on the GMA News Facebook page. Nazario assured the public that Meralco will restore power to areas not directly affected by "damaged facilities" once the weather allows workers to repair the utility’s power circuits and bring electricity back to consumers. "Nasa tail's end na raw po kasi tayo ng Typhoon 'Pedring' so we expect na mamaya kapag nawala na 'yung hangin, we can restore power du'n sa areas na hindi directly affected ng mga damaged facilities ng Meralco," she said. Meralco also twitted that the power company has already restored electricity to “some areas," although it did not specify which areas those were. "We need electricity kasi hindi kami makaluto" Love Miguel Lorenzo Victorio of Camarin in Caloocan City posted that her family has not been able to cook food since Tuesday morning. "Please. We need electricity kasi hindi kami makaluto. Electric kasi gamit namin," she said. Mafe Lorraine of Novaliches, Quezon City, for her part, appealed to Meralco to immediately restore power supply in her area. "Walang ilaw simula pa kaninang 1 a.m… Sana po maayos agad ng Meralco kasi delikado po rito sa amin kapag walang ilaw sa kalsada," she said.— With Rose-An Jessica Dioquino/VS, GMA News