Posted on 10/20/2017 8:24:24 AM PDT by PBRCat
80 percent of Puerto Rico is without power, a result of extensive damage to an already seriously deficient electrical grid. It is expected to take months to fix, and in the meantime, water and sewer systems that rely on electricity for pumping remain compromised.
(Excerpt) Read more at chicago.suntimes.com ...
It's going to take YEARS not months to fix what's destroyed there....it was an easy take down for the Hurricane's since most of it was falling down to begin with.
People should remember PR had declared bankruptcy before the storms in order to generate funding to even ‘repair’ the broken/failed infrastructure there...again before the storms. Therefore it's not fair to use them as a comparison to other natural disasters..they were a disaster to begin with.
“Luis Gutierrez was and is a world class hypocrite.”
Indeed.
Hypocrisy is a way of life inside that Beltway as well as throughout the msm.
Interestingly, the well known liberals (Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim) who composed the songs for “West Side Story” were close to the truth when the music and lyrics for the number “America” were published in 1957:
Puerto Rico . . .
You ugly island . . .
Island of tropic diseases.
Always the hurricanes blowing,
Always the population growing . . .
And the money owing,
And the babies crying,
And the bullets flying.
I like the island Manhattan.
Smoke on your pipe and put that in!
A lyric that is often omitted makes a reference to the electrical service on the island being substandard sixty years ago.
Him and Gov Brown should do lunch sometime.
They have a lot in common.
I agree with your statement that they were a disaster to begin with, even before the storm.
And I agree, as well, that it will take years, not months to recover from the infrastructure breakdown.
We take electricity for granted, each time we flip on the switch we expect it to be there; if its not there, we tend to panic if we have no alternative power source.
Puerto Rico demonstrates the various ways in which failure of one part of the infrastructure impacts other on other systems; they are interdependent.
Add to that no telecommunication, debris covering roadways, a dock workers strike, fuel shortages, governmental corruption, a truckers strike, and you have a social catastrophe .
Now throw in bankruptcy ... (gulp !)
What was the percentage of people without power before the hurricane?
No different than before the storm.
“Luis Gutierrez was and is a world class [self-promoting, @sswipe.]”
Fixed!
Secondly, why doesn’t Der Hildabeast fly down there and save the day with her millions in cold, hard cash? She did a bang-up job in Haiti. ;)
She could be, ‘Queen of Puerto Rico!’ What a missed opportunity.
*SNORT*
Yes indeed!
I could hardly believe it when the PR truckers refused to distribute food etc. and went on strike! Where were the heads of these people..certainly not on the disaster or the life of their citizens. I did hear that because they refused and continued to refuse our good Military men and women did the job and did it well!..Trump sees something that needs to get done he simply goes around the ‘opposition’ and finds those or orders those who are willing to do the job!
Good on Trump for his “get it done” thinking!
This is a serious mischaracterization of Elon Musk’s ideas for Puerto Rico. For you to say he wants PR to rely 100% on windmills and then you post an article about solar with his name makes no sense. He is very interested in installing micro-grid solar power, and windmills. He has/is just opened/ing a large storage battery business in Atlanta, GA. Whatever is done with solar or wind, it would be very helpful if it were easy to remove and store solar panels or windmill blades. Or at least “feather” all the windmill blades in a down position. I understand a port crane in Ponce’s port was blown over too. I read that cranes in other recent hurricane target cities were not taken down because they needed 2 weeks notice to do this. When living in Miami my son showed me his metal hurricane shutters and the slides around the window for rapid installation. He also has them in PR, so it ought to be possible to invent some kind of quick dismount for solar panels and also for small system windmill blades.
In May 2006, a year after Katrina, I traveled along the Gulf Coast from Tampa to New Orleans. Almost all the debris from hurricanes had been carted away from the roadsides in Alabama and Mississippi, but when I crossed the state line into Louisiana, there were 10 foot high stacks of debris along streets. On the radio there were loud complaints that almost a year had passed by and clean up money was about to phase out and why wasn’t something being done to clean up or extend the time limit. So the mainland isn’t perfect either.
Last night I had a 15 minute chat with my son in Puerto Rico before attending a PR fund raiser in my city. He is in the suburb of Guaynabo south of San Juan. He has had city water for 2 weeks but no electric. His wife has a generator at her work, and he has access to generators thru his work as a small building services contractor. So they get the batteries recharged and the laundry washed. He did not know how much of the grid had been restored, but when I said I read 15% a week ago he thought that sounded about right. Their children are back in private school and the public schools should restart in a week or two. He mentioned he has never drunk so much Gatoraid in his life. I suggested he could make a rehydrating drink by adding small amounts of sodium chloride, potassium chloride, baking soda, and epsom salts (magnesium chloride) to a gallon or quart of water like I used to do for my husband when he went to work on his boat in the hot son. One day hubby brought a little of his drink home. We were sitting at the table after dinner; he took a swig of the water and went, Yech! I don’t understand, this tasted fine at the boatyard.” So I guess the body knows what it needs when it needs it. I promised to text my son the exact formula after Googling for it. Then son said, “There is no baking soda to be found in PR.” He then explained he had been repairing damage at clients’ vacation condos and emptying their stinking refrigerators of rotten food resulting from loss of electricity and sitting for weeks in the heat. He also said he and wife are having trouble sleeping with heat and no electricity for AC. His brother on mainland has promised to send battery powered small fans and small solar powered garage lights to him. He says postal service has been restored, at least in his area. I forgot to ask him if he needs mosquito repellent and the Vitamin C which the PR government had been recommending to reduce symptoms of Zika and other mosquito borne viruses and diseases.
I relayed some of this information at the fund raiser. When asked what else people on the mainland could do he said, “Change the Jones Act which is increasing import costs in PR by 40%,” or at least suspend it for a couple of years until PR is back on it’s feet. I also asked how people in PR feel about statehood now. He believes that the majority still prefer to maintain their Commonwealth status.
Nice chart at Comment #16.
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