Puerto Rico’s power grid collapses, leaving the island in darkness

(Reuters) – Puerto Rico woke up in darkness on Tuesday morning after a power outage left almost the entire island without electricity.

About 90% of customers were without power at 9:30 (1330 GMT), according to energy distribution company Luma Energy’s real-time portal.

It will likely take 24 to 48 hours to turn the lights back on “if conditions permit,” Luma said in a statement.

“While the cause of the outage is under investigation, preliminary results point to a fault in an underground line,” Luma added.

Ivan Baez, a spokesman for power generator Genera, called the grid failure a “major incident” in a local radio interview.

He said the line believed to have failed was operated by Luma and brought down plants belonging to Genera as well as private generators.

Genera’s website showed two plants that started up again at 9:30 a.m. on US territory.

Puerto Rico has long dealt with chronic power outages as its infrastructure crumbles. It was hit hard by Hurricane Maria, a Category 4 storm, in 2017.

(Reporting by Ivelisse Rivera and Kylie Madry; Editing by Kirsten Donovan and Sharon Singleton)