Massive blackout leaves Puerto Rico in the dark

More than 1 million homes were left without power Wednesday in Puerto Rico due to the "unexpected" shutdown of all power plants, in a new major blackout in this Caribbean territory.

"We have experienced a massive blackout across the island due to the unexpected shutdown of all generation plants, including those of Genera PR and the other private generators," Genera, one of the electricity providers, wrote in Spanish on X.

According to the website of the island's other electricity supplier, Luma, around 1.1 million customers were without power shortly before 4 p.m. ET on Wednesday.

Luma said it was doing everything possible to "identify the cause" and "safely restore service."

The blackout was caused by a "failure in the transmission line between the Cambalache power plant and the municipality of Manatí," the island's government said in a statement late Wednesday night.

Puerto Rico's Federal Affairs Administration said it expected the grid to "continue to gradually recover overnight," with more than 266 megawatts of power generation already restored.

Puerto Rico, which has been under U.S. control since 1898, faces ongoing infrastructure problems, exacerbated from 2017 by the passage of Hurricane Maria.

The Puerto Rican power grid has suffered frequent outages since that devastating Category 4 hurricane.