“New Year’s Eve Nightmare: Puerto Rico Dances in Darkness”

Puerto Rico was cast into darkness early on Tuesday due to a nearly island-wide blackout.

The reason behind the blackout is being examined, but initial reports indicated a malfunction in an underground line, according to Luma Energy, the primary electricity distributor on the island. Complete restoration of service may require 24 to 48 hours, the company stated on X.

As of approximately 10:00 local time (14:00 GMT), only 13% of the island’s 1.4 million clients had electricity, reported the New York Times.

An hour later, electricity had been restored to several regions, including San Juan’s municipal medical facility, according to Luma.

The New Year’s Eve blackout led to renewed demands from elected officials and residents to tackle the US territory’s enduring power challenges, which have persisted since Hurricane Maria in 2017.

The island can no longer endure an energy system that frequently fails its population, stated Jenniffer González-Colon, Puerto Rico’s current US congressional representative and the incoming governor, on X.

Puerto Rico’s economy and quality of life continue to be hampered by blackouts, she noted.

On Facebook, the current governor, Pedro Pierluisi, demanded explanations and solutions from the two primary power firms, Luma and Genera.

This year, power outages have impacted hundreds of thousands of residents simultaneously. A June outage left around 350,000 customers in the dark as temperatures soared, and after Hurricane Ernesto in August, more than 700,000 clients lost electricity.

As they woke to another day without power, Puerto Ricans conveyed their frustration to US media.

“They are a part of my daily existence,” Enid Núñez, 49, expressed to the Associated Press regarding the outages.

Even prior to Hurricane Maria wreaking havoc, Puerto Rico’s power grid was under stress. US government funding has aided in reinforcing the grid, supporting recovery initiatives from various natural disasters, and facilitating other essential infrastructure enhancements.

However, the execution has been incomplete due to multiple factors, including difficulties commencing construction and the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s stipulations for authorising the use of some funds, as detailed in a February 2024 report from the US Government Accountability Office.

“Inexcusably, the power grid has yet to recover from the damage caused by Hurricane Maria,” Mark Levine, Manhattan’s borough president in New York City, remarked on X.

New York City hosts the largest Puerto Rican community in mainland US.

“These are 3.5 million American citizens,” he added. “They deserve so much better.”