As Power Grid Sputters in Puerto Rico, Business Does Too

As a U.S. taxpayer, and considering the incredibly huge deficit in our federal government... my urge is to say: "Puerto Rico, you're on your own." But I'm not saying that... what I'm saying is that Puerto Rico deserves the same help we've give to other disaster areas... but with one BIG caveat... the need to do everything possible to get their fiscal house in order. They need to take responsibility for their bad economic decisions of the past, and not become a permanent drag on this economy. They have chosen to live in a hurricane area (as have our golf coast neighbors)... and should not expect others to always mitigate their damages. There needs to be some balance here.

If the Republicans are in such a hurry to give tax cuts, why don't they incentives investment in Puerto Rico where i would actually result in jobs?

Sometimes one has to look at all this situation with a tough love attitude instead of sugar coating the pill like most folks tend to do. Puerto Rico's problem has been getting worse since the 1970's, when our economy, highly dependent on tax incentives, was dealt a blow by globalization. Our incompetent and corrupt political class has done the rest. We can't forget the Federal government in this equation, a federal government who doesn't seem to have any other solution to poverty and unemployment except to extend welfare programs thus creating a dependent class of people who only expect more of the same. Dependency permeates all classes of people on the island, from the rich to the very poor. This has created a situation that makes it easier to run away to the states instead of pressuring the incompetent political class to get its act together. It also makes it easier to just sit down and expect the Federal Government to step in and do things for you. Different from countries who are independent, who have to struggle and have to stay put to build up their country after a disaster, Puerto Ricans flee to the open arms of the Federal Government because thats the only thing they have learned to do since the 1970's

I hope someone in this Godforsaken White House reads the article and the heartfelt comments by your eloquent readers.

At last an article in the Ties that attempts to tell us what is happening n Puerto Rico without blaming Trump for things that were outside of his control. It takes time to fix a power plant. You need the expertise and the parts that have to be replaced. You can't rush the repair job and expect to do it right. As the expression goes too many cooks will spoil the broth. This is why many people do not have access to electrical power. and why it is wrong to blame Trump as if he could have fixed the problem any sooner if he just tried.

When Puerto Rico goes bankrupt, and all its citizens have moved to the US, I'm sure some organization, perhaps if one in Trump Tower, will come in, scoop up all the land, create resorts everywhere, and then hire H1B visa holders to run the operations. Could Trump's neglect possibly be a well thought out plan?

I hope that every single one of those fellow Puerto Ricans who will end up moving to the mainland (they are full-fledged American citizens!) remember what a disastrous job this current government/administration has done (starting with Trump and his heartless/cruel tweets after the storm). I hope every single one of them votes in the next elections (both 2018 and 2020). About 130,000 Puerto Ricans have moved to Florida alone. Trump won the state by 112,000. Let's let the rest of America know what our political power truly is (5 million Puerto Ricans already live in the mainland and many more will move here over the next year). I, for one, won't forget the suffering of my whole family in Puerto Rico while the current government basically ignores them and focuses on giving tax cuts to millionaires. Compared to Katrina (under Bush), Haiti's earthquake (under Obama) or Irma/Harvey (under Trump), Puerto Rico and Puerto Ricans have not received the same treatment. They are being treated as second-class citizens. PERIOD. Puerto Rico had electricity before the storm, and despite its financial woes, it was a fully functioning state (like any poor state in the US - e.g., Mississippi or Arkansas). It's shameful that the most powerful country in the world cannot fully mobilize itself to help its own citizens. I'm tired of hearing excuses. If we can do it in Iraq or Afghanistan (as General Buchanan suggested), why can't we do it in Puerto Rico? Shameful. PERIOD.

One problem with sea level rise is that the closer sea levels approach the top of a coastal defense, the greater the risk of a storm surge breaching it and the damage occurs, as in New Orleans when Katrina killed 1,836 people. Last year James Hansen said that there's no argument that we've lost the coastal areas where most of our large cities are located, it is just a question of time (we've already destabilized around 6m of sea level rise equivalent of ice). With sea level rise accelerating and maximum storm strength increasing a lot of these coastal places won't go slowly with the drip, drip, drip of sea level rise, but swiftly in catastrophic storms. Here's a video of catastrophic storm surge during Typhoon Haiyan https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xCq6mcLwBDI

From a paper in Nature by the MIT cyclone expert Dr. Kerry Emanuel titled: Increasing destructiveness of tropical cyclones over the past 30 years "Here I define an index of the potential destructiveness of hurricanes based on the total dissipation of power, integrated over the lifetime of the cyclone, and show that this index has increased markedly since the mid-1970s. This trend is due to both longer storm lifetimes and greater storm intensities. I find that the record of net hurricane power dissipation is highly correlated with tropical sea surface temperature" One foot of sea level rise caused Hurricane Sandy to flood an additional 25 square miles and the paleoclimate record says that if we warm Earth just 1.5-2 degrees C above pre-industrial temperature, we are committing the system to 6-9m of sea level rise, a large fraction of which could arrive this century. If if were to arrive quickly it is easy to imagine the planet becoming ungovernable from that impact alone, never mind increasing drought and heat severely impacting agriculture. https://www.nature.com/articles/nature03906

Trump is making Bush's inept handling of Katrina look good by comparison to Puerto Rico. Poetic Justice will be a few hundred thousand Puerto Rican voters making Florida permanently blue.

There are huge consequences to corruption. I am sorry for the Puerto Ricans but this is largely a situation they brought on themselves.

I believe the Republican-led Congress has gotten the message that Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands have to be rebuilt and rebuilt to a higher standard, and will fund the efforts out of self-preservation. Ask Marco Rubio - it's a matter of presidential elections. If 400,000 Puerto Ricans move to Florida and vote Democratic as they do on the island, there go Republican presidencies for the foreseeable future because Republicans don't win nationally without Florida.

Puerto Rico made their bed. Blaming the US for their problems is counterproductive. They need to understand that Puerto Rico’s problems are Puerto Rico’s, then get it together and solve them.

I live in the U.S. Virgin Islands. The "epidemic of broken generators" is a very real thing; most are not intended to run most of the day for months and months. Finding parts is an ordeal, requiring hours at a time driving from place to place through downed lines, sinkholes, and crashed poles (most phones do not work reliably, because the towers were wrecked and the remainder looted for copper) and finding someone competent to fix it is nearly impossible. One also has to take into account the common and almost systemic practice of generator theft, which has struck everything from a crucial communications tower to veterinary hospitals to old age homes. We lock down our gates and our generators with heavy cables and locks and hope for the best. I cannot blame anyone for leaving Puerto Rico, because the situation in the USVI is very similar. It is a daily grinding misery to worry about staging your generator so as not to overload it, sitting in the mosquito-ridden dark for hours a day so it can rest, hoping your food does not spoil while the refrigerator is off, smelling the laundry molder because you cannot wash it, timing your use of water in the sink and the toilets, hoping the generator is not stolen, and hoping you can find parts when it inevitably breaks like everything else here does.

The damage that the hurricane caused is tragic for Puerto Rico. But, the self inflicted damage before and after the hurricane made things much much worse. Who in God's name would sign a non-tender contract at seemingly exorbitant rates and agree to contract terms that say the work under the contract is not subject to audit? That the answer apparently is public servants in Puerto Rico is to lay blame for failure to fix the infra-structure failure on the island's representatives who should be serving the public interest.

"...the catastrophe of the storm has been followed by an economic disaster with no end in sight... Actually, The catastrophe of the storm was preceded by an economic disaster with no end in sight... One bit of good might come out of this... With the rapid on-off time and efficiency of gas power plants - why even rebuild a grid... Just put in separate plants... Look at the mainland - initiatives to rebuild the power grid sound eerily like the initiatives to rebuild Amtrak... Hoboken figured this out, several floods ago...

They desperately need to repair the electrical grid, but they cancelled the Whitefish Energy deal. What is Plan B?

Puerto Ricans relocating to the United States from their island are going to make the Republican party pay for the neglect of their homeland. If this is outreach to the Latino voting bloc that the GOP hoped would embrace their party, Republicans have an indifferent way of showing it. Like black American voters, Puerto Ricans will be forever estranged from the GOP. Republicans continue to show their disdain for minority voting blocs.

All the people who are leaving Puerto Rico will vote in Florida, Virginia and New Jersey. Trump and his ilk are toast.

Inexcusable that nearly 2 months later, they still lack water and electricity. How dare Trump's administration treat three and a half Americans --plus more on USVirgin Islands!--that way!! Disgraceful.

I read a story a year or so ago about PR’s financial woes. Mentions the semi public power administration and the cost of electricity. 100% of electricity is generated by diesel. This is an island; diesel fuel is brought by tanker. PR’s power administration & the people who supply the diesel made and/or wasted obscene amounts of money. This is a semi tropical island; not one person involved thought of solar energy? Wind? At best, this is criminal negligence. Emergency relief means a place should be rebuilt ‘as is’. Can PR decide to join and lead a future without fossil fuel? Block Island is completing a project to supply 100% of it’s energy by wind power. There will be problems with 160 mph winds but I trust they will be worked out. To those who oppose any subsidy to alternate energy, you are in denial. The oil industry has been subsidized since the late 19th century by a variety of ways, from ‘looking the other way’ to lobbyists up to and including war. It employs existing technology, therefore theoretically cheaper to run. Do we include the environmental and health costs of oil? No This addiction to oil is part of the complacency that America slumped into somewhere in the end of the 20th century. ‘Vision’ is limited to the next quarterly report. The way to create future jobs to invest now; we might not benefit for 10 or 20 years, but that is true ‘vision’. We need to start before it’s too late. Puerto Rico is a good opportunity.

Face it, Puerto Rico is done. People cannot live well without electricity. This is not one of those PBS reality shows where modern people attempt to live in a time predating modern times. Time to stop pretending the grid will be up and running by Christmas. Everyone should cut their losses and move to the mainland already.

While many hotels are not open, there are some that are - PR needs tourism money to help recover.

These Americans will be avenged. Reap it.

My heart goes out to the people of Puerto Rico. We are witnessing a tragedy following a disastrous hurricane. Sometimes I wonder: Does trump see in this devastation, the hope that so many will leave, an opportunity for himself and his cronies to buy up devalued land for an island of golf courses and resorts? There is so much that is suspicious in this failure to help the population of Puerto Rico - our fellow Americans in need.

To be honest I Think the Press and The NY Times are made a very poor covery of this very serious situation. It feels they became Trumps puppet when it comes to Puerto Rico.

Every Peurto Rican that moves need to make sure they move to a Red state. Please move to Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, Louisiana, Texas, Iowa, Kansas. Indiana. Several of the midwestern states have Slaughter houses and packing houses that they don't want the illegals or Muslims who have been working there. But you are US citizens so the owners will welcome you. Make sure to register to vote D as soon as you arrive. GEorgia has jobs that go begging on the Farms in South Ga. and slauter houses in North, Ga. of course there is the hospitality industry in Atlanta which can get rid of the illegal maids that TRump wants to deport. Of course we have not forgotten that after you arrive in Florida, President Trump will have no reseason for his HB foreign workers at Marlago.

I am in agreement that under ever compounding conditions of distress and because of Federal government negligence, it is high time for Puerto Rican leaders to appeal for aid from wherever they can get it, be it the EU, Russia or China, no matter. DC be damned. I nominate the Mayor of San Juan, Carmen Yulín, to initiate talks since the Governor, Ricardo Roselló, has proven inefficient and has long lost control.

One thing to consider is that this will be the new normal for coastal cities and countries all over the world through the next decades and century. If we will fail to deal with the short term and long term solutions to climate change, political gridlock, lack of leadership and apathy by voters then we will continue to pay. And when I say "pay" I mean not only in dollars, but in lives and happiness and hope for the future.

Having visited Puerto Rico in 2015 this saddens me. I have never understood why the island had not become a mecca for eco-tourism (it was beginning to until the hurricane devastated the rain forest). It is criminal that US citizens have to live with conditions like this; would Houston have put up with no power for 2 months??

The rescinded StinkFish power contract is just the tip of the iceberg, for which blame may be apportioned all around. As Teddy Roosevelt said of the Panama Canal, we stole Puerto Rico and "We Stole It Fair and Square.". putting the burden pn the us to foster opportunities for our new. group of citizens. Except for FDR and subsequent administrations through Kennedy, precious little was done. No one since has paid much attention to America's obligations.to its Puerto Rican citizens. Meanwhile, a once modernizing Puerto Rican government and the albatross of its public power company have sought to excuse themselves from responsibility, until Judgement Day, AKA Hurricane Maria. It is foolish to think the Ttump addministration will do more than apply bandaids, except to investigate contracting (takes two to dance the rent seekers tango). My bet: the administration will encourage a large migration of jobless Puerto Ricans to the continental U.S. and leave Puerto Rico's future to the tourism industry, and who else, the developers ("Abandoned Mountaintop Town For Sale Cheap, Wonderful for Oceanview Mansion"). I wonder if the Green Coalition of States, Enterprises and Civic Organizations that is assuring some measure of U.S. compliance with the Paris Climate Accords could adopt Puerto Rico and sponsor Elon Musk's proposal to replace Puerto Rico's outdated power plants with renewable energy. Get civic minded billionaires, Buffet, Gates, Soros, et al to join the financing.

Action is needed immediately to restore power. The Federal Government (i.e. the Administration) is looking more incompetent every day there is no power. Have 20%-25% of the Maintenance and Repair crews from ALL US utilities (e.g. Con Ed, PSE&G, Eversource, Southern California Edison etc) been sent down to Puerto Rico to help out (With their trucks, trailers, and parts) for the duration? (The US Air Force needs to help out flying all the utility trucks down to Puerto Rico too). Experienced electric crews are needed to help out now. Where is the US Army? 10,000 soldiers should be sent down immediately to help the utility repair crews if only to pull new cable. Where is Army Corp of Engineers? They need to be flown in from wherever they are stationed in the world to rebuild the highway bridges. Similarly, US Navy Seabees need to be brought in to help out as well. The US Government has to have a real sense of urgency on this issue. Business, as usual, doesn't cut it for this disaster. Finally, PREPA the local Puerto Rican electric utility is on its back. Congress needs to take action to merge PREPA into the Tennessee Valley Authority, or the Bonneville Power Authority and not dawdle over PREPA's outstanding debt. Solve the PREPA problem ASAP. Puerto Rico needs a functioning electric utility. The lack of power two months after the storm is disgraceful.

And we're stuck with a fake president running a fake administration, trying to "restore" PR with fake imagery and spin. It's situations like the this that illustrate the difference between fool's gold and the real thing. The fake president specialized in the former while in the private sector and continues to do so in the public sector.

It's a shame that people including the U.S forget that Puerto Rico is a part of the U.S. They are family just like any other states and something should be done about the power outages taking place on the Island. If it were Texas or any other state, money would be getting raised faster than a jack rabbit drinking red bull. Houston raised over 15 million in a week. I have seen fundraisers to help Puerto Rico but they are and weren't as effective as fundraisers in the States. We forget that children died, mother of children died, and so forth. Now on top of dealing with death in their families, they also have to deal with having no power which will lead to business shutting down and food not being preserved. Businesses can't pay employees if no revenue is being made. This, will lead to more deaths if this problem is not solved. The Latino community has always been strong in dealing with things because they have always been at the bottom of the food chain. This is another challenge they will soon overcome, it's just going to take some time; lesser time if we work faster to help. In the meanwhile, the Puerto Ricans have to keep fighting and they will. It's just going to take a lot more makeup.

Shame on this administration

It is past time now for Puerto Rico to publically reach out for assistance elsewhere, EU, China, Russia, etc. NK? We, as a country, do not seem to be getting it done.

Might as well kick the dirt outside and spit nails because Puerto Rico was fully mashed up before the storm. More in debt than an Upper East Side Apartment Owner that purchased at the real estate peak before the recession. Now, anyone staying is too poor to leave or too regrettably invested and stuck . No one in America is going to send any money but China might.

This is an EXCELLENT opportunity to show how renewable power can really work! Bring on the wind mills and solar arrays! Central power stations are obsolete ---it's the day of distributed power! Power to the people!

Another welfare state for Democrats to exploit, promising unlimited federal dollars if only Trump was not in the White House. It's the old carrot and stick routine, except it's all carrot with the "promise them anything" Democrats. And where is Puerto Rico's responsibility in all of this mess? Oh, that's right, they are already bankrupt due to fiscal mismanagement and corruption. No wonder the federal government is $20 trillion in debt, and climbing rapidly to new heights. Spending money endlessly seems to be a lesson Puerto Rico learned from Washington, D.C. That and financing the endless unemployment lines.

Though the power grid, shops, and restaurants open, there will be no money to sustain them. How long would a restored power grid remain operational if subscribers can’t pay their bills? Puerto Rico needs a Works Progress Administration to create tens of thousands of low level jobs clearing debris and building foundational infrastructure. The more money put directly in the hands of consumers the quicker PR will begin to recover. Make the “WPA” an agency independent of the governor and other corrupt elements, else it will never succeed.

The hurricane was a cruel blow to Puerto Rico and its citizens. They deserve our aid. However, it approximates a giant welfare colony. It is no wonder that it has a "fragile tax base". Crime and corruption are rife. It is no wonder that bankruptcy haunts their economy. The recent scandalous contract for electrical work with WhiteFish is a recent example. Given their history, all aid should be controlled and monitored by domestic oversight.

Officials estimate that as many as 300,000 people could leave Puerto Rico and move to the mainland. I hope they all move to Florida. And promptly register to vote. That many newcomers will flip Florida to a blue state.

It is an ongoing nightmare at every level. For farmers, even the livestock that survived the hurricane is now beginning to die from lack of food, bad water and routine medicines such as wormers. We helped ship sheep to Prime Texels to improve sheep in the country so they could produce more meat. Yesterday we learned the first of the sheep and their guardian dog had died. So discouraging.

Two months later and the devastation continues and turnaround won't really start to happen until full power is restored. Trump has shown nothing but disdain and contempt for Puerto Rico as only big money talks in this administration. The majority of Americans have no voice, but the Puerto Rican Americans are the forgotten Americans because they are too needy for Trump.

If only they weren't surrounded by water. DJT

Has it occurred to anyone, that Trump Republican may be using the continued absence of power, potable water, and sanitation as a power grab, to ethnically cleanse the island paradise of its Spanish speaking Democrat leaning population and then gobble it up for the benefit of white English speaking billionaires. Think of Naomi Klein's "Future Shock" where the rich and powerful foment and take advantage of economic collapse or natural disaster to seize control. With the local population gone, government funds and tax breaks will flow in to rehabilitate the island.