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More than 100,000 clients in Puerto Rico are still without power 2 weeks after Fiona

A LUMA team works to restore power in San Juan days after Hurricane Fiona knocked out power to the island.
Jose Jimenez
/
Getty Images
A LUMA team works to restore power in San Juan days after Hurricane Fiona knocked out power to the island.

More than 100,000 customers in Puerto Rico are still waiting for power to be restored two weeks after Hurricane Fiona dumped and knocked out power across the island.

Fiona made landfall in southwest Puerto Rico on Sept. 18 as a Category 1 storm. Most of the remaining outages are on the western and southern sides of the island, , the company that operates the island's power infrastructure.

The storm dropped more than 30 inches of rain in some areas, causing flooding and mudslides that damaged roads and bridges into Puerto Rico's mountains. .

, according to Puerto Rico's Department of Health. Another 12 deaths are under investigation.

The storm cut power to . Hundreds of thousands also .

Two weeks later, 91% of customers have had power restored, LUMA reported Sunday. Power is back for the vast majority of homes in the municipalities in northern and northeastern Puerto Rico, including the populous area around San Juan.

But nearly a third of customers in the western region of the island were still without power, along with about 17% of customers in municipalities along the southern coast. The company had previously estimated that power will be restored to 90% of customers in those regions by Thursday.

RELATED: Small protests appear in Havana over islandwide blackout

LUMA has restored service to all of Puerto Rico's hospitals and, as of Saturday, to 94% of the island's water operations facilities, .

Even before Fiona, , the private company that was awarded a $1.5 billion contract last year to take over Puerto Rico's power grid. That deal came after Hurricane Maria was the final, disastrous straw to .

In a letter sent last week to LUMA, about why the company "had not adequately prepared the island's energy infrastructure" to withstand a hurricane like Fiona.
Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Becky Sullivan has reported and produced for NPR since 2011 with a focus on hard news and breaking stories. She has been on the ground to cover natural disasters, disease outbreaks, elections and protests, delivering stories to both broadcast and digital platforms.
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