Nearly all of Puerto Rico loses power on New Year’s Eve, leaving 1.3M residents in the dark
A blackout hit nearly all of Puerto Rico early Tuesday, leaving more than 1.3 million people in the dark as they were preparing to celebrate New Year’s.
The outage hit the US territory at dawn, affecting 90% of Luma Energy’s 1.47 million homes and businesses, with officials warning that it could take up to two days to restore the power.
Julio Córdova, a municipal worker, bemoaned the situation that has upended nearly everyone’s New Year’s celebrations.
“This affects me because I had plans. It couldn’t have been yesterday or tomorrow?�he told the Associated Press.
“It had to be on the 31st of December!�another Luma customer yelled in frustration outside a grocery store in the capital of San Juan.
The man, who only identified himself as Manuel, said the blackout not only coincided with New Year’s Eve, but also his birthday.
“There is no happiness,�he sulked.
The outage was reportedly caused by the failure of an underground power line, according to Luma, which said it was investigating the incident.
The blackout has fanned the already growing anger against Luma and General PR, which both oversee the electricity transmission and distribution in Puerto Rico.
Gov. Pedro Pierluisi said he was in touch with both companies “demanding answers and solutions.�nbsp;
His successor, governor-elect Jenniffer González Colón, who is set to be sworn in on Jan. 2, has called for the establishment of an “energy czar�to review possible Luma contractual breaches as Puerto Rico finds another power operator.
While blackouts used to be rare in the US territory, Puerto Rico’s power grid has found itself struggling in recent years due to the devastation caused by Hurricane Maria, a Category 4 storm, in September 2017.
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“They’re part of my everyday life,�Enid Núñez, 49, said of the blackouts as she made breakfast with a small gas stove she bought for such events.
The island continues to depend on generators provided by the US Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to help stabilize the power grid.
Last month, Puerto Rico’s government issued a request to keep more than a dozen portable generators from the US for an additional two years.
Meanwhile, Puerto Rico’s Electric Power Authority more than $9 billion in debt, the largest of the island’s government agencies.
With Post wires
