Five years after Hurricane Maria, Puerto Rico's power crisis and a new storm revive grim memories
NBCSep 18, 2022
On Monday morning, areas of Puerto Rico woke up without power following the landfall of Hurricane Fiona on Sunday. The Category 1 storm caused widespread flooding and landslides across the island as it moved west toward the Dominican Republic.
Officials stated that power had begun to be restored on Sunday night but reconnecting the entire grid could take days.
Puerto Rico lost all electric power in 2017 due to Hurricane Maria. Five years later, very little has changed. The power grid is fragile and remains vulnerable to tropical storms, a fact proven by the effects of Hurricane Fiona, a much weaker storm. Federal and local agencies have so far failed to find a solution for coordinating and working together to protect Puerto Ricans.
While it's true that reconstruction of Puerto Rico's infrastructure after Hurricane Maria, including its power grid, has only started recently, efforts to coordinate agencies are already well underway. This is precisely why necessary measures to restore electrical services to customers were able to be taken quickly following the catastrophic impact of Hurricane Fiona.
There's a 39% chance that Puerto Rico will be admitted as a United States state before January 1, 2035, according to the Metaculus prediction community.