Most of Puerto Rico still in the dark amid massive blackout ahead of Easter holiday
Most of Puerto Rico still in the dark amid massive blackout ahead of Easter holiday
Crews have begun restoring power amid an island-wide blackout in Puerto Rico, with almost 16% of customers back up and running the morning of April 17.
The blackout started at about 12:40 p.m. on April 16, when the Puerto Rico Governor's Office said a failure in the transmission of the electrical system plunged 1.4 million customers into darkness. Puerto Rico is frequently plagued by power outages, with the most recent island-wide event on New Year's Eve taking days to resolve.
Gov. Jenniffer González-Colón called the transmission issue "unacceptable."
It could take between 48 and 72 hours for power to be restored to about 90% of customers this time, according to Luma Energy, the private company that operates power transmission and distribution. By the morning of April 17, about 231,500 customers had their power restored, the company said.
Contributing: Thao Nguyen, USA TODAY; Reuters
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