The Brownsville Public Utilities Board has announced citywide rolling blackouts to begin at approximately 12:30 p.m. Thursday.

"It's better to have short blackouts than for the whole system to go down," said PUB spokesperson Lucy Hernandez.

The blackouts, which will last between 15 and 20 minutes, will rotate between different sections of town. According to Hernandez, three out of four of the transmission lines feeding power to the Rio Grande Valley are damaged.

As of 12:30 p.m., more than 4000 PUB customers were without power; earlier in the day, only 2500 were without power.

"We're in a delicate situation," she said. "We are urging residents to refrain from using more power than necessary."