Puerto Rico struggles to emerge from outage

SAN JUAN, PUERTO RICO » Shuttered businesses. Sleepless nights. Canceled classes. Hundreds of thousands of people across Puerto Rico remained without power on Friday, nearly two days after a fire at a main power plant sparked an island-wide outage.

Crews have restored power to some 650,000 customers out of nearly 1.5 million, but people in several neighborhoods have complained that the electricity went out once again as the island struggles to emerge from the blackout that also left more than 160,000 clients without water.

The outage forced the government to cancel classes and shutter agencies for the second day in a row on this U.S. territory of 3.2 million people as frustration and anger bubbled over.

“This is unbearable,” said Maribel Hernández, 49, as she wiped her forehead with a small blue washcloth that she hung over her left shoulder.

Hernández, who is recovering from cancer, has been sleeping on the concrete floor in her home’s narrow outdoor patio with only a sheet because her mattress doesn’t fit there. She worries about being mugged because she lives in a working-class neighborhood with a high crime rate, but the heat inside her house is overwhelming.

“Those who have generators are doing well, but what about people like us?” she said, adding that she’s been forced to throw out all her food.

Officials with Luma, which took over transmission and distribution from Puerto Rico’s Electric Power company last year, have said they don’t know exactly when power would be fully restored but note crews have been working nonstop.

“The system is extremely fragile,” said Shay Bahramirad, an engineering vice president with Luma.

Hours later, dozens of angry protesters marched in front of the company’s headquarters, throwing eggs at the front door.