Massive blackout hits the Dominican Republic after power plant failures; crews scramble to restore power

A massive power outage plunged the entire Dominican Republic into darkness on Tuesday, disrupting traffic and halting businesses across the nation of nearly 11 million. Officials said the blackout stemmed from a failure in the transmission system, though the exact cause remains unclear.

Generation units at San Pedro de Macorís and the Quisqueya Power Plant shut down, setting off a chain reaction of failures across other transmission and generation facilities, the Dominican Electricity Transmission Company said.