A massive blackout has left nearly 1 million residents in Puerto Rico without power for a second day in a row.
About 60% of all power customers remain in the dark as of Friday morning after a fire at a power plant shut down the island’s fragile electrical grid, according to NBC News.
“We hope that at some point tonight, we will be able to have 1 million customers back online. This is subject to safety — for the system, for the employees and for the community,” Kevin Acevedo, vice president of LUMA Energy, Puerto Rico’s power grid operator, told CNN.
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In the meantime, more than 800,000 homes and businesses remain without power, shuttering schools and businesses for Puerto Rico’s 2.8 million residents.
Puerto Rico, a U.S. territory, suffered a total power blackout for a period on Wednesday night when a fire broke out at the Costa Sur power plant, one of the four main plants on the island, and workers have struggled to turn the lights back on since.
Power has returned to more than 600,000 customers since Wednesday, LUMA reported.
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Puerto Rico’s power grid has been crippled in recent years, suffering several major outages from hurricanes and other tropical storms that battered the island. The Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority has nearly $9 million in debt, the largest of any U.S. public corporation, NBC News reported.
