Over half of Puerto Rico still without power after island-wide blackout
The loss of power affected the main international airport, several hospitals and hotels filled with Easter holidaymakers.
The blackout also worsened traffic, forced hundreds of businesses to close and left those unable to afford generators scrambling to buy ice and candles.
It was not immediately clear what caused the shutdown.
The outage hit shortly after noon local time (5pm UK time) on Wednesday and left 1.4 million customers without electricity and 328,000 without water.
Crews have been working to restore electricity and at least 175,000 customers, or 12%, had power back at the end of Wednesday.
Luma Energy, which provides power to the whole of Puerto Rico, said in a post on X that power had been restored for around 609,711 customers - representing 41.5% of its total customer base - as of 7am local time (12pm UK time).
Meanwhile, officials expect 90% of customers to have power back within 48 to 72 hours of the outage.
The outage marks the second island-wide blackout to hit Puerto Rico in less than four months, with the previous one occurring on New Year's Eve.
The roar of generators and smell of fumes filled the air as a growing number of Puerto Ricans renewed calls for the government to cancel its contracts with Luma Energy and Genera PR, which oversees the generation of power on the island.
Jenniffer Gonzalez, the governor of Puerto Rico, promised to heed those calls.
Ms Gonzalez, who cut her holiday short and returned to Puerto Rico following Wednesday's blackout, said: "That is not under doubt or question... It is unacceptable that we have failures of this kind."
Ms Gonzalez said a major outage like the one that occurred on Wednesday leads to an estimated daily revenue loss of $230m (£174m).
Ramon C Barquín III, president of the United Retail Center, a non-profit organisation that represents small and medium-sized businesses, warned that ongoing outages would spook potential investors at a time that Puerto Rico urgently needs economic development.
"We cannot continue to repeat this cycle of blackouts without taking concrete measures to strengthen our energy infrastructure," he said.
Many were concerned about Puerto Rico's elderly population, with the mayor of the town of Canovanas deploying brigades to visit the bedridden and those who depend on electronic medical equipment.
Meanwhile, the mayor of Vega Alta municipality opened a centre to provide power to those with lifesaving medical equipment.
Daniel Hernandez, vice president of operations at Genera PR, said on Wednesday that a disturbance hit the transmission system shortly after noon, a time when the grid is vulnerable because there are few machines regulating frequency at that hour.
Puerto Rico has struggled with chronic outages since September 2017 when Hurricane Maria pummelled the island as a powerful Category 4 storm, razing a power grid that crews are still struggling to rebuild.
The grid had already been deteriorating as a result of decades of a lack of maintenance and investment.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
BBC News
7 hours ago
- BBC News
Pickleball cruises to tennis retreats: Why everyone's travelling to hit a ball
With tennis academies, pickleball resorts and Grand Slam getaways booming, racket sports are now at the centre of luxury and lifestyle travel. When Tanya Gonzalez wanted to escape Michigan's winter last year, she didn't book a beach holiday – she booked a tennis trip. Along with a group of girlfriends, she headed south to Saddlebrook Resort in Tampa, Florida, where they got structured court instruction all morning and had time to explore the city in the afternoon. "Having a tennis schedule balanced with time for relaxation and adventure makes the trip even more fulfilling," Gonzalez said. "We're already planning to return next year." She's one of a growing number of travellers building their holidays around racket sports, from padel in the Maldives to pickleball on a cruise ship and tennis retreats in New England. The racket sport boom has been fast and far-reaching, with squash's new Olympic status, padel tournaments featuring Tom Holland and record Grand Slam attendance reflecting a cultural shift. In the US, tennis participation has reached an acme at 23.8 million participants (one in 12 people). Now, the rise of sports-focused getaways – dubbed "sports tripping" – is accelerating. With sports tourism projected to be a $1.8tn industry by 2030, travellers are picking up their racquets and heading out.
Rhyl Journal
a day ago
- Rhyl Journal
I visited Sidoli's in Rhyl and tried its famous ice cream
Located on Wellington Road, the famous old café takes its name from founder Domenico Sidoli, an Italian immigrant who started the business in 1910. Now run by his granddaughter Maria, the shop is like stepping back in time, having retained many of its original features including an old coffee machine. A charming interior, with retro black and white flooring and pink walls, I was reminded of the film Grease - the T-Birds and Pink Ladies would have fit in perfectly. Back in the day, Sidoli's had only served vanilla ice cream before later branching out into other flavours. Now, just vanilla ice cream remains an option, so I went for the classic - a few scoops in a cone (coated in strawberry sauce) - to sate my thirst on a very hot day. Beautifully whippy and smooth, the ice cream was delicious, and with the sun baking Rhyl I had to be quick to not get my handed covered in its sticky cream - an easy task when the ice cream is this good. Sidoli's operates in a busy area of Rhyl, and the business had also run three kiosks on Rhyl promenade before the Second World War. Despite a greater choice of ice cream and dessert shops in Rhyl and the wider world today, something about businesses like Sidoli's just cannot be replicated. Its local, family-based ethos, that special feeling you get when you walk in, and the cafe's history, are all hard to come by. Sidoli's truly is a Rhyl landmark, and represents the best qualities of the town.
Scottish Sun
a day ago
- Scottish Sun
The two big new changes coming to all Ryanair flights this year
One of the new rules could land you with a £75 fine SWITCH UP The two big new changes coming to all Ryanair flights this year RYANAIR is enforcing two major changes for passengers in the next few months. Anyone flying with the airline needs to check both the size of their hand luggage and make sure they've got the correct boarding pass before travelling later this year. Advertisement 4 Ryanair has got new rules for baggage and boarding passes Credit: Alamy 4 The baggage sizes have changed and is expected to roll out from October Credit: Alamy Win one of 8 incredible holidays to the Caribbean, Mexico and Greece by voting in The Sun's Travel Awards - enter to win here In early July, Ryanair announced it would be changing its hand luggage rules. However, this is not necessarily a bad thing for passengers as it means they get a little more room. Ryanair is in the process of changing the size of its personal bag allowance from 40x20x25cm to 40x30x20cm. Advertisement This is an increase of 5cm - and the standard size of personal luggage for most other airlines. It's also changed the overall capacity from 20 litres to 24 litres. A Ryanair spokesperson said: "Following the new EU minimum bag size of 40x30x15cm, Ryanair will increase its max 'personal bag' dimensions to 40x30x20cm, so that Ryanair's 'personal bag' allowance is bigger than the EU standard. "This change will be implemented over the coming weeks, as our airport bag sizers are adjusted." Advertisement If you attempt to board with a bag that doesn't fit into the sizers you are likely to face a fine, or fee to bring it onboard. The Ryanair website details that passengers who bring an oversized bag (over 55x40x20cm) to the boarding gate will either have their bag refused or placed in the hold of the aircraft for a fee of £75. 'It's very important' - Ryanair's 'baggage sizers' warning to Irish passengers ahead of busy Easter break amid €75 fine 4 Passengers will need to have boarding passes on their phone Credit: Alamy As the new sizers are still being rolled out at all airports that the airline flies out from, Ryanair encourages passengers to comply with the old measurements for now. Advertisement This is until it announces the new ones are all in place which is expected to be in October 2025. Another change Ryanair is making from this year is that it's going completely paperless and in some case there will be no check-in desk at all. From November 3, 2025 the airline will no longer accept printed boarding passes. Ryanair CMO Dara Brady said: "This move to 100 per cent paperless boarding passes from November 2025 will allow us to deliver an enhanced travel experience for customers, streamlined through the myRyanair app during our less busy winter schedule. Advertisement "This will be particularly useful to passengers during disruptions as it will facilitate real-time updates from our Ops Centre directly to passengers' phones, and will also provide them with alternative flight options, and offer transfers or hotel accommodation options when necessary." When the new rules are rolled out, passengers will only be able to get a digital boarding pass. And there are no exceptions as check-in desks will not be able to print them out at the airport. However, some airports don't accept mobile passes including those in Morocco and Turkey (except Dalaman), and Tirana airport in Albania. Advertisement Anyone travelling from these airports will need to download their boarding pass from the email confirmation or from the app, print it and keep it to hand. Ryanair spoke to Which? who said that "if someone's phone dies or breaks they will be assisted by staff at the gate and their details will be crossed checked and validated against our flight manifest and they will be boarded as normal." Currently, there's a £55 charge for passengers who forget their boarding pass and need it printed at the airport - but this is set to be scrapped with the new rule. At the moment, there is no mention of what will happen if a traveller's phone dies before they can pass through security in an airport where Ryanair has removed check-in desks. Advertisement This European airport is at risk of closure as Ryanair prepares to scrap all flights. And here's another European airport is losing all of its Ryanair flights this year.
