The crews rushed to restore power to Porto Rico Thursday after a power failure hit the whole island, affecting the main international airport, hospitals and hotels filled with Easter vacationers.
The breakdown that started afternoon on Wednesday left 1.4 million customers without electricity and more than 400,000 without water. More than 826,600 customers, or 56%, had electricity before Thursday afternoon, while 83% of customers had restored water. The managers expected 90% of customers to have electricity in the 48 to 72 hours after the breakdown.
“It is a shame for the inhabitants of Puerto Rico that we have a problem of this magnitude,” said Governor Jenniffer González, who has run his week’s vacation and returned to Puerto Rico on Wednesday evening.
She said that it would take at least three days to have preliminary information about what could have caused the power failure, which has groaned traffic, forced hundreds of companies to close and let people unable to allow generators to rush to buy ice and candles.
“There is still a long recovery path,” she said. “Our system is very fragile.”
This is the second massive massive electricity to strike Puerto Rico in less than four months, the previous one occurring on the New Year’s Eve.
The pressure government to cancel the contracts of the energy company
“Why the holidays?” Antriformé José Luis Richardson, who had no generator and kept cool in splashing water on himself every two hours.
The roar of generators and the smell of fumes have filled the air as an increasing number of renewed Puerto Ricans call on the government to cancel contracts with Luma Energy, which oversees the transmission and distribution of power, and the genres PR, which supervises generation.
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González promised to listen to these calls.
“It is not under doubt or question,” she said, but added that it is not a quick process. “It is unacceptable that we have failures of this kind.”
González said that a major breakdown like the one that occurred on Wednesday causes an estimated loss of income at 230 million US dollars per day.
Ramón C. Barquín III, president of the United Retail Center, a non -profit organization that represents small and medium -sized enterprises, warned that current failures frightened potential investors at a time when Puerto Rico needs urgent economic development.
“We cannot continue to repeat this cycle of Panus breakdowns without taking concrete measures to strengthen our energy infrastructure,” he said.
Many were also concerned about the elderly population of Puerto Rico, the mayor of Canóvanas deploying brigades to visit the filter and those who depend on electronic medical equipment.
Meanwhile, the mayor of Vega Alta has opened a center to provide energy to those with vital medical equipment.
Wednesday evening was difficult for many, including Santos Bones Burgos, 62.
“I spent it on the balcony,” he said, adding that he was trying to get fresh air.
At one point, he fell asleep and remembered waking up at 5 am to a shouting neighbor: “The power is back!”
Among the people unable to sleep was Dorca Navarrete, a 50 -year -old house cleaner who said he was too hot.
“Last night was horrible,” she said. “I woke up with a headache.”
When she opened her eyes, she saw the light and thought it could not be the sun at this hour. Then a smile spread on her face when she realized that it was light that she had left in a room the day before.
What caused the power failure?
It was not immediately clear which caused the closure, the last in a series of important breakdowns on the island in recent years.
One possibility is that the invaded vegetation affected the grid, which, if it should not have occurred, said that Josué Colón, the energy tsar of the island and former executive director of the electric authority of Puerto Rico.
He noted that authority stolen daily to check certain lines, which he said that Luma should do.
Colón said Luma also had to explain why all the generators closed after there was a failure of the transmission system, when only one was supposed to go into protective mode.
Pedro Meléndez, a Luma engineer, said that a survey was underway. He said Thursday at a press conference that he did not immediately have details on the last time the company had made an air patrol, but said they were performing with the frequency established in his contract.
Daniel Hernández, vice-president of operations at Genera PR, said on Wednesday that a disturbance had struck the transmission system shortly afternoon, at a time when the grid is vulnerable because there are few machines regulating the frequency at this time.
Porto Rico has fought against chronic breakdowns since September 2017, when Hurricane Maria hit the island as a powerful category 4 storm, razing an electric network that crews still have trouble rebuilt.
The grid had already deteriorated following decades of lack of maintenance and investment under the Power Authority of the State, which has trouble restructuring $ 9 billion in debts.
& Copy 2025 the Canadian press
