Casablanca: rare power outage hits 8 neighborhoods
Eight Casablanca neighborhoods and parts of Nouaceur province lost power on Wednesday after a rare grid fault, as Storm Charles also shut schools in seven northern provinces.
Eight Casablanca neighborhoods and several areas of Nouaceur province lost electricity on Wednesday evening in a rare outage, as Storm Charles continued to batter several regions of the Kingdom's northern Atlantic coast, according to a statement from the National Office of Electricity and Potable Water (ONEE) relayed by Le Matin.
The outage struck at 4:55pm and affected the Centre-ville, Maarif, El Fida, Ain Chock, Ben M'sick, Sbata, Sidi Othmane and Hay Hassani neighborhoods, as well as Bouskoura, Ouled Azzouz and Dar Bouazza in Nouaceur province, before ONEE teams gradually restored power over the following hours.
Why did eight neighborhoods lose power at once?
ONEE's statement explained that wind gusts and thunderstorms simultaneously damaged four separate 225kV lines, the ones carrying the main supply and the three backup lines (N-1, N-2 and N-3) for the Ouled Haddou and Dar Bouazza source substations, calling the incident exceptional and of rare intensity. As soon as the fault occurred, the Office activated its crisis unit and mobilized its technical teams in coordination with local authorities and the Société Régionale Multiservices Casablanca-Settat, allowing partial power to return from 6:23pm and full restoration to all affected substations by 8:54pm, less than four hours after the incident. ONEE apologized to affected residents and said it is maintaining heightened vigilance until the weather episode ends.
One storm shuts schools in 7 northern provinces
Storm Charles's impact is not limited to Casablanca: Morocco's General Directorate of Meteorology issued warning bulletin No. 237/2026 on Wednesday, forecasting strong disturbances with stormy rain and violent winds in the Tangier-Tétouan-Al Hoceïma region, according to Le360. Provincial education authorities in Tétouan, Al Hoceïma, Chefchaouen, Larache, Ouezzane, Fahs-Anjra and M'diq-Fnideq suspended classes as a precaution to protect students and staff, with a direct call for parents to follow safety guidance. In the south, Essaouira province extended its class suspension through Thursday over bad weather, according to the Maghreb Arab Press agency, in a continuation of the same Storm Charles that had already suspended classes in Souss-Massa with winds reaching 100 km/h, and had already suspended classes in Tétouan and Chefchaouen over 110mm of rainfall.
The General Directorate of Meteorology expects unsettled weather to continue on Thursday, with moderate to heavy rain over Souss, the High Atlas, Chiadma, the Rif, the Middle Atlas and the Tangier area, accompanied by a risk of local thunder, along with fairly strong wind gusts in the northwest, the Rif and the Mediterranean coast, while lows will range between 7 and 13°C in the Atlas highlands, according to Hespress. ONEE is keeping its substations on alert until conditions fully stabilize.