Ietel Residents Enter 15+ Hours Without Power — Families Sleeping in Cars to Run AC

The Outage

In the Ciudadela Ietel neighborhood of north Guayaquil, residents have been without electricity for over 15 hours as of the morning of April 13, 2026. Per Teleamazonas: residents in "la ciudadela Ietel, en el norte de Guayaquil" "llevan más de 15 horas sin electricidad desde la tarde del día domingo."

The outage began Sunday afternoon, April 12, and was still ongoing when the article was filed Monday morning.

How People Are Coping

The details are grim. The paper reports: "varias familias optaron por una medida extrema: dormir dentro de sus vehículos con el aire acondicionado encendido."

Families are sleeping in their cars, running the AC to survive the heat.

Others who don't have cars have improvised: "Otros vecinos sacaron colchones hacia las ventanas o patios en busca de algo de ventilación" — dragging mattresses to windows and patios, searching for any ventilation.

Context

This isn't a one-off. It's the Ietel-specific face of the broader grid breakdown sweeping Guayaquil during Ecuador's current heat wave. Transformer overloads have been rolling through the coast for days, with CNEL citing extreme temperatures and record electricity consumption.

What This Means for Expats

• If you live in north Guayaquil, the risk of a multi-hour outage is real and present. This isn't a 30-minute flicker — it's the kind of outage that lasts long enough to spoil food and push vulnerable people into heat emergencies.
• Running your car AC for cooling carries real risks. Do not run it in an enclosed garage — carbon monoxide poisoning is a genuine killer. Only run in the open, with windows cracked, and don't sleep inside a running vehicle without someone awake and monitoring.
• The heat wave + grid failure combination is temporarily making north Guayaquil a less safe place to be. If you have the flexibility to shift to a cooler altitude (Cuenca, Loja highlands) for a few days, it's worth considering.
• Check on elderly neighbors. Heat-related illness compounds quickly without AC. The same math that makes your apartment uncomfortable can put someone in their 70s in a hospital.
• Emergency: ECU 911. For heat stroke symptoms (confusion, stopped sweating, dry flushed skin) call immediately.

Source: Teleamazonas