CEO of Puerto Rico's power company to resign amid outages
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — The CEO of Puerto Rico’s state-owned power company is resigning as thousands of clients remain without electricity since last week’s tropical storm that further weakened a grid still trying to recover from previous hurricanes and earthquakes, officials said Monday.
José Ortiz is expected to step down on Wednesday amid widespread anger and impatience with ongoing power outages that are occurring during a pandemic, at the height of what is expected to be an unusually active hurricane season as hundreds of thousands of parents prepare for the start of a virtual school year.
“It’s irresponsible and a lack of respect that a simple storm unleashed the chaos we have now,” said Natalia Núñez, who lives in San Juan and has been without power since Thursday.
Many Puerto Ricans also are dissatisfied with how the Electric Power Authority handled recent outages including one last week that was not storm-related and left more than 300,000 customers without power. Then Isaias swiped the island as a tropical storm, leaving more than 400,000 more clients in the dark. By Monday afternoon, more than 20,000 customers were still without power.
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