But reams of red tape and public- and private-sector foot-dragging have frustrated the longer-term efforts to reconstruct and replace the dated, fossil-fuel-guzzling system with a more resilient and efficient network. The Federal Emergency Management Agency spent about $5 billion to restore power after the storm destroyed the island’s electrical transmission and distribution networks. Now, Puerto Rico’s three million residents lack reliable power almost five years after Hurricane Maria devastated the island in September of 2017, killing 3,000 people and razing its aging power grid. The Category 4 hurricane left residents without electricity for months, and in some more remote regions, it took almost a year to restore power. Everybody here is traumatized after Maria. “Sometimes when it rains a little bit, the power goes out,” Luis Nieves says, “so when we encounter a hurricane, we don’t know what’s going to happen for sure. According to the former member of the Puerto Rican Senate, power outages are a part of daily life, burning out appliances, leaving businesses in the dark, and disrupting access to life-sustaining medical devices.
When it starts to rain in San Juan, Ramón Luis Nieves doesn’t know how long it will be until the power goes out-or when it will be restored.
#ELECTRICAL GRIDS IN THE US GENERATOR#
Workers at Las Palmas Cafe, in San Juan, Puerto Rico, use an electric generator during an island-wide blackout, April 7, 2022.
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