A widespread power outage left nearly all of Puerto Rico without electricity early Tuesday as residents prepared to ring in the new year. Over 1.3 million customers were affected with officials warning that full restoration could take up to two days. Utility officials are blaming the outage on a failed underground transmission line.

The blackout, which began at dawn, created an unsettling stillness across the island as appliances and air conditioners lost power. For those with access to generators, a mechanical hum soon filled the silence.

“It had to be on the 31st of December!” exclaimed one man, who only gave his name as Manuel, as he stood outside a grocery store in the capital of San Juan, grumbling about the outage that coincided with his birthday. “There is no happiness.”

Nearly 90% of 1.47 million clients across Puerto Rico were left in the dark, according to Luma Energy, a private company that oversees electricity transmission and distribution. It estimated that power would be restored in 24 to 48 hours, conditions permitting.

Luma said in a statement that it is restoring power “in the quickest and safest way possible.”

With no idea when power would return, Puerto Ricans began to think ahead.

“I'll go to my balcony. That's where I'll sleep,” Raúl Pacheco said with a resigned shrug, as the 63-year-old diabetic sat on a walker nursing an injured foot.

Julio Córdova, a municipal worker who was raking leaves on a nearby sidewalk, said he got dressed by the light of his cellphone and planned to buy candles.

“This affects me because I had plans. It couldn't have been yesterday or tomorrow?" he said as he shook his head.

While blackouts are rare in Puerto Rico, the island continues to struggle with chronic power outages blamed on a crumbling power grid that was razed by Hurricane Maria, a powerful category 4 storm that struck the island in September 2017.

The system, however, was already in decline prior to the storm given years of lack of maintenance and investment.

Some Puerto Ricans took the latest outage in stride.

“They're part of my everyday life,” said Enid Núñez, 49, who said she ate breakfast before work thanks to a small gas stove she bought for such events.