Island-Wide Blackout Strikes Puerto Rico Ahead of Easter Weekend
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Island-Wide Blackout Hits Puerto Rico Ahead of Easter Weekend
San Juan, Puerto Rico (AP) — A massive blackout swept across Puerto Rico on Wednesday, leaving all 1.4 million customers without power just as the predominantly Catholic island prepared for Easter weekend celebrations.
Hugo Sorrentini, spokesperson for Luma Energy — the company managing transmission and distribution — confirmed to The Associated Press that “the entire island is without generation.” At least 78,000 customers also lost access to water, and full power restoration may take 48 to 72 hours, officials warned.
Hotels, nearly filled with Easter tourists, were plunged into darkness. Major businesses shut down, including the Caribbean’s largest mall. Public transit systems stalled, forcing commuters to walk along rail tracks, and traffic snarled as police were dispatched to direct vehicles at intersections.
Frustration grew quickly. “This is unacceptable,” said Josué Colón, Puerto Rico’s energy chief and former head of the Electric Power Authority. No immediate cause for the outage was identified, though it adds to a long string of grid failures in recent years.
Gov. Jenniffer González, who was traveling, said authorities were “working diligently” to resolve the crisis.
Residents voiced anger and exhaustion. “This is a total disaster,” said 68-year-old Orlando Huertas, sipping a drink at a San Juan bar. Protesters renewed calls to cancel contracts with Luma and Genera PR, the company overseeing power generation.
For many, the outage wasn’t just inconvenient — it was dangerous. Carmen Suriel, a mother of two including a five-year-old with Down syndrome, said, “I’m desperate. My generator is broken.” Others scrambled to buy ice, with thousands still without backup power.
Damage to appliances is common. “They have to improve,” said 69-year-old Alma Ramírez, who had to replace her microwave and TV after previous outages. “The ones who suffer are the poor.”
Roughly 117,000 homes and businesses in Puerto Rico have solar panels, but many can’t afford them. The island still relies heavily on fossil fuels: 62% petroleum, 24% natural gas, 8% coal, and only 7% from renewables, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
Daniel Hernández, Genera PR’s VP of operations, said the blackout began around noon when a disturbance hit the vulnerable transmission system.
The Biden administration had previously supplied mega generators and funding to support the grid’s recovery. But with a new U.S. administration under President Donald Trump, concerns are rising about a slowdown in support.
Acting Governor and Secretary of State Verónica Ferraiuoli said the White House has offered help. Puerto Rico’s congressional representative, Pablo José Hernández, pledged to press Washington to address the island’s energy crisis. “It’s going from bad to worse,” he said.
Puerto Rico’s last full blackout occurred on New Year’s Eve. The island’s fragile grid has struggled since Hurricane Maria devastated it in 2017, exposing years of underinvestment and neglect.
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