An island-wide power outage in Puerto Rico on Tuesday left more than 1 million residents without power ahead of New Year’s Eve celebrations, and workers worked for hours throughout the day to restore light.
Power company LUMA said more than half of its customers were still without power as of Tuesday night, more than 12 hours after residents woke up to the outage.
The utility company said in an update on social media platform
Both San Juan airports and 31 hospitals are operational, the power company said. The company said crews also worked to restore power to major water facilities.
LUMA apologized for the outage in an earlier statement.
“We understand that power outage conditions on days like today are causing deep frustration for customers and families across the country,” the statement said. “We apologize that this incident, which remains under investigation, has affected our plans to say goodbye this year and welcome in the new year.”
The exact cause of the power outage, which began at 5:30 a.m. local time, is still under investigation.
A person rummages through store shelves as Puerto Ricans lose power early on New Year’s Eve in San Juan, Puerto Rico, on December 31, 2024, after a power grid failure knocked out power across much of the island.
Miguel Rodriguez/Reuters
The White House issued a statement Tuesday evening saying President Joe Biden had been briefed on the situation.
“Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm met with the Governor of Puerto Rico and offered to provide any federal assistance necessary to expedite the restoration of power, as directed by the President,” the statement said.
Biden also spoke by phone with Gov. Pedro Pierluisi to talk about the power outages and offer federal assistance, the White House said.
Pierluigi previously said work was underway to restore service at the San Juan and Palo Seco energy plants.
Infrastructure rebuilding has been slow in the U.S. territory since Hurricane Maria caused widespread damage on the island in 2017.
Homes and hotels stand in the dark in San Juan, Puerto Rico, on December 31, 2024, after a massive power outage in the region.
Ricardo Arduengo/AFP via Getty Images
In 2020, a series of earthquakes knocked out power to 1 million customers. An explosion and subsequent fire at a power substation knocked out power to 900,000 customers on the island in June 2021.
Another large-scale fire at a major power plant occurred in April 2022, causing widespread power outages to approximately 1.3 million customers, followed by Hurricane Fiona in September of the same year.
