Puerto Rico faces second night without electricity

Associated Press

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico

Most Puerto Ricans faced another night of darkness Thursday as crews slowly restored electricity a day after a fire at a power plant caused the aging utility grid to fail and blacked out the entire island of 3.5 million people.

Only about 20 percent of the 1.5 million homes and businesses served by the power utility had power back by Thursday afternoon, and Gov. Alejandro Garcia Padilla said they hoped half would be reconnected by the end of the day. Nearly all of the rest were expected to get electricity again today, said Garcia, who declared a state of emergency.

Garcia expressed sympathy for people’s frustrations over the outage, which comes amid a decade-long economic crunch that has worn down Puerto Ricans.

“We all want the system to be back online,” the governor said. “Let’s hold someone responsible for this. Blame me. I’ll take the blame.”

The power company posted a tweet expressing annoyance over people cursing at its workers, saying such behavior wasn’t justified.

Most Puerto Ricans don’t have generators, and the many still without power faced another night in darkness and with no air conditioning in the tropical heat.