Dark, desperate life without power in Puerto Rico

AP via Fox News ^ | 12/25/2017 | Danica Coto

[EEGator]

Thanks for putting the important words in all caps so I could understand...

[Pollard]

"""They waited two hours under the searing sun for their twice-a-week handout"""

"""24 bottles of water and a cardboard box filled with basic foods such as tortillas, canned vegetables and cereal. """

Live on an island or in a remote area? Stock up dumass.

I see a chance of rain. Collect some. If you live on an island, you ought to be used to collecting rainwater. It's not like you can drill/dig a well.

Hawaii even gives guidance on rainwater catchment. http://sbcd.seagrant.soest.hawaii.edu/rainwater-catchment-project -- I don't see anything for PR. Not enough bright white people living there? Seems like I've watched brown people stand in line for water and food all my life. Guess I'm privileged like that.

Tortillas = flour+water and maybe some baking powder and oil/lard as optional.

Water, Beans, Rice, canned goods, oil/lard, sugar. The basics that will keep you alive. Fats will store for a year, all else virtually forever.

OR, just a variety of canned goods is all you need to survive for a while(consume the liquid in the can rather than drain) and they wouldn't have to wait two whole hours in the "searing" 77 degree sun (with constant sea breeze).

[Robert DeLong]

I spent over 30 days after Katrina and then got hit with a 450.00 bill on top of that. Who knew no power cost so much.

[Thank You Rush]

“”Some of our fly-over country ice-storms leave our rural people without electricity, phone, cable, water and with blocked roads for up to 6 weeks during deadly cold weather.””

Are you talking the U. S.? That doesn’t sound plausible. I’m sure it would make as many headlines as the fires in the West or any other natural disaster in this country.

Where and when did this happen?

[tcrlaf]

Blizzard of 78, 1993 Storm of the Century, the Super Bowl Blizzard of 1975, 2010 Snowmegeddon, etc. It is not all that unusual, and you have to be ready for it, if you live rural.

[rrrod]

My wife’s aunt and hub are stuck in Miami waiting.....solid Trumpers

[rrrod]

A lot of efforts are being hampered by local officials and union scum

[bgill]

Cardboard, foil and tape will make a solar oven.

[bgill]

There are repairmen continually being sent to PR along with electrical equipment and, at last count, $5 BILLION in aid from D.C. not to mention private charities.

[MarMema]

We are closer to Gaylord and probably only got the same 5-7 inches you did. There was already a nice amount in place though so snowmobiles are crazy joy-racing down our road...

[bgill]

Three weeks is a joke. Many FRiends have enough for more than three months without even trying. On day one, you knew food was going to be short on the island so by now y’all could be harvesting home gardens. A small milk crate sized 1 foot cube container will hold 32 15 oz of canned food. IOW, 32 cans take up one square foot of space. Everyone has space under their beds. At .50 per can for veggies, that’s $16 of insurance. Or $32 of insurance for cans of chili. Neither has to be heated. It might not be fun, but one crate of each would last a month for one person.

PR Hospitals and factories may need electricity but homes don’t. Gasoline can be sold out of trucks, electrical pumps are not a necessity. No one NEEDS tv or internet. Foil and cardboard will make a solar oven for cooking without electricity. PR doesn’t need a/c or heat with temps in the 80s during the day and falling to the 40s at night.

It was freezing here in TX this morning at 7 when I opened the backdoor for the furbabies and it’s been open ever since. Temp now at lunchtime is 48. In our truly
sweltering hot summers, I don’t turn on the a/c until it’s constantly in the 90s. We didn’t have a/c installed until ‘94 so it’s a convenience, not a necessity.

[cll]

The three weeks suggestion is based on my recent experience with hurricane Maria. It took that long for the gasoline and diesel shortage to be resolved, for potable water to be restored in most places (well, many places), for supermarket chains to start moving merchandise in an acceptable fashion, and for roads to be cleared to allow for all that. No utility power had been restored in a significant way by then and most people and businesses were relying on backup generators.

And this was on an island 1,000 miles from the mainland.

[fella]

You don’t live in the Ozarks.
2000 and 2009.

[pabianice]

After an EMP attack (Noko?), the cities would empty out within 3 days (no more food). People I know seriously discuss what they would do if hundreds of thousands or millions of starving 80-IQ city refugees came by on foot, following the major highways.

[packrat35]

You may remember me from past postings, so don’t think I am slamming PR, but that applies to everyone.

I am called a hoarder because I keep at least a month of food and water for my family. And I live in the middle of a large city in the middle of the country and not an island.

There is no excuse why more people on PR didn’t have some supplies stored up. They had warnings for DAYS ahead of the storm.

Also, if the government wasn’t so utterly corrupt and bankrupt, power could have been restored faster. You have the utterly incompetent mayor of San Juan constantly attacking Trump for political points instead of working with him to get things done doesn’t help.

The federal government can only do so much without assistance from people on the ground that live there, and the Teamster drivers going on strike against their own people didn’t help.

Givemedats only take and don’t give back. I feel for a lot of the poor people on PR who are old and infirm, and having a hard time, but as the story shows, they are getting some assistance and not starving.

I used to live in rural Mississippi in the early 70’s. Every time, the power went out, it took at least a day to get fixed. We had a ice storm that took over a week to get power back. That is part of the trade off with living in the countryside. Same thing applies in PR.

[packrat35]

That should be PR government being utterly incompetant

[Thank You Rush]

Well, others jumped in with their comments of storms as expected but I still don’t see where any area has gone six weeks without services because of bad snow storms. I wish we’d all be mindful before making extreme statements that they are actually factual - six weeks/fly over country? It would save a lot of confusion on a pastime that should be entertaining.

We have friends who moved from CA shortly before we bailed out and they went to the Ozarks. They say they have never looked back. We came to GA - other friends went to KY and an awful lot of folks are really leaving what used to be a great state and looking for those greener pastures - except at our ages, more like overgrown pastures at this point.

[gleeaikin]

Actually solar makes more sense in tropical PR than it does in a number of areas in the mainland US.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

Mountainous terrains are the specialty in Missouri.

A crew from here and from Oklahoma went to Brazil last year and another group will head down in January.

The Missouri lads donated their old equipment (pole climbing stuff) they hadn’t used for years since lift trucks have taken this chore.