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blackout

Puerto Rico Plunged Into Darkness by Island-Wide Power Outage

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A significant failure in Puerto Rico’s power grid has resulted in a widespread blackout throughout the island. The incident has left 1.4 million users without power on New Year’s Eve.

The blackout began on Tuesday morning at 5:30 a.m. Luma Energy, the Canadian-American power company primarily tasked with energy distribution on the island, is collaborating with Genera and other suppliers to repair the system. The company shared on X that it anticipates the complete restoration process will require one to two days.

“While the cause of the outage is under investigation, preliminary findings point to a fault on an underground line. The cause of the fault remains under investigation. LUMA crews responded immediately and have begun their process to restore power to customers as quickly and safely as possible. LUMA will restore power to customers in phases. We have already begun the process of restoring some customers, and the entire process will take between 24 and 48 hours, conditions permitting. LUMA will provide regular updates on the restoration via its social media channels every two hours.”

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Governor Pedro Pierluisi also shared on his X account that repairs were being carried out. “We can report that work is already underway to restore service with the San Juan and Palo Seco plants,” Gov. Pierluisi said.

“We are demanding answers and solutions from both Luma and Genera, who must expedite the restart of the generating units outside the fault area and keep the people duly informed about the measures they are taking to restore service throughout the Island.”

The recent outage marks yet another instance of Puerto Rico’s unreliable power infrastructure failing on a large scale. On Tuesday morning, just 13% of Puerto Rico’s utility customers had power.

Island residents have become accustomed to frequent power outages, a consequence of their dependence on a fragile and inadequately maintained power grid. One resident shared her frustrations with The New York Times, stating, “People are so used to this already that we’ve gotten used to mediocrity.”

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The aftermath of Hurricane Maria in 2017 saw the grid’s subsequent failure lead to prolonged power outages for hundreds of thousands of individuals, with many enduring these disruptions for months on end. The outage in the wake of the hurricane has been characterized as the most significant blackout in US history, based on the total hours of electricity that were lost.

In June this year, a significant blackout affected 350,000 residents, while August brought further disruption as Hurricane Ernesto caused power outages for 70,000 individuals.

The US Federal Emergency Management Agency has allocated $9.9 billion for permanent projects aimed at repairing the damage inflicted by Hurricane María. LUMA Energy assumed control of the grid in 2021, succeeding the government-owned Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority, referred to as PREPA. Genra PR has taken the helm of energy production, commencing its operations in 2023.

Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport, recognized as the busiest airport in Puerto Rico, said in a statement that it is “operating normally thanks to electric generators.” An official at the administrator’s office of the Caribbean Medical Center in Fajardo, P.R., confirmed to The New York Times that the facility is functioning as usual, supported by four generators.

Fireworks

Sydney’s New Year’s Eve Fireworks Will Go On Despite Bushfire Concerns

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Sydney, Australia is known for its annual New Year’s Eve fireworks display. However, this year over a quarter of a million people have signed a petition to cancel the show in response to the massive wild/bush fires that have been affecting the area recently. The petition was made through Change.org and currently has just over 276,000 signatures with a goal of 300,000. In the description the petition states that the funds that would typically be spent on the extravagant display should be redistributed in order to help with recovery efforts from the devastating fires, as well as preventative measures for the future. 

“I’ve been moved by the outpouring of support and care for the community but the event will continue as planned. Our fireworks are planned 15 months in advance and most of the budget — which is largely allocated to crowd safety and cleaning measures — has already been spent.” Sydney’s Lord Mayor Clover Moore said in a statement. 

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It’s likely that with this statement from the mayor and with there only being one day until New Year’s Eve, the fireworks show will still go on, however, the message Australia’s citizens are attempting to spread should still be heard, so their fight is continuing. Sydney is the capital of New South Wales (NSW), where a majority of these fires have been taking place. 

Linda McCormich is the NSW resident who started the online petition and is leading the fight against the display. She wants the money to go to “farmers and firefighters to save Australia’s wildlife. The fireworks could traumatise some people as there is enough smoke in the air.” Additionally, the petition states that in 2018, Sydney spent close to $5.8 million on the display alone, which McCormich and her supporters believe would be more than enough to rebuild and refurbish some of the major damage done across the country. 

Within the past two months NSW has lost over 900 homes and an estimated 10 individuals to the devastating bushfires, according the the NSW Fire Services. The fires have also sent Australia as a whole into one of the driest and most vast droughts of the decade, with an average daily maximum of 107 degrees fahrenheit. The fires have been so tragic that the Australian capital Canberra has cancelled all future fireworks displays and enforced a total fire ban, a political move that also worked as a motivator for this particular petition. 

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“(Canceling) the event would seriously hurt Sydney businesses. It would also ruin plans for tens of thousands of people from across the country and overseas who have booked flights, hotels and restaurants for New Year’s Eve. $433,000 has already been donated to support communities and wildlife impacted by bushfire and drought, and offered our trucks and staff to help emergency services with cleanup and recovery efforts. The display will also be greener this year using fireworks that are carbon offset,” said organizers from the City Council of Sydney in a statement. 

New South Wales has also made a public statement that all Rural Fire Service volunteers are being paid a maximum of $6,000 each for their extreme relief efforts. A majority of firefighters in the country have still yet to be paid for their bush-fire work, due to the frequent occurrences of them, and damages done in general.

While efforts to cancel the display have been strong, council members stated that the amount of money local businesses earn during the New Year’s Eve rush is imperative to the survival of most of them. In addition, hundreds of thousands of people make commitments to come to Sydney specifically for New Year’s, and they book the trips so far in advance, cancelling now would cause complete chaos around the world. So while the 275,000+ individuals will be disappointed, city council members as well as environmentalists are still working together to rebuild and recover from an otherwise devastating year.

 

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The Best And Worst Days To Travel This Holiday Season

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As Christmas and New Years get closer and closer, millions of Americans are gearing up and already preparing for their holiday commutes this year. Whether or not you already have a plane, train, or bus ticket purchased there’s always room to improve upon your travelling plans. Every year it seems as if more and more Americans decide to gear up and make the holiday commute to spend their days with family and friends. So when is the best time to actually hit the road and make your way to grandma’s house? 

Airlines for America (A4A) is an industry trade group for all major airlines and they recently released their reports for what to expect during holiday travel this year. The reports list all the best days during the holidays to make your commute, and when the worst time to travel is. Surprisingly, the data shows that Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and New Years Eve will be the lightest travel days this year. This means there’s likely to be much less foot and regular traffic amongst the roads and air terminals on these days. This data is compiled by using the results from the A4A reports of the past few holiday seasons. Most travelers are already at their destination by actual Christmas Day, however, if you can manage to hold off and wait, and are in a situation where you’re not going very far, definitely hold off if you’re dreading your commute this year. 

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The same logic goes towards New Years, by the actual eve of the day, most individuals are either already at their destination from Christmas, or are heading somewhere local for the day, so for the most part the roads and skies remain clear. However, “clear” during the holiday season, really just means that public transportation will look like it does on an average day more so than a holiday. A4A is predicting that a total of 47.5 million Americans will fly round trip this year during the 18 day holiday travel period. This period of time goes from Thursday, December 19th to Sunday January 5th, and those dates are again based on past data on holiday commuting. 

This is why planning ahead is so important. The reports also tell us that the worst days for travel this holiday season will be Friday, December 20th; Saturday, December 21; Friday, December 27; and Thursday, December 26. On these days as many as 2.6 million flyers are expected to take a plane ride to their holiday destinations. Compared to last year the reports tell us that’s a 3% increase in passengers! To convert that percentage, that means an additional 88,000 individuals will be flying on an additional 884 flights that airlines are cramming into the schedule every day. 

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“Throughout this year we’ve seen steady gains in air travel demand, and this winter will be no exception. Buoyed by a healthy economy and plentiful, affordable air service, travelers once again are expected to take to the skies in record numbers,” said Vice President and Chief Economist John Heimlich in a statement. 

In addition to the millions of passengers that will be passing through these airports this holiday season, U.S. airlines will also be transporting around 58,000 tons of cargo per day. That’s a lot of presents in Santa’s sack. 

Whenever you plan on making your commute, it’s likely that you will hit traffic (either in a car or on foot) of some sort, so make sure to plan. It’s recommended that if you’re taking a flight this holiday season to ensure that you have a ride to the airport that will get you there at least three hours before your departure time. This will ensure that you have enough time to get through security, no matter how long the line is, and might even have time to grab a snack for the plane. Additionally, if you’re flying, consider getting TSA precheck to skip heavy standard security lines. 

If you’re driving, and it’s on one of the days listed above as the worst day to travel, try to leave as early as possible. You can catch up on sleep once you get to your destination but the longer you wait to leave in the morning, the longer it’s likely to take to actually get there. Regardless, plan it out, pack the essentials, and take your time, Christmas will still be waiting for you once you get there so you might as well get there safely.