Really? Some supporting data would be necessary for this "most everyone" to know that.
My neighbor who works utilities just got back from Puerto Rico and knows of no such thing. No ransacking mobs, no endless burials, no bodies lying in the streets.
His take is that electricity for many of the locals not living in the cities is a convenience, not a necessity. They are glad to get it back but are managing without it.
The data is in the island’s coroner’s office, who refuses to release it. These are lives lost due to the failure of life support systems. Not all died at once. We had almost no functioning hospitals for at least two weeks. How many people were in ICU? How many people were turned back at the ER because there were no ERs? How many people died at home because their oxygen machines failed (I know at least one). When you consider that, then it makes sense. Of course this is an estimate. But if the PR government would release its hard data, we would know for sure.
BTW, the mainland utility companies didn’t get here until the chaos of the immediate aftermath had already been sorted out. I don’t wish those first couple of weeks on anyone. And I was of the lucky ones.