Thousands FORCED to participate in Earth Hour 2009, in PITCH BLACK, twice as long!

BALIK PULAU, Malaysia: Due to an electrical supply failure during a brief thunderstorm, thousands of residents in the village-town of Kongsi, Balik Pulau, Penang were literally forced to participate in the Earth Hour 2009 campaign, for 130 minutes starting around 7:15 pm, ie. about 75 minutes earlier than the planned start of Earth Hour 2009 campaign for 8:30pm - not just with all lights switched off, but with everything including fans, TVs, non-mobile computers/internet machines, refrigerators etc. also switched off.

What started to be a brief electrical interruption following a possible lightning strike and thunders turned out to be a pitch-black experience for thousands of Balik Pulau residents, with everything including traffic light and road lights turned off for the full slightly over two hours, instead of the 1-hour limit for environmental campaign.

Reporter was caught in the middle:



Among businesses affected with considerable loss of revenue include:-

1. All shops at Taman Sri Indah including supposedly 24-hour 7-eleven convenience store which were forced to stall almost all sale transactions for over two hours due to inoperational cash machines, a restaurant, a cybercafe Internet service shop, two general retail stores, and over a dozen other shops which do not have a backup generator except one chinese restaurant which has a generator in place, and a burger stall which relies on independent power generator.
   
   
2. Shops and restaurants along Jalan Besar/Balik Pulau from Taman Sri Indah to Kongsi including Azlan Tomyam, Astaka K-Kongsi, restaurants at Kompleks Balik Pulau, Shell gas station, Maybank ATM etc.
   
   
   
3. All shops in Kongsi, near the Balik Pulau roundabout except two general retail shops which has backup power generator in place, and hawker stalls which use independent power generator.
   

In summary, dozens of shop owners in Balik Pulau had incurred in loss of sales due to accidental power cut that looks like a 'mandatory' participation in the controversial WWF-initiated, Sydney-started Earth Hour 2009 campaign, and thousands of Kongsi residents had to sweat out and settle with being able to do very little during prime time dinner & quality time hours. It's lucky however that it was raining at the time or those affected would have to suffer post-sunset heatwaves (The sun set starting at 7:29 pm today, and it was pitch black starting at 8:38 pm).

The two-hour power interruption however did not affect the new business park near Kompleks Pasar MPPP Balik Pulau, with shops including KFC and Kassim Mustafa restaurant, which happens to be situated next to Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB) building, were able to continue business as usual, and seemingly more properous due to shift of patrons from Kongsi downtown. Houses along Jalan Pondok Upeh were also not affected, as also with all buildings south of Taman Sri Indah including Masjid Balik Pulau, Balik Pulau Public Library, District Police Headquarters and Petronas Gas Station which were lit up brightly as usual.

Power was finally restored by 9:25 pm, about five minutes earlier than the planned ending for Earth Hour 2009 in Malaysia.

With just days to April Fool's Day, for many, this incident was not a laughing matter, and TNB, the government-linked sole supplier of electricity to this town is expected to offer an explanation with regards to this major inconvenience. Consider that writer nearly hit a road-crossing lady due to pitch-black nature of the roads!