Largest power station on the island knocked out by a blast from a naval base. Power shortages. Doubt there may be a/c in hotels.....

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/wo...e-2312134.html

2,000 tons of gunpowder went off. Yikes! I was thinking of a 1-2 day trip to Cyprus in November. Hopefully the country will have recovered by then. That power plant looks shredded!

the accident happened. the hotel was completely off power.

heard today that the island has recovered back to 50% of electricity and that this will remain for a while

That power plant (and the impression of the image I saw did say to me "shredded" too) accounted for almost 1/2 of Cyprus's power so the other plants must be working flat out to get power to 50%. I'd imagine it'll be months before it can be restarted.

My parents will be flying on Monday, 25th July from DXB to MLA (Malta) on flight 107, which stops in LCA. Will they have any problems, do you think?

Direct from Cyprus here.....

Power cuts are occurring periodically, 2 hours at a time, though my power has been on steadily since the day after this terrible tragedy. The power plant that supplied Cyprus with 50% of its power is toast. Generators have been sent in from Israel and Greece. Also, the Turkish-occupied area of Cyprus (northern Cyprus) is providing some power. Government offices and many businesses have turned off their AC. Tourist areas are not receiving power cuts, though I expect they are not using much AC. Temps and humidity is high right now so I am pretty uncomfortable in this weather. It's going to be a long hot summer here in Cyprus.

My recommendation would be that if you already have travel plans, don't cancel them; but if you don't have plans and can't stand the heat, wait until next year. Travel to Cyprus in November should be just fine. It's low season for tourists then and the weather is cool enough that you don't need AC and besides, the Cyprus economy would appreciate your business.

There was talk of water outages because they shut down the RO units (big power users), but that now is not expected and it appears they are running some of the RO units at night when electricity demand is low.

Should not expect any problems in the LCA airport (except it will be pretty warm inside).

This accident was terrible - 13 people have now died, the power plant has been destroyed, 62 people were injured, and many homes were damaged. It was totally preventable and my heart goes out to the families of those who lost their lives. There have been protests for the past 5 days or so in Nicosia calling for the President to resign.

My personal opinion, as a person who worked at destroying munitions for 7 years, is that this accident was due to incompetence and neglect (perhaps criminal neglect). Yes, there were political issues involved, but that does not excuse putting the public at risk by not managing munitions properly. This accident should not have occurred and it is inexcusable in this day and age.

Improperly storing all those munitions will rally hurt Cyprus's economy. Estimated EUR 1 billion hit or about 5.5% of GDP.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/wo...t-2317372.html