Maria Strikes, and Puerto Rico Goes Dark
- 7 years ago
Maria Strikes, and Puerto Rico Goes Dark
Hurricane Maria, the most powerful storm to make a direct hit on Puerto Rico in almost a century, ravaged the island on Wednesday, knocking out all electricity, deluging towns with flashfloods
and mudslides and compounding the already considerable pain of residents here.
Electrical power, produced by the state-owned Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority, or Prepa, has long been
a headache for residents, who have come to distrust the flickering grid even in normal conditions.
Brock Long, the head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said
that the United States Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico had very fragile power systems and that electricity was expected to remain out for a very long time.
“There has been nothing like this,” said Ramón Lopez, a military veteran who was holding back
tears outside his neighborhood in Guaynabo, on the northern coast near San Juan, the capital.
Efforts by Prepa to fix lines and restore power after Irma will almost certainly have been undone by Maria,
and the question of how a debt-ridden commonwealth will pay for comprehensive repairs is sure to confound its leaders long after the storm dissipates.
Hurricane Maria, the most powerful storm to make a direct hit on Puerto Rico in almost a century, ravaged the island on Wednesday, knocking out all electricity, deluging towns with flashfloods
and mudslides and compounding the already considerable pain of residents here.
Electrical power, produced by the state-owned Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority, or Prepa, has long been
a headache for residents, who have come to distrust the flickering grid even in normal conditions.
Brock Long, the head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said
that the United States Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico had very fragile power systems and that electricity was expected to remain out for a very long time.
“There has been nothing like this,” said Ramón Lopez, a military veteran who was holding back
tears outside his neighborhood in Guaynabo, on the northern coast near San Juan, the capital.
Efforts by Prepa to fix lines and restore power after Irma will almost certainly have been undone by Maria,
and the question of how a debt-ridden commonwealth will pay for comprehensive repairs is sure to confound its leaders long after the storm dissipates.