New Year's Eve blackout in Puerto Rico hits home for one Long Island family visiting the island

A blackout on New Year’s Eve in Puerto Rico knocked out power in most of the U.S. territory, which has experienced numerous power outages since Hurricane Maria struck the island in 2017.

The blackout on Tuesday plunged more than 1.3 million people on the Caribbean island into darkness. Officials said restoring power could take up to two days.

Luma Energy, a company supervising electricity transmission and distribution on the island since 2021, said it is working to bring back power after an apparent malfunction of an underground power line knocked it out. A company spokesperson told The Associated Press that the outage was being investigated.

Still, the New Year’s Eve outage and long-standing issues with the power grid have caused frustration among some living in Puerto Rico and beyond.

"We can't keep relying on an energy system that fails our people," Governor-elect Jenniffer González Colón said. Improving the energy grid, she said, is her top priority when she takes office on Thursday.

Imro  Rooi, 54, of Farmingville, who is staying with his wife’s family in the eastern Puerto Rican town of Gurabo, said they woke up to no electricity on Tuesday morning. The family arrived on Dec. 20 to celebrate the Christmas holidays and will return to Long Island on New Year's Day.

After a cloudy morning, power was restored to the house they are staying in — which has solar panels — when the sun came out in the afternoon. Solar panels account for less than 10% of electricity use on the island.

As the family drove to the beach on Tuesday morning, they noticed long lines of people at gas stations. Most of Puerto Rico's energy is generated from petroleum.

Some traffic lights are not working, Rooi said, causing congestion at intersections.

"You really got to be careful," he said.

After Hurricane Maria devastated the island and its power grid in 2017, Merrick resident Marc Soto went to Puerto Rico to volunteer at a hospital for a week. Today, he says it is frustrating to see the island still having power issues. 

"It pains my heart to see the island still suffering with this electrical grid problem that they have had for many years," he said.

He’s hearing that people on the island who have generators are using them to keep food fresh, he said. But those who don’t have generators are "just making do" with battery-operated flashlights and other items.

Soto, who plans to visit the island for his 60th birthday in a few weeks, hopes the power will be restored when he returns. If that's not the case, he will go but also assist the island's residents, Soto said.

"The people of Puerto Rico are very faithful and resilient, and they are amazing spirits, and they will get through this because they are fighters," he said.

Puerto Rico has struggled with its electric grid for years, reeling from insufficient investment and upkeep. The hurricane-damaged power grid has only recently started receiving permanent fixes.

Currently, the Federal Emergency Management Agency provides the territory with a generator to help preserve the power grid.

Last month, Puerto Rico requested permission from the United States to continue using more than a dozen generators for two more years.

With The Associated Press.