More than 45% of Puerto Rico is without electricity this Sunday due to Hurricane Fiona, whose strong winds and heavy rains are already felt on the island.
The blackout affects more than 665,000 customers out of a total of 1.4 million, according to data from the portal of the company Luma Energy, in charge of the transmission and distribution of electricity.
The most affected regions are Caguas, in the south of the metropolitan area, with 64% of customers without electricity; and Carolina, neighboring San Juan, with 55%, followed by Bayamón, where 52% is in the dark.
Puerto Rico’s power grid is very fragile, especially since Hurricane Maria, which devastated the island exactly five years ago and wiped out all of its power lines, leaving much of the population in the dark for months.
“Our Incident Command team monitors weather conditions, dispatches crews, and manages our operations and communications, all with the goal of restoring service to our customers as quickly and safely as possible,” LUMA said in its account. Twitter official.
Luma already warned the day before that “significant” and even “large-scale” service interruptions are expected due to the rains and winds associated with the hurricane.
The company also confirmed today in a statement that Quanta, one of its parent companies, has been working “hand in hand” in monitoring conditions in Puerto Rico in the wake of Fiona in order to support recovery efforts.
Duke Austin, president and chief executive officer of Quanta, announced that the company’s resources are at Luma’s disposal and indicated that, if necessary, it will be able to add more than 5,000 specialized workers to the local team to restore energy after the impacts of the storm. storm.
Fiona is a category 1 hurricane, out of a total of 5 on the Saffir-Simpson scale, with maximum sustained winds of 130 kilometers per hour (80 miles), according to the US National Hurricane Center (NHC, in English). ).
The hurricane has caused the cancellation of all flights from the island’s airports, including the international Luis Muñoz Marín, while the seaports have been closed since yesterday and until further notice.
Torrential rains, mudslides, storm surge and rip currents are expected, for which the island’s governor, Pedro Pierluisi, declared a state of emergency.
Pierluisi also asked Washington yesterday to declare a federal state of emergency, something that was approved this Sunday by the president of the United States, Joe Biden.
