12/29/2017

CRISIS/PUERTO RICO: “For the first time in the 100 days since Hurricane Maria slammed Puerto Rico, the government finally knows how many people still don’t have power: about half.
The figure released Friday [12-29-17] by the island’s governor and power utility company indicates that more than 1.5 million people on the island are still in the dark. Experts say some parts of the island are not expected to get power back until next spring…
In its statement on Friday, the authorities said power restoration has been slow because of the sheer scale and complexity of the damage. Much of the island’s 2,400 miles of transmission lines, 30,000 miles of distribution lines and 342 substations were damaged in the storm, they said. Carlos D. Torres, the system’s restoration coordinator, said workers were finding ‘unexpected damage’ in some areas even as they make repairs in others.
José E. Sánchez, who heads the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers task force to restore power in Puerto Rico, said some homes were so damaged they are unable to receive electricity, though he did not know how many homes were in that situation.
The island’s governor and power utility said that of the homes that could receive electricity, roughly 55 percent have had their service restored. He noted that the government’s new estimate includes five towns that recently received temporary fixes from Corps generators…
The government had previously not been able to say how many people had power because of damage to the outage management system. The government has repaired the fiber optic cables that allow the system to read meters.”

-Frances Robles and Jess Bidgood, “Three Months After Maria, Roughly Half of Puerto Ricans Still Without Power,” The New York Times online, Dec. 29, 2017