Puerto Rico Power Outage: Will Twins and Indians Still Play Series During Blackout?

Nothing will stop the Major League Baseball teams the Minnesota Twins and the Cleveland Indians from facing off for game two in the Puerto Rico series—not even an island-wide power outage.

Officials have said the game will continue despite a blackout that has affected the entire island. After the news of the power outage, San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulin Cruz tweeted that the blackout will not affect the game at Hiram Bithorn Stadium on Wednesday night.

"All emergency systems have been tested in the Hiram Bithorn. The blackout does not stop the game. Tonight is played at Bithorn," Cruz tweeted.

The Associated Press reported that an island-wide blackout on Wednesday, just a week after a tree hit a power line and caused approximately 840,000 residents to lose power. Officials said restoring power to the entire U.S. territory this time could take from 24 to 36 hours.

John Blakeman, the director of Operations for the Puerto Rico baseball series, told ESPN that the stadium has generators that could run for two days and that the game will not be affected.

"This has not taken us by surprise," Blakeman told ESPN. "We are fully prepared. Every area of Hiram Bithorn Stadium can run on generators that have a capacity to run for 48 hours. The main building runs on two generators, one of 400 kilowatts and another one of 200 for a total of 600 kilowatts. Each light tower operates with independent generators of 200 kilowatts. The game will not be affected at all."

This is the first time since Hurricane Maria struck Puerto Rico on September 20, 2017 that the island has experienced an island-wide blackout. The Department of Housing and Urban Development announced last week $2 billion of $18.5 billion in disaster recovery grants will be used to help fix Puerto Rico's power grid.