by Rod Hughes

A break in the Arenal-Canas tranmission line, one of the most important in the country, sent Costa Rica back into the 19th century for more than an hour last night, causing traffic jams as traffic lights went out, knocking out cell phone services and even shutting off water in higher areas as electric pumps shut down.

Cause of the shutdown was unknown at the time this newsfeed was filed. The blackout lasted from 8:10 to 9:45 p.m. and was the first nationwide outage since Aug. 21, 2001 when a lightning bolt hit near the Cachi Dam hydroelectric generators, shutting two down and causing a chain reaction across the country.