Puerto Rico restores power after a massive blackout as lawmakers call for a state of emergency

By CORAL MURPHY MARCOS
Associated Press

BAYAMÓN, Puerto Rico (AP) — A power company in Puerto Rico has restored electricity to most areas affected by a massive outage that hit the U.S. territory this week. The outage left over 340,000 customers in the capital of San Juan and neighboring municipalities without power on Wednesday, during a heat wave. On Thursday morning, Luma Energy said in a statement that it had restored power to most of its customers in the metropolitan and northeastern regions of the island. Persistent outages have interrupted water service and imperiled the lives of elderly and ill residents who rely, for example, on electrical equipment for respirators and to refrigerate insulin.