{"id":3983,"date":"2025-04-17T09:38:21","date_gmt":"2025-04-17T09:38:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nationalgunowner.org\/index.php\/2025\/04\/17\/most-of-puerto-rico-still-without-power-after-island-wide-pre-easter-blackout\/"},"modified":"2025-04-17T09:38:22","modified_gmt":"2025-04-17T09:38:22","slug":"most-of-puerto-rico-still-without-power-after-island-wide-pre-easter-blackout","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nationalgunowner.org\/index.php\/2025\/04\/17\/most-of-puerto-rico-still-without-power-after-island-wide-pre-easter-blackout\/","title":{"rendered":"Most of Puerto Rico still without power after island-wide pre-Easter blackout"},"content":{"rendered":"
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San Juan, Puerto Rico<\/em> \u2014Crews worked early Thursday to restore power to Puerto Rico after a blackout across the entire island that affected the main international airport, several hospitals and hotels filled with Easter vacationers<\/p>\n

The outage that began midday Wednesday left 1.4 million customers without electricity and 328,000 without water.<\/p>\n

At least 175,000 customers, or 12%, had power back at the end of the day. Officials expected 90% of customers to have power back within 48 to 72 hours after the outage.<\/p>\n

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Cars drive along the Ramon Baldorioty de Castro highway affected by a massive blackout across all of Puerto Rico April 16, 2025 in San Juan, Puerto Rico.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Jose Jimenez \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n

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“This is a shame for the people of Puerto Rico that we have a problem of this magnitude,” said Gov. Jenniffer Gonz\u00e1lez, who cut her weeklong vacation short and returned to Puerto Rico Wednesday evening. <\/p>\n

The blackout snarled traffic, forced hundreds of businesses to close and left those unable to afford generators scrambling to buy ice and candles. <\/p>\n

It’s the second island-wide blackout to hit Puerto Rico in less than four months, with the previous one occurring on New Year’s Eve<\/a><\/span>. <\/p>\n

“Why on holidays?” griped Jos\u00e9 Luis Richardson, who didn’t have a generator and kept cool by splashing water on himself every couple of hours.<\/p>\n

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People have dinner at a San Juan restaurant during a massive power blackout that affected the entire island of Puerto Rico n April 16, 2025.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Jose Jimenez \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n

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Outrage over outages grows \u00a0<\/h2>\n

The roar of generators and smell of fumes filled the air as a growing number of Puerto Ricans renewed calls for the government to cancel the contracts with Luma Energy<\/a><\/span>, which oversees the transmission and distribution of power, and Genera PR, which oversees generation. <\/p>\n

Gonz\u00e1lez promised to heed those calls. <\/p>\n

“That is not under doubt or question,” she said, but added that it’s not a quick process. “It is unacceptable that we have failures of this kind.” <\/p>\n

Gonz\u00e1lez said a major outage like the one that occurred Wednesday leads to an estimated $230 million revenue loss daily. <\/p>\n

Ram\u00f3n C. Barqu\u00edn III, president of the United Retail Center, a nonprofit that represents small- and medium-sized businesses, warned that ongoing outages would spook potential investors at a time that Puerto Rico urgently needs economic development. <\/p>\n

“We cannot continue to repeat this cycle of blackouts without taking concrete measures to strengthen our energy infrastructure,” he said. <\/p>\n

Many also were concerned about Puerto Rico’s elderly population, with the mayor of Can\u00f3vanas deploying brigades to visit the bedridden and those who depend on electronic medical equipment. <\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the mayor of Vega Alta opened a center to provide power to those with lifesaving medical equipment.<\/p>\n

Cause of latest blackout being investigated \u00a0<\/h2>\n

It wasn’t immediately clear what caused the shutdown, the latest in a string of major blackouts on the island in recent years. <\/p>\n

Daniel Hern\u00e1ndez, vice president of operations at Genera PR, said Wednesday that a disturbance hit the transmission system shortly after noon, a time when the grid is vulnerable because there are few machines regulating frequency at that hour. <\/p>\n

The island’s grid has been deteriorating as a result of decades of a lack of maintenance and investment.<\/p>\n

Puerto Rico has struggled with chronic outages since September 2017\u00a0when Hurricane Maria pummeled the island<\/a><\/span>\u00a0as a powerful Category 4 storm, razing a power grid that crews are still struggling to rebuild. As the island was just starting to rebuild, it was hit hard again by\u00a0Hurricane Fiona in 2022<\/a><\/span>.<\/p>\n

The island of 3.2 million residents has a more than 40% poverty rate, and not everyone can afford solar panels or generators. While there was a push to use more renewable energy sources under the administration of former U.S. President Joe Biden, which\u00a0provided Puerto Rico with mega generators<\/a>\u00a0and other resources, experts worry that won’t happen under U.S. President Donald Trump.<\/p>\n

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