BLACKOUT

No, Britney Spears didn't re-release her 2007 comeback album in Brazil.

No, last night at 10:19PM, everything went dark. At first, I thought it was a problem with just our hotel. But then I looked out my window to the street and realized the entire block was out. I called my friend on the other side of the hotel, and she then told me that Copacabana-as far as she could see-had no power. My roommate then got a call from his girlfriend in Botafogo (the neighborhood just north of us). No power there either. Realizing our phones had radio connection, we then tuned in to learn that power was out in not only all of Rio de Janeiro, but also in the states São Paulo, Minas Gerais, and Espiritu Santo and the country of Paraguay.

Yes, that's right. The most populated region in Brazil and an entire, separate South American country had no power.

The problem? The Itaipu dam situated on the Parana River at the border of Brazil and Paraguay, from which Brazil gets 20% of its hydroelectric power, stopped producing power.

The cause? Still to be determined. Storms had been moving through the region all of yesterday, and many speculate that it could have knocked down trees, which could have disrupted power lines and the dam's operations.

But the lack of power only happened for roughly 2.5 hours, as I woke up at 12:45AM to an apartment filled with light. Still though, one of the most populated regions on the continent/in the hemisphere out of power for that long? CRAZY.