Brazil's Northeast is suffering its worst drought in decades. The drought is a threat to hydro-power supplies in an area prone to blackouts. Lack of rain has hurt corn and cotton crops, left cattle and goats to starve to death in dry pastures and wiped some 30 percent off sugar cane production in the region responsible for 10 percent of Brazil's cane output. According to the national electrical grid operator, dams in the Northeast ended December at just 32 percent of capacity. Brazil's reliance on hydro-power to generate electricity has fallen to 67 percent of all electricity generated from about 75 percent five years ago. But the low water levels have still set off alarm bells in a country with a history of energy shortages  ubAlert