A huge power failure in Central America's electricity grid left millions of people without power for hours at a stretch in at least four central American nations on Monday. The blackout hit Honduras hard with almost 9 million of its inhabitants being left out without power. The four Central American nations share the common electric grid since the 1980s. 

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Hardest hit

Honduras is hardest hit and the balckout has affected affecting its more than nine million population. Traffic was reportedly affected with cars crawling at snails speed as about 600 traffic lights went dark in the Capital. Leonardo Deras of Honduras state electric company at a news conference asserted that that problem came from the overload at a substation on the Caribbean Coast. 

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Nicaragua affected

Salvador Mansell, who is the president of Nicaragua's state power transmission company Enatrel, said that the blackout had hit his country's capital, Managua, and its provinces. There are around 600,000 customers who pay for electricity in the country. Internet and water distribution in certain areas of capital which relies heavily on pumps were also affected. Power began to be restored in the afternoon as Honduras Government said that the restoration process will take about 3-4 hours.

Mansell further said that the priority is being given to hospitals, health centers, which were affected by the problems in the interconnection with Honduras. The tweet in English reads as "We are giving priority to ENACAL hospitals, health centers, and wells".

According to the Nicaraguan Government's statement, the power blackout occurred at 11:55 AM local time and continued till 1:10 PM when ENATREAL crews solved the issue which affected large swaths of the country.

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A shared electrical network

El Salvador and Guatemala also witnessed partial outages. The four countries, as well as Costa Rica and Panama, have shared a combined electrical network since the 1980s. 

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(With inputs from AP)