LEILA FADEL, HOST:
In Puerto Rico, at least half of the U.S. territory is starting the new year in the dark.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
A collapse of the power grid left nearly all the island without electricity yesterday, the latest outage since Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico in 2017.
FADEL: Alex Figueroa is on the line. He's a reporter for El Nuevo Dia in San Juan. Hi, Alex.
ALEX FIGUEROA: Hi. Good morning. Happy New Year.
FADEL: Good morning. Happy New Year. So Puerto Rico - how did it look and sound on New Year's after a day without power?
FIGUEROA: Well, people woke up in shock yesterday. And that humming from the power generators across towns was a terrible flashback from New Year's celebration 2017, after the hurricane. But partial outages have been a plague for years now. But it's been a while since there was a total blackout without a natural disaster. And it happened in a day when people were preparing for their celebrations at home and elsewhere. So many had to make adjustments, together with loved ones, to receive the new year.
FADEL: Now, you mentioned the hurricane, Hurricane Maria, that happened more than seven years ago. How - what do we know about what caused the blackout here?
FIGUEROA: Well, LUMA Energy, which is the company in charge of the power lines in Puerto Rico, said in a statement that there was some kind of failure on a major underground cable that carries energy out of one of the principal power plants located in the south coast of the island. At this point, LUMA has not said what caused that damage. Last night, it said that the investigation was ongoing. All we know is that when the plant was not able to send energy out, it protected itself by shutting down. That's supposed to happen. But what we haven't seen in a long time is that without the major disasters going on, all the other power plants went down also in a chain reaction.
FADEL: Now, the hurricane happened more than seven years ago, but infrastructure has struggled since. Why is the island's infrastructure still so shaky that the failure of a cable can plunge nearly everyone into darkness like that?
FIGUEROA: Yeah. That's something that almost everybody here still can't understand. There was a time that other countries in this region studied our grid because it was ahead of its time. But for decades, it didn't receive the maintenance properly, and important upgrades were not made. At the same time, the government agency that was in charge of the grid for decades went into a $9 billion debt. That is right now in court. Plus, many of the restoration projects with money from FEMA after Maria are still waiting to start.
FADEL: And when's the power expected to come back on?
FIGUEROA: The power has been coming back gradually. The latest update we received was that 77% of the 1.4 million clients are back on service. But according to LUMA, a full restoration will take from 24 to 48 hours because of the time.
FADEL: And really quickly, I mean, Puerto Ricans have been through these types of outages before. Were residents prepared? Are they prepared?
FIGUEROA: Many have - there's an increasing sector of the population that have been gearing up. But there are a lot of people, especially elderly, that doesn't have the resources.
FADEL: Alex Figueroa reports for El Nuevo Dia. Thank you so much, Alex.
FIGUEROA: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
