Due to the power outage in Puerto Rico, hundreds of thousands of people were left without electricity and water. While some areas have electricity restored, most places continue to experience outages. The power outages that began on Wednesday afternoon in Puerto Rico in the Caribbean, continue to affect the entire island. The island plunged into darkness due to the outages, affecting the international airport, numerous hospitals, and hotels full of Easter holiday travelers.

According to CBS News, approximately 1.4 million subscribers were left without electricity and 328,000 subscribers were left without water in Puerto Rico, which has a population of about 3 million. Approximately 175,000 subscribers were reported to have power restored before the end of the day yesterday. Authorities announced that 90% of the power outages are expected to be resolved within 48 to 72 hours after the outage.

Governor Jenniffer González, who spoke about the events in Puerto Rico, said, “Experiencing a problem of this scale is shameful for the people of Puerto Rico.” This is the second island-wide power outage in Puerto Rico in the last four months. Traffic was disrupted due to the outages, and hundreds of businesses remained closed without being able to operate.

A Puerto Rican named José Luis Richardson asked, “Why does this happen during holidays?” While the power outage continues, Puerto Ricans demanded the termination of contracts with Luma Energy and Genera PR companies responsible for electricity production and distribution. Governor González said they would take these calls into consideration without any doubt.

According to González, a power outage of this magnitude costs Puerto Rico an estimated $230 million per day. Ramón C. Barquín III, President of the United Retail Center representing SMEs, warned that ongoing outages could deter potential investors at a time when Puerto Rico urgently needs economic development.

The outage also raised concerns about the situation of the elderly. The Mayor of Canóvanas assigned teams to assist bedridden individuals and those dependent on electronic medical devices. The Mayor of Vega Alta also opened a center to provide electricity to individuals dependent on such devices. The cause of the power outages is still under investigation.