"SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico - About half of all homes and businesses on Puerto Rico were without power on Wednesday as Hurricane Ernesto churned north into the warm waters of the Atlantic after dumping torrential rain on the U.S. territory.
More than 725,000 homes and businesses on the island were without electric service out of a total of about 1.5 million customers, according to LUMA Energy, the Caribbean island's main power supplier.
Juan Saca, LUMA's president and chief executive, said he was unable to specify the extent of the damage to the system or how much time it would take to restore power. He said more than 1,500 Saca employees were working in the field.
"We are on the road to reestablish service," Saca said. "We have to evaluate what needs to be done to be able to resolve it."
Puerto Rico's power grid is notoriously fragile. In 2022, Hurricane Fiona knocked out power for about 80% of the island's homes and businesses for as long as a month. Five years earlier, Hurricanes Irma and Maria destroyed the island's power grid and caused outages in some areas that lasted nearly a year."
Ivelisse Rivera and Liya Cui report for Reuters August 14, 2024.
SEE ALSO:
"Hurricane Ernesto Targets Bermuda, Then Could Brush Atlantic Canada" (Weather Channel)
https://weather.com/storms/hurricane/news/2024-08-14-hurricane-ernesto-f...
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