'Woke up to the AC off.' Puerto Rico's massive power outage slowly restored to 98%
Leo Cedeno, who splits his time between Connecticut and P.R., says the impact for him isn't as devastating as those permanently residing on the island, so he understands the anger behind bringing in the new year with a failed power grid.
Nearly all of Puerto Rico has power once again, after some areas of the island rung in the New Year in the dark amid a massive blackout.
Leo Cedeno, of Stratford, was among the 1.3 million people in Puerto Rico who woke up to no power on New Year's Eve.
"We have a generator, and I wanted to hook it up, at least, to the fridge," said Cedeno.
Cedeno, who splits his time between Connecticut and P.R., says the impact for him isn't as devastating as those permanently residing on the island, so he understands the anger behind bringing in the new year with a failed power grid.
"Going into the new year is frustrating. Especially being that it has happened a few times where the power has just gone out and honestly I don't know why the power even went out this time, sometimes it's due to storms but not this time," said Cedeno.
Puerto Ricans have been experiencing a failed power grid since Hurricane Maria in 2017, leaving residents frustrated at the collapsing infrastructure.
Since then, the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency has awarded $9.9 billion for permanent projects to repair damage caused by Hurricane Maria.
LUMA Energy, a power company responsible for power distribution and transmission on the island, said it would take up to 48 hours to reach full restoration. In 24 hours about 98% of power has been restored to customers.
The cause is still being investigated but the energy company says the issue appears to be tied to an underground line.
