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NASA Images of Puerto Rico Reveal How Maria Wiped Out Power On the Island (jalopnik.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Jalopnik: Hurricane Maria was the most devastating hurricane to make land in Puerto Rico in nearly 100 years and the country is still reeling in its wake. Much of the island still doesn't have running water, reliable communication or electricity. Recently, NASA published a set of date-processed photos that show the island's nighttime lights both before and after the storm. Here, you can see images of the country's capital, San Juan, on a typical night before Maria. It's based on cloud-free and low moonlight conditions. Conversely, the following composite image is of data taken on the nights of Sept. 27 and 28 -- nearly a week after the storm hit -- by the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite, a scanning radiometer that collects visible and infrared imagery of land, atmosphere, cryosphere and oceans, according to NASA's website.
... it might be a sensible idea to bury electric cables rather than running them around on fragile masts and poles everywhere?
just ask, well, anyone there.
Re:It's all Trump's fault
Well all that hot air has to go somewhere
Puerto Rico's government drove the island to bankruptcy.:
With its creditors at its heels and its coffers depleted, Puerto Rico sought what is essentially bankruptcy relief in federal court on Wednesday, the first time in history that an American state or territory had taken the extraordinary measure.
The action sent Puerto Rico, whose approximately $123 billion in debt and pension obligations far exceeds the $18 billion bankruptcy filed by Detroit in 2013, to uncharted ground.
Of course the pols in charge in Puerto Rico are now casting about blame to deflect attention from their own contributory negligence.
I worked a power company on a Caribbean Island. Lots of them cut corners by putting up posts instead of using underground cables. Apparently this is the cheaper option. This makes the lines more vulnerable to bad weather and also salt in the air. Wooden posts break easy but concrete ones are also quite vulneralble. Quite often the poles went on fire due to the salt build-up.
The lesson is to invest a bit more in infrastructure and don't go for the cheap option.
"Well all that hot air has to go somewhere"
That's the problem - it doesn't go anywhere, so it just inflates his ego.
"National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
These photographs don't shed any light on how the grid was wiped out. It just shows how much. Which we already know. Just a little bit more graphic. That is all.
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
(mynutswon; guess your best) some swirling... what could be added? is that ms. monkey? despite never having had a hymen she's in complete control as us chimps know (conscious conscience, how advanced?) it should be.... we never shoot each other & always share our bananas.. what a gig.... diapers? get off me you big ape (first uttered words?).. round 2 see you there... (may contain content unsuitable to the spiritually unfit & all of us self imagined semi-innocents too..)
They are disallowed from performing Bankruptcy, right?
There was a whole piece on John Oliver about it last year. Thank Strom Thurman for it. And the wording of the Puerto Rican vote on attempting entry to the Union, which basically phrased them as a non-sovereign entity as a colony, rather than unincorporated territory of the US.
Puerto Rico should really take the opportunity to pull out from US influence, ignore its debt obligations to US interests, and do what it needs to (in a non-stupid fashion this time, IE no tax breaks, but also no tax overreaches) to generate new interest in the local economy and pull themselves out of the mess they've been in for the past many years.
I love how, in the comparison images, someone actually felt the need to label darker areas as "less lights" and brighter areas as "more lights."
Also, how pedantic would it be of me to point out that it should be "fewer" lights, not "less"?
Irony: Agile development has too much intertia to be abandoned now.
Like it or not, PR is too heavily entwined in the US political and economic structure for them to successfully separate from the US. If you have any doubt of this just do a google search for NY Governor Cuomo and "Puerto Rico". Puerto Rican's represent a substantial voting block in NYC (and thus NYS) and NY politicians are tripping over themselves to be seen as leading support for PR.
The concept of territories is an political anachronism that just needs to be done away with. These people need equal citizenship and treatment, PR and the U.S. Virgin Islands need to be combined into a Caribbean state and Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands need to be combined into a new pacific state. If we (the US) aren't willing to do that we need to forgive some (all?) debt and help ease their transition into sovereignty. People will b*tch about the debt being written off but the reality is that it's never can be repaid with things as they are and certainly can't be repaid by a new country.
While other states have representatives to bring home pork spending, Puerto Rico does not. In addition, the median household income is $18K compared to Mississippi, where where the per capita income is $40K. How much can you really tax a household that only makes $18K? No companies will target Puerto Rico as a market. It's expensive to ship food there from the COTUS. In addition, if the island was already in debt, a substantial portion of the revenues are going to pay off the debug.
So it's easy to say the government "drove the island to bankruptcy" implying that funds are being mismanaged. Even a new government would not be able to change the status quo because they are starting from such a deep hole. When the federal government needs to get out of a recession, they use deficit spending, and the closest thing a state can do to do that (which is not really ethical but there are no other options) is to issue bonds, and then default on them (bankruptcy).
...
So it's easy to say the government "drove the island to bankruptcy" implying that funds are being mismanaged. ...
It's easy to say because it's true.
Are you trying to say it's not irresponsible mismanagement on the part of Puerto Rico's governemnt to spend more money than they can take in?
That would be hard, because it's basically false.
You're bandying semantics to try excusing overspending and bankruptcy.
A large part of the challenges that Peurto Rico faces is that it is not in fact a country, but rather it is an "unincorporated territory of the United States located in the northeast Caribbean Sea".
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
https://www.thoughtco.com/puer...
Peraps if Peurto Rico was a country (or a "state" within the United States), they might have been better able to respond to the types of problems that this storm has caused.
WIth a population of a bit more than 3.4 million, the territory seems to have more people than twenty-two other US states:
http://worldpopulationreview.c...
...
So it's easy to say the government "drove the island to bankruptcy" implying that funds are being mismanaged. ...
It's easy to say because it's true.
Are you trying to say it's not irresponsible mismanagement on the part of Puerto Rico's governemnt to spend more money than they can take in?
That would be hard, because it's basically false.
You're bandying semantics to try excusing overspending and bankruptcy.
Because the US government is a paragon of financial responsibility and never spends more than it takes in, right?
Just the fact of its location and the extensive damage means no quick solution to get things back to normal. Someone mentioned it would be wise to bury the electrical cables to prevent such a major power disruption. Two problems prevent that, one is money to do that because the only power company in PR is significantly in debt before this. Second the process of underground cables is far more intensive then putting up poles and stringing lines. People in PR already pay way more for electricity than anywhere else in the US mainland.
Because our $20 trillion in debt is caused by $400,000 grants. Give me a break, our debt is caused by our defense spending (your "heroes"). They are protecting our Homeland after all.
Democrats gave us 20T debt? Republicans were equal partners.
And NASA has long been run by left wingers and democrat types. Just so you know.
PR should become a state or become an independent country. There shouldn't be any middle ground. However I know many, many PRicans who do want the middle way. They want it to remain as it is. "This is what was agreed to 100 years ago - and we ought to stick with it."
If you're scared of your govt then you need to further restrict its powers
Vote 3rd Party in 2016 and beyond
I don't know if you know this but Puerto Ricans are US citizens. Their debt is their doing as is their current statehood. They have to choose to be a state as much as they have to choose sovereignty just as they chose to be fiscally irresponsible.
Why can't the debt be resolved by the Puerto Rican government? Why should other citizens and states pick up the tab for them when that has never happened before?
9.951 trillion from Democrats, 9.63 trillion from Republicans. Not much between them.
1. They already voted for statehood.
2. Much of their fiscal problems can be attributed to the Jones act, which increases prices on the island.
The US has treated Puerto Rico shabbily.
The real "Libtards" are the Libertarians!
Democrats gave us $20 trillion in debt, my dude.
Huh? The deficit always goes up when Republicans are in power. Don't you remember Cheney saying "deficits don't matter" when the Bush administration was in power? (funny they never say that when Democrats are in the presidency.)
Debt goes up because Republicans cut taxes and increase spending. Yes, increase spending. Look up the data. They are like, "we need to cut spending! We'll cut ten million from health and human services and oh, by the way, increase the military by a hundred billion!"
I had a friend who objected when people said that the Bush administration spent money like a drunken sailor. He said "That's a lieI was a drunken sailor, and I can tell you that drunken sailors stop spending when they run out of money."
Last administration that actually balanced the budget was Clinton. (Bill, not Hill, that is).
Please. Federal social program spending is greater than defense.
1) they have voted 3 times for statehood with another one to come.
2) the fiscal problems all stem from the PR government. not the act that gave PRs citizenship while trying to create strong economic and cultural ties to the mainland.
US has treated PR shabbily? HOW? How is it different than any other territory vying for statehood? If it was truly that bad then why hasn't PR voted for independence?
Is that it's filled with Puerto Ricans.
You can't simply pretend that the Jones act doesn't exist and doesn't drastically raise prices on PR, which then has a knock-on effect on the whole island economy.
Why hasn't the US government responded to the request for statehood?
The real "Libtards" are the Libertarians!
Guam and the Marianna Islands only have 200,000 people so they aren't going to become a state.
I didn't ignore it that is why I said "the act that gave PRs citizenship while trying to create strong economic and cultural ties to the mainland".
As I have explained in a different post, the referendums have been contested for poor wording and boycotts. Basically because none of the results had clear majority and/or legitimacy they were ignored. What is the US supposed to do without a clear mandated decision from the PR people?
OP: Notice that I did not say they weren't citizens, I said they deserved equal citizenship. Territories have no senators and their representatives in the House have limited voting powers. This contributes to them getting screwed over by things like unequal social welfare distribution and the Jones Act.
Again, the in this day and age, the idea of a territory as a remote, isolated piece of sovereign land is outdated and stupid. You don't need "designated representatives" when an elected official can be in D.C. in less than six hours.
I think you're talking about two different laws. I'm pretty sure the Jones Act that has to do with shipping is different from the Jones-Shafroth Act that gave Puerto Ricans citizenship.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
You are welcome on my lawn.
oops. my bad. thanks. some reason I thought it the same law. Dang Jones and his laws!
Snopes has a fact check of what's been sent to Puerto Rico. Trump may be an insufferable idiot but to say the Federal government is dragging it's feet is just bullshit. Must more be done? Absolutely, but the narrative that the government is doing less than they did for Texas and Florida is just wrong. Aid did get there faster but until they pave over the Caribbean that's going to continue to be a problem. The only questionable call was not suspending the Jones act so non-American flagged ships can help with supplies, but right now the infrastructure is so screwed that the military is the best one to be distributing aid. Their ships have the ability to offload without shore support, most commercial ships don't and would just be getting in the way at this point. Once they get power, diesel, etc back to the docks then yes, they could use more ships.
Why? I was alive when Vermont broke the 200,000 person line. I was also alive when the people finally outnumbered the cows. Pretty sure they have been a state for a long time too.
It's OK, I heard talking heads on TV make the same mistake last week. The two laws were passed within a few years of each other, so it's an easy mistake to make, and they both impact Puerto Rico.
You are welcome on my lawn.
Puerto Rico is a third world country, with third world politicians, third world corruption, and third world infrastructure. The govt power company was barely functional before the hurricane. By an odd accident of history, the US "owns" PR.
Meanwhile, a large part of the economy, pharmaceutical manufacturing, is fading away because the tax breaks that were propping it up were repealed, and in addition, the US companies who operate there are being taken to the cleaners by the Indians, and I don't mean "Native Americans."
PR was already "in the hospital", and now it's going to be on life support for a long long time.
So now you know which act I was referring to, how about commenting on its effect on the economy of PR?
The USA has created a situation where the cost of living on PR has been artificially increased, to benefit a few wealthy people, and ensuring that the brightest people can easily leave.
Do you really think that that's been good for the economy of the island?
The real "Libtards" are the Libertarians!
If you look at the pics, you'll notice the areas with buildings that had distributed microgrids of power, as in houses with some solar or wind that could be protected or taken indoors, were the first to regain power, followed by diesel backup generators that either pre-existed or were provided by the military or commercial/private interests.
While it is true that undergrounding is a good choice, it would not have prevented blown transformers, flooded power generation sites, storm damage to all utility power generation, so bringing the grid back up becomes very difficult. You have to isolate the cells and bring them back up one by one. Problem is the load is too high. Modern equipment mostly goes to off mode (e.g. furnaces shut down during power interruption, fridges go to quiet/standby mode), but there's a lot of old equipment on islands.
Current Energy Policy articles recommend that most islands go to sustainable/resilient renewable microgrids with both battery (e.g. Tesla PowerWall and equivalent (cheaper to make yourself)) and CNG/LNG power backups.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
Hawaii falls under the Jones act, how are they negatively impacted by it?
The problem is that Puerto Rico is an island, surrounded by water, big water, ocean water, and that water is salty and fishy. Also, Puerto Rico is sitting in the middle of an ocean. And it’s a big ocean; it’s a very big ocean. A very very big ocean.
All US ports fall under the act. It's just another diversion. Pure bullshit.
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
Compare "Median Income" to "Per Capita Income". Lies. Damn Lies. Statistics. You are a fucking liar!
Currently, but not historically and we are talking about debt not current deficit. It is only in the past few years that social services has taken a larger share of the pie.
There are several places that a brighter in the "dark" photo than before. For example, near the northern coast, from about center running a ways west. (Roughly Manati to Arecibo.) Makes me wonder what's going on there.
Constitutionally Correct
That's what a study by the Federal Reserve of NY thinks.
The real "Libtards" are the Libertarians!
I am not sure I understand. Two Island economies yet one needs special treatment. Why?
I see that you quoted a Wikipedia source but if you read the next paragraph that uses your source:"Although, in March 2013, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a study of the effect of the Jones Act on Puerto Rico that noted "[f]reight rates are set based on a host of supply and demand factors in the market, some of which are affected directly or indirectly by Jones Act requirements." The report further concludes, however, that "because so many other factors besides the Jones Act affect rates, it is difficult to isolate the exact extent to which freight rates between the United States and Puerto Rico are affected by the Jones Act"
So far, the more I read about Puerto Rico I see a couple of themes. 1) Puerto Rico is given special treatment sometimes good sometimes bad. 2) the government of Puerto Rico is garbage which compounds all its problems. I don't think the Jones Act is to blame as much as the crap government of Puerto Rico.
For example, the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA) was a state monopoly providing free electricity to local governments which prompted the Mayor of Aguadilla to build an ice-skating rink. I wonder why PREPA has a $9 billion debt.
Just ask anyone who lives there. There is a lot of poverty in Hawaii due to the high cost of shipping. Just go into any grocery store and you can see why.
http://www.hawaiibusiness.com/...
The Jones act punishes Hawaii, Alaska and Puerto Rico.
Because of the Jones Act, you can't have a foreign ship stop off in Hawaii before hitting a port in California, nor a ship traveling from the west coast stop off in Hawaii on their way to Asia. Any ship that goes between US ports must be U.S. flagged, U.S. crewed, U.S. owned and U.S. built. This makes it very expensive since most ships are foreign built, foreign-owned, foreign flagged and foreign crewed. The Jones act makes shipping cost several times what it normally would cost. For example, it's cheaper to send a product from Alaska to Seattle by first sending it to Japan than to send it directly.
This post is encrypted twice with ROT-13. Documenting or attempting to crack this encryption is illegal.
With a recalculation of poverty rate, yes it seems that Hawaii is pretty high (Hawaii's poverty rate of 17.4 percent is nearly 2 percentage points higher than the national average of 15.8 )http://hano-hawaii.org/newhano/index.php/news/237-hawaii-poverty-rate-recalculated-to-be-7th-highest-in-us
That is very different than Puerto Rico's 44.9%. What causes the cost of living in Hawaii to be so high, the huge tourism industry or the Jones Act?
Social security and Medicare are paid for by FICA taxes. It's rather disingenuous to equate that to buying aircraft carriers on the national credit card. If you want to ditch them, you have to repeal FICA, with the concomitant decrease in revenues. If you do that, then ALL of the deficit spending will be from the DoD.
* To be fair, Medicare IS partially funded out of the general fund. That should stop.
I mean, if had been a real catastrophe like Kathrina, who knows what might have happened... ...
Seriously, citizens of the United States of America, WHAT were you thinking electing that clown to office?
And you're just trying to divert it further. The main point was that the US fucked over PR, made laws specifically just to fuck them over. And you're prattling on about ports for some reason.