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Over 70 000 residents and guests of the Greek island of Aegina have no electricity for the fourth day after the damage of the three undersea cables distributing electricity from mainland Greece to the island. As a result, dozens of tourists ended their summer vacation earlier than planned because of the electrical accident, and hundreds of other tourists have canceled their bookings for the coming weekend. According to the publication in the Greek edition Ethnos lack of electricity not only leaves holiday-makers in the dark, but without air-conditioning and hot water (available only if electric water heaters work), turning the summer vacation from fun into summer hell.

Greek NEC experts said the damage was due to ship anchors, which probably damaged the cable routing and caused the power supply break-down in Aegina. Currently 10 cars- generators were sent to the island. For now the electricity needs of local hospitals and water distribution stations are met as well as in towns and villages where there are power supply restrictions since yesterday - two hours with and four hours without electricity, as described in the Greek newspaper Kathimerini. “The food in the refrigerators began to spoil and, of course, we now throw it away,” explains for the newspaper Pavlos Lazaro, who owns a small hotel in the Perdikas district of Aegina. He explained that the electricity problems on the island are not new and that small and serious accidents occur at least 40 times a year. The hotel keeper assessed the overall maintenance of the electricity cables as ineffective and accused in negligence the responsible of the National Electricity Company.   
   
Aegina Mayor said that one of the cables was repaired at first, which is about 300 meters off the coast of the Sarpa Gulf and at a depth of 15-20 meters. The restoration of the route is done by divers. They have to locate the damage, take the cable to the surface, eliminate the problem and then bury the cable at the bottom of the sea again. The same procedure will be followed for the repair of the second cable. This task, however, will be more difficult because the cable is located 3000 meters off the coast and is at a depth of 80 meters.
 
They said from the Hotel Association on the island of Aegina that the patience of tourists on the island is limited and that the incident is the next stain on the country's image. “Fortunately, tourists love Aegina. As it turned out, most of the guests on the island did not panic, showed understanding and are waiting for the problem to be solved. This patience, however, is not endless,” explains the hotel association president Stavros Kalamakis. He explains further that a project for a fourth under-water power cable and a new power distribution plant was approved back in 2003. According to Stavros Kalamakis if these two projects have been completed, Aegina would not have problems with electricity in the summer of 2010.