Puerto Rico blackout may last up to 36 hours

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico -- An island-wide blackout hit Wednesday as the U.S. territory struggles to repair an increasingly unstable power grid nearly seven months after Hurricane Maria.

Officials said it could take 24 to 36 hours to fully restore power to more than 1.4 million customers as outrage grew across the island about the state of Puerto Rico's Electric Power Authority. It is the second major outage in less than a week, with the previous one affecting some 840,000 customers.

"This is too much," said Luis Oscar Rivera, a 42-year-old computer technician who just got normal power back at his house less than two months ago. "It's like the first day of Maria all over again."

Several large power outages have hit Puerto Rico in recent months, but Wednesday was the first time since the Category 4 storm struck Sept. 20 the U.S. territory has experienced a full island-wide blackout. It snarled traffic across the island, interrupted classes and work and forced dozens of businesses to temporarily close, including the island's largest mall and popular tourist attractions like a 16th-century fort in the historic part of Puerto Rico's capital.

Backup generators roared to life at the island's largest public hospital and at its main international airport, where officials reported no cancellations or delays. Meanwhile, the power company said its own customer service center was out of service and asked people to go online or use the phone.

Power company spokeswoman Yohari Molina told The Associated Press crews were investigating what caused the blackout, saying she had no other details.

Officials said restoring power to hospitals, airports, banking centers and water pumping systems was their priority. Following would be businesses and then homes.

Carmen Yulin Cruz, mayor of the capital of San Juan, said the outage would not interrupt the last of a two-game series between the Cleveland Indians and Minnesota Twins, which is being played on the island. She said all emergency systems at Hiram Bithorn stadium are functioning and tower lights and additional security will be placed at the stadium's parking lot.

Angel Figueroa, president of a union representing power company workers in Puerto Rico, told reporters it appears a failure caused the entire electrical grid to shut down to protect itself. He said the union is investigating why a breaker at a main power station in the island's southern region did not function when the outage occurred. He noted it was the same problem causing a 2016 power outage affecting the entire island.