Nearly all of Puerto Rico without power on New Year’s Eve

(PUERTO RICO) — An island-wide blackout in Puerto Rico Tuesday left millions of residents without power ahead of New Year’s Eve celebrations.

As of Tuesday afternoon, less than 10% of customers on the island had their power restored, according to power company LUMA.

LUMA said the exact cause of the power outage, which began at 5:30 a.m. local time, remains under investigation.

“As part of our coordinated response, our LUMA team is in close communication and collaboration with island officials, including the Governor, Governor-elect, and our Mayors to keep them updated on the status of restoration,” the power company said.

Puerto Rican Gov. Pedro Pierluisi earlier said work was underway to restore the service at energy plants in San Juan and Palo Seco.

The U.S. territory has continued to face a slow rebuild of its infrastructure since Hurricane Maria caused widespread damage to the island in 2017.

In 2020, 1 million customers were without power following back-to-back earthquakes. An explosion and subsequent fire at a substation left 900,000 customers on the island without power in June 2021.

Another massive fire at a major power plant caused a massive outage for about 1.3 million customers in April 2022, followed by Hurricane Fiona in September of that year.

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