Outage leaves Puerto Rican capital without power 10.08 a.m. ET (1422 GMT) September 7, 2000 SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP)  A broken cable left the Puerto Rican capital without power Thursday morning, trapping dozens of people in elevators and forcing many businesses to close.

Rush-hour traffic slowed as traffic lights failed across San Juan. Offices sent workers home after their air conditioners stopped and computers shut down.

Firefighters worked to free people from elevators in at least 10 buildings, including the Department of Labor, a hospital and a Marshall's department store.

The Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority blamed the outage on a break in a 231,000-volt line that carries power over Puerto Rico's mountains from a generating plant in southern Guayanilla. About 500,000 customers were affected, it said.

Crews with helicopters were working to repair the line. A spokesman said the outage could last until midafternoon.

http://www.foxnews.com/world/0907/i_ap_0907_60.sml

-- Doris (reaper1@mindspring.com), September 07, 2000

Answers

This sounds like a major event. At y2k time this would have been considered an outright disaster.

-- Uncle Fred (dogboy45@bigfoot.com), September 07, 2000.