More than 40% of Puerto Rico customers without power after island-wide blackout

Nearly half of the homes and businesses in Puerto Rico that receive electricity from the commonwealth's main utility were still without power on Thursday, a day after a widespread blackout struck the island, Luma Energy said in a statement. Hospitals, airports and prisons were among the structures still out. Puerto Rico's electrical system has continued to falter since two powerful hurricanes devastated Puerto Rico in 2017, decimating the grid and killing nearly 3,000 people, according to official estimates. On New Year's Eve last year an underground power line was the most recent failure that led to island-wide blackouts. As of 6 p.m. EST on Thursday, 844,973 Luma customers, or 57.6% of its total, had power restored. "We continue on track with our initial projection of  restoring service to at least 90% of customers in the next 48 hours, conditions permitting and generation is available," the company said in a statement.<br/>