Early on Thursday, almost 24 hours after a blackout caused by a power plant fire shut down power across Puerto Rico that set off a cascade of problems for the island’s aging utility grid, some 200,000 customers had their electricity back on.
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The governor of Puerto Rico has said power is slowly being restored almost 24 hours after a blackout swept across the island.
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) – The governor of Puerto Rico says power is slowly being restored almost 24 hours after a blackout swept across the island.
About 75 percent of 1.5 million homes and businesses served by the island’s power company had electricity restored, and the majority of Puerto Ricans will likely have power by Saturday, Gov. Alejandro Garcia Padilla said.
The blackout hit the entire island of 3.5 million people early Wednesday afternoon and prompted Garcia to activate the National Guard and declare a state of emergency.
AEE director Javier Quintana, who ruled out any act of sabotage in the blackout, said that a power surge had occurred – possibly caused by a lightning strike – to which the system’s defense mechanism responded by shutting it down.
It set off an outage across the island’s aging utility grid, leaving most of Puerto Rico’s 3.5 million people without service.
Padilla said they expect to get power back up for most people sometime this afternoon.
People wait in line to buy ice during a massive blackout in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Thursday, Sept. 22, 2016.
The power authority, PREPA, said in a statement on Wednesday that two power lines, each 230,000 volts, failed for reasons still being determined.
The power outage forced the closure of universities and public schools.
Many anxious about spending a third night in darkness with no air conditioning or fans. Most Puerto Ricans don’t have generators, and many once again dragged mattresses out to balconies and porches to spend the night outside.
“To see everything blacked out, my God”, said Virginia Davila, a nurse’s assistant who lives on the 11th floor of an apartment building in San Juan. “The system is not created to withstand a failure of this magnitude”.
The electricity provider is in the process of restructuring $9 billion of debt.
At least one person died the first night from exposure to carbon monoxide after setting up a personal generator.
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The blackout knocked out traffic lights, snarling the island’s roads. Company officials have said they are seeking more revenue to update what they say is outdated equipment.
