Advertisement

More than 800K people still without power in Puerto Rico

April 8 (UPI) -- More than 800,000 people were still without power in Puerto Rico on Friday after a fire caused a massive blackout in the United States territory.

Millions of people were left without power Wednesday after a fire at Costa Sur, one of the island's four main power plants, according to the company LUMA Energy.

Advertisement

The firm took control of the transmission and distribution of electricity from the territory's bankrupt power authority last year.

"Our LUMA teams continue to work together with [the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority] to respond to the massive blackout in all the island. Power restoration activities are still underway," LUMA said in a press release.

"At this time, the cause exact reason for the interruption is still being investigated. Given the size and scope of the outage, we are working hard to restore power as quickly and safely as possible."

LUMA said that work would be needed through Saturday in order to finish restoring power to the island but that more than 760,000 customers had regained power as of Friday evening. The company said that there did not appear to be any damage to power lines.

Advertisement

Josué Colón, executive director of PREPA, said during a press conference that workers had reconnected power in at least five power plants but that two of the four largest plants, Costa Sur and EcoEléctrica, remain without power.

Gov. Pedro Pierluisi said in a statement to Twitter on Thursday that about 100,000 customers were without water and sewage because of the blackout.

Schools were closed on Friday for students after the blackout, the Department of Education said in a statement.

Power also temporarily went out in the intensive care unit at Mayagüez Medical Center but was eventually restored, Puerto Rico Health Secretary Carlos Mellado López said on Twitter.

Latest Headlines