(17 Apr 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
San Juan, Puerto Rico – 16 April 2025
++NIGHT SHOTS++
1. Various of pedestrians walking through a dimly lit street during power outage
2. People dining by candlelight
3. Cars lined up at a gas station
4. Petrol station personnel filling red fuel containers
++DAY SHOTS++
5. Building with a generator sitting in front, cars passing
6. Man filling up generator with petrol
ASSOCIATED PRESS
San Juan, Puerto Rico – 17 April 2025
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Danica Coto, Associated Press:
"A massive blackout hit Puerto Rico on Wednesday afternoon. More than 1.4 million clients, the island’s entirety, were left without power, and more than 400,000 others were left without water. Traffic became snarled, traffic lights went dark, air conditioners stopped humming, and people wondered again, because the last time there was a massive blackout was just less than 5 months ago on New Year’s Eve."
8. Hairdresser cutting hair, small power generator in background
9. Man working power generator
10. Passengers waiting for train
11. Security guard in train station
12. SOUNDBITE (English) Danica Coto, Associated Press:
"A growing number of Puerto Ricans have called on governor Jennifer Gonzalez to cancel the contracts of Luma Energy, which oversees transmission and distribution on the island and of Genera PR, which oversees generation. They say that the chronic power outages are too much and that they can’t continue to live like this. The governor has promised to cancel those contracts, but she said the process is long and that it is still ongoing."
13. Various of train arriving after it restarted service
14. Stranded train during inspection after power outage
15. Men playing dominoes in park
16. SOUNDBITE (English) Danica Coto, Associated Press:
"The massive blackout revealed the frailties of Puerto Rico’s power grid. It had been previously battered by Hurricane Maria, which struck the island on September 20th, 2017 as a powerful Category 4 storm. But the grid at that point was already crumbling because of decades of a lack of investments and maintenance under Puerto Rico’s Electric Power Authority. Crews are still making permanent repairs to the grid, and chronic power outages remain constant. The governor has promised to select a company before summer that would provide 800 megawatts of power. Officials have already warned there’s not sufficient generation for summer."
17. Man washing car in street
18. Woman buying fruits from street stall
19. Man selling fish from truck
STORYLINE:
Crews scrambled to restore power to Puerto Rico on Thursday after a blackout hit the entire island, affecting the main international airport, hospitals and hotels filled with Easter vacationers.
The outage that began past noon Wednesday left 1.4 million customers without electricity and more than 400,000 without water.
More than 850,000 customers, or 58%, had power back by Thursday afternoon, while 89% of customers had water restored.
Officials expected 90% of customers to have power back within 48 to 72 hours after the outage.
Some areas in San Juan recovered electricity on Thursday and the city’s train restarted its service after passengers were left stranded.
“This is a shame for the people of Puerto Rico that we have a problem of this magnitude,” said Gov. Jenniffer González, who cut her weeklong vacation short and returned to Puerto Rico on Wednesday evening.
“There’s still a long road of recovery,” she said. “Our system is very fragile.”
González promised to heed those calls.
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