Cayey mayor: Not a LUMA brigade in sight on Monday morning

Cayey Mayor Rolando Ortiz Velázquez, seen here with Rep. Gretchen Hau Irizarry

By The Star Staff

Cayey Mayor Rolando Ortiz Velázquez said Monday that he had not seen a single brigade from LUMA Energy, the island’s electric power transmission and distribution system operator, working in his municipality as of mid-morning, while on Sunday he only saw one.

“All they do is offer false reports of situations that they are not actually addressing,” the mayor said. “I have already asked the management of LUMA Energy on several occasions to tell me where the brigades are located, and to date they have not wanted to inform me.”

Ortiz Velázquez added that “first there was the excuse that a complaint had to be filed, and then that the name of the person filing the complaint had to be provided along with their personal phone number.”

“Now they are asking for photos and that new complaints have to be filed,” he said. “This private corporation has been highly irresponsible with our people.”

Ortiz Velázquez said he was receptive to the demands of numerous community leaders from all sectors and conditions, who echo the call of citizens who are without service, to resort to the democratic mechanism of protests in the streets.

“We must recognize the patience that citizens who have been in the dark since shortly before the passage of the storm Ernesto have had,” said the former president of the Puerto Rico Mayors Association. “If they dealt with this crisis with the same efficiency with which they send invoices, LUMA Energy would have the respect of the people. But it does not have it.”

Last Friday, LUMA Energy President & CEO Juan Saca announced that the percentage of his customers with electric service was expected to increase from 82% to 87% that day, following the close passage of Tropical Storm Ernesto, noting that he expected to have the majority of subscribers resupplied with power by Sunday morning.

“Today in Cayey, our estimate is that 15 of the 22 neighborhoods in the city are in the dark,” Ortiz Velázquez said. “There are areas where there is service, but there are several so-called ‘pockets’ of homes in the dark.”