SALINAS, Puerto Rico/NEW YORK (Reuters) - In the rural village of Salinas
in southern Puerto Rico, frayed electric lines hanging from a utility pole blew
in the breeze last week near the town square.
But the damage didn’t come from Hurricane Maria.
“Those wires were actually there before,” said Fermin Seda, 68, a Salinas
resident who said he has grown accustomed to downed lines and power outages.
Two weeks after the storm plunged the island into a blackout, less than
10 percent of Puerto Rico’s 3.4 million people have seen power restored - and
many will wait months.
Restoring the grid after the worst storm to hit here in nine decades
would be a monumental task even for a well-run utility. It will be much harder
for the chronically underfunded Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA),
which went bankrupt in July amid mounting maintenance problems, years-long
battles with creditors, a shrinking workforce and frequent management turnover.
Power relief efforts for Hurricane Wilma and Irma were aided by
utilities’ ability to access power from utilities in other states through the
existing interstate transmission system and the nearby availability of workers
to help restore the system. Hurricane Maria knocked out power to all 1.5
million customers in Puerto Rico, and its island locale means it cannot draw on
other nearby electrical grids. Additionally, with key infrastructure like ports
and airports out of service, workers have been prevented from arriving, and
efforts to assess the damage have been much slower.
LENGTH OF TIME TO RESTORE POWER
Starting from peak power outage
Irma
(2017)
Wilma
(2005)
Maria
(2017)
Day 13579111315020406080100% power restored
Source: DOE, Reuters
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