Hurricane Ernesto Leaves Over 50% of Puerto Rico in the Dark

(Bloomberg) -- More than 700,000 homes and businesses in Puerto Rico are without electricity in the wake of powerful storm Ernesto, which strengthened into a hurricane after testing the island’s fragile power grid. 

Authorities aren’t able to say when service will be restored to the more than 50% of customers without power. Puerto Rico Governor Pedro Pierluisi said he directed grid manager Luma Energy to move quickly to lower the number of outages. 

“It’s very difficult at this moment to say when we’ll have 100% service because they’re now in the streets surveying what the damage was,” Pierluisi said at a news conference Wednesday morning.

Ernesto was about 225 miles (362 kilometers) northwest of San Juan at 2 p.m. local time, the US National Hurricane Center said in an advisory. Its top winds were 75 miles per hour, making it a Category 1 hurricane on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale. 

Ernesto — the Atlantic’s fifth named storm of 2024 may drop as much as 10 inches (25 centimeters) of rain in parts of the island, according to the center. Flash flood risks continue across portions of Puerto Rico. 

Close to 30 highways were closed due to Ernesto, according to the Department of Transportation and Public Works of Puerto Rico.

Luma Chief Executive Officer Juan Saca said preliminary reports are that damage to parts of the grid was minimal and power plants were unscathed.  

“We will have the response of how much damage there was from the storm after spending time in the streets,” he said at the news conference. There were also 23 hospitals forced to use generators for power. 

President Joe Biden approved an emergency declaration on Tuesday evening, allowing federal assistance to supplement local efforts in the US commonwealth.

Puerto Rico has endured a series of powerful storms in recent years that have repeatedly battered its fragile power grid and disrupted its economy. Hurricane Maria in 2017 killed more than 2,900 people, caused about $90 billion in damage and left many residents without electricity for months. Hurricane Fiona triggered another island-wide blackout in 2022.

The commonwealth’s 3.2 million residents suffer chronic outages even during calm weather because of the power grid’s poor condition. They also pay some of the highest electricity rates in the US. Luma Energy, a US-Canadian consortium, manages the grid and is tasked with modernizing and strengthening the system’s infrastructure, but progress has been slow.

--With assistance from Michelle Kaske, Will Wade, Brian Wingfield, Nacha Cattan and Brian K. Sullivan.

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