Puerto Rico Gets the Lights Turned Back on

Power restored for 98.8% of residents after an island-wide blackout on Wednesday
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Apr 18, 2025 7:55 AM CDT
Lights Come Back on in Puerto Rico
Nurys Perez moves a generator into place to power her beauty salon during a blackout in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Thursday, April 17, 2025.   (AP Photo/Alejandro Granadillo)

Power was restored to 98.8% of customers early Friday after an island-wide blackout hit Puerto earlier this week, authorities said. More than 1.45 million customers had electricity less than 48 hours after the outage hit, according to Luma Energy, which oversees the transmission and distribution of power on the island. "Although restoration is nearing completion, some customers may continue to experience temporary outages due to limited generation," Luma said.

The blackout that hit Wednesday afternoon occurred after a transmission line failed and then caused generators across the island to protectively shut down, reports the AP. It also left more than 400,000 customers without water at the time. It wasn't immediately clear what caused the failure, although authorities are investigating whether a series of breakers failed or if overgrown vegetation is to blame. Gov. Jenniffer González said she expected to receive a preliminary report in upcoming days. It's the second massive blackout to hit Puerto Rico in less than four months.

(More Puerto Rico stories.)

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