Ribeirão Preto, in the interior of São Paulo state, still had 6,232 consumer units without electricity supply on the morning of this Sunday (26), according to a report from CPFL Paulista — two days after the storm with winds of up to 70 km/h that hit the city on Friday (24) and left one person dead. Mayor Ricardo Silva (PSD) stated at a press conference that 10,000 properties were without power, equivalent to 3% of the municipality.
The utility company states that approximately 98% of its customers in the city have already had their supply restored and that around 300 teams remain mobilized to complete repairs to the network. The operation includes professionals from Franca, Araraquara, Campinas and Piracicaba, from other distributors within the CPFL Energia group and from partner companies, working continuously since the storm.
CPFL's efforts are focused on rebuilding 54 transmission towers and replacing more than 250 utility poles, considered essential for normalizing the system in the most affected areas. The company did not provide a deadline for full restoration, and the city hall also did not present an expected date.
Governor Tarcísio de Freitas (REP) took part in the press conference held at Ribeirão Preto's City Hall.
"The officially recorded figure was 121 km/h. But at our IAC, we managed to measure winds of 160 km/h. So we had the loss of 54 transmission towers there [CPFL mentioned 34]. This is an unprecedented event — we don't recall seeing damage of this magnitude in recent history, in any region," said the governor.
According to the mayor, four wells belonging to Saerp (the Municipal Water and Sewage Secretariat of Ribeirão Preto) remain offline due to lack of power, but are expected to receive generators, with a goal of resuming operations still on this Sunday.
CPFL also provided updates on the situation in neighboring cities affected by the storm. In Guariba, around 13,000 customers remain without power, and the company is concentrating its network reconstruction work throughout this Monday (27) to restore supply. In Taquaritinga, approximately 1,700 customers are in the process of having their service restored, and in Dumont, around 467 remain without electricity.
The utility company says it is maintaining priority in service to hospitals, healthcare units, water supply systems and incidents posing a risk to public safety. The work is being carried out in conjunction with Civil Defense, the Fire Department, municipalities in the region and the CGE (Emergency Management Center) of the São Paulo State Civil Defense. The company advises the public not to touch downed wires or tree branches lying on electrical networks, even if they appear to be de-energized, and to contact the utility company and fire department in such cases.
The Ribeirão Preto City Hall declared an emergency and state of public calamity on Friday (24), after heavy rain and strong winds caused damage across the city. A 90-year-old elderly man died in a building collapse. According to the state Civil Defense, the storm brought gusts of up to 70 km/h and accumulated rainfall of around 30 mm, which led to the establishment of a crisis cabinet. Avenues were blocked, and healthcare units had to temporarily halt operations due to equipment failures caused by flooding and wind.
