Puerto Rico's Electric Power Authority said its priority was to restore service to medical facilities, water pumping systems and financial institutions, after an island-wide power outage, according to an article on the CNN website.
An excavator operated by D. Grimm, a subcontractor for Cobra Acquisitions, apparently caused the blackout, which originated at a major transmission line running between Salinas and Guayama in the southeast.
The same company was responsible for an outage that affected 870,000 customers after a tree fell on a power line last week.
As of 8 p.m., April 18, only 334,000 customers in the US commonwealth had electricity again. Power was to be restored to customers who had electricity before the latest outage within 24 to 36 hours, the authority said.