An island-wide blackout in Puerto Rico Tuesday left more than 1 million residents without power ahead of New Year’s Eve celebrations.
As of Tuesday evening, several hours after the outage began, less than 23% of customers on the island had their power restored, according to power company LUMA.
The power company said crews had restored power to roughly 336,000 customers as of 7 p.m. including providing power to 16 hospitals and aqueduct and sewer facilities.
In a statement, the company apologized for the outage.
“We understand the deep frustration that the blackout situation on a day like today is causing to our customers and families across the Country,” the statement said. “To all, we apologize for the impact that the event, which continues to be investigated, has had on the plans to bid farewell this year and welcome the New Year.”
The exact cause of the power outage, which began at 5:30 a.m. local time, remains under investigation.
A person looks through shelves inside a store as Puerto Ricans were without electricity early on New Year’s Eve after a grid failure left nearly all of the island without power, in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Dec. 31, 2024.
Miguel Rodriguez/Reuters
Earlier Tuesday evening, the White House issued a statement saying that President Joe Biden had been briefed on the situation.
“Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm spoke with the Governor of Puerto Rico and at the President’s direction offered to provide any federal assistance that they need to speed power restoration,” the statement said.
Biden also spoke on the phone with Gov. Pedro Pierluisi to talk about the power outages and to offer federal support, according to the White House.
Pierluisi earlier said work was underway to restore the service at energy plants in San Juan and Palo Seco.
The U.S. territory has continued to face a slow rebuild of its infrastructure since Hurricane Maria caused widespread damage to the island in 2017.
Residential buildings and a hotel are seen in the dark in San Juan, Puerto Rico after a major power outage hit the island, Dec. 31, 2024.
Ricardo Arduengo/AFP via Getty Images
In 2020, 1 million customers were without power following back-to-back earthquakes. An explosion and subsequent fire at a substation left 900,000 customers on the island without power in June 2021.
Another massive fire at a major power plant caused a massive outage for about 1.3 million customers in April 2022, followed by Hurricane Fiona in September of that year.
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Publish date : 2024-12-31 11:37:00
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