Puerto Rico remains dark as damage assessments begin


Save Story

Estimated read time: Less than a minute

This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.

The lights are back on at a couple major hospitals, but most of Puerto Rico is still in the dark — and likely to remain without power for days, weeks or even months.

Hurricane Maria smashed a power grid that would be considered antiquated on the U.S. mainland. Generators are providing power to the few who have them, but nearly all the island's 1.6 million electricity customers were still without power as of Monday afternoon.

A long delay in getting power restored will mean even more pain for a Puerto Rican economy that is already reeling from a decade-long recession. Every day without power inflicts more damage to the tourism industry, and the lack of electricity could drive even more people to leave the island to find better opportunities on the mainland.

Copyright © The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Most recent Business stories

Related topics

DAVID KOENIG and STAN CHOE

    STAY IN THE KNOW

    Get informative articles and interesting stories delivered to your inbox weekly. Subscribe to the KSL.com Trending 5.
    By subscribing, you acknowledge and agree to KSL.com's Terms of Use and Privacy Notice.
    Newsletter Signup

    KSL Weather Forecast

    KSL Weather Forecast
    Play button