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Lights Slowly Come On for Puerto Ricans in Rural Areas (csmonitor.com)
Almost a year after two hurricanes ravaged the US territory, repair crews are working to energize the more than 950 homes and businesses that remain without power in hard-to-reach areas. Puerto Ricans remain fearful that their newly returned normality could be short lived. An anonymous reader shares a report: Lights are slowly coming on for the more than 950 homes and businesses across Puerto Rico that remain without power in hard-to-reach areas. Repair crews sometimes have to dig holes by hand and scale down steep mountainsides to reach damaged light posts. Electrical poles have to be ferried in one-by-one via helicopter. It is slow work, and it has stretched nearly two months past the date when officials had promised that everyone in Puerto Rico would be energized. And even as TVs glow into the night and people like delivery man Steven Vilella once again savor favorite foods like shrimp and Rocky Road ice cream, many fear their newly returned normality could be short-lived. Turmoil at the island's power company and recent winds and rains that knocked out electricity to tens of thousands of people at the start of the new hurricane season have them worried.
Why not deliver a portable solar system to each in the interim until the grid can be repaired? It might not provide full capacity, but it will at least allow for basic lighting, refrigeration, etc.
Puerto Rico was failed by the USA -- no reason for them to seek closer ties to Washington as a state. Frankly, independence and membership in CARICOM might be a better solution, with a visa reciprocity agreement with the USA (they owe PR one, actually more than one).
Visited there many times.
It's essentially a third world country, though a territory of the US. An interesting third world country, and I liked many of the people.
Their odd state of limbo is not really our fault, unless you want to fault us for not being more authoritarian with them, which I doubt.
There isn't even a Navy base there anymore, which was pretty much the only reason they are a US territory. It had to go, because we are such evil imperialists, ya know.
I find it amazing that, in the 21st century, the utility we've come to rely on the most is the least reliable. Here in central Florida, we call the power company "Florida Flicker and Flash" because virtually any weather anomaly causes power fluctuations or outages. I can't imagine what it's like in PR.
Puerto Rico should become a state. Write in a Texas-style escape clause if you want to placate your folks who dream fantasies of an island-nation empire.
Puerto Rico is an enormously productive place - with wonderful people who are technologically capable, and an amazing history of overcoming strife.
But right now, it is also once again a place of unprecedented cruelty imposed on it, mostly due to political demands.
Statehood would mean senators, congressmen, shared defense (you already have many, many of your people in our armies), and yes, disaster relief with less wiggle room than our Republicans tend to always take in large disasters.
Also, breaking that '50' magic number would also help places like Washington DC escape from a similar turmoil.
You're more populous than most states, for goodness sake:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
Oh, and you'll help us vote against Trump more effectively this way.
Ryan Fenton
This has been a monumental task, not something that can be fixed by just throwing money at it. For example, there are only so many transformers, insulators, poles, etc. in stock, and many many of these had to be replaced. There are still parts that they are taking a long time to source. So much of the infrastructure had been ignored by the power company and Puerto Rico’s governement that most of it has to be replaced. Even if it was a state, it’s the state’s responsibility to manage local utilities.
Add in the rugged territory (as mentioned in TFA), and it’s just plain slow going.
They are the richest island in the Caribbean.
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It seems logical in a place prone to get hit at least once if not more a summer by a hurricane that there should be an emphasis on burying the lines, particularly the high voltage transmission backbone lines. This, along with 'micro-grids' powered by solar or other means with battery backups would help ensure the island doesn't go completely dark at once. It will be a major undertaking, but the alternative is Puerto Ricans reverting back to the 19th century every year for 9 months.
Given there are approximately 1.26 million households and 43,000 businessesin Puerto Rico, this is actually pretty much a non-issue. We're talking about 0.07% of the homes and businesses in PR that are left without power. My guess is you get close to that in any given US city just from daily work/repairs and accidents (drunks hitting power poles, etc).
Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
In terms of nominal dollars maybe -- but their ties to the US means that goods like food and cars generally cost the same as in mainland US. So real spending power is reduced compared to some of their neighbors.
Also, isn't Trinidad the richest in terms of GDP?
Puerto Rico was failed by the USA -- no reason for them to seek closer ties to Washington as a state. Frankly, independence and membership in CARICOM might be a better solution, with a visa reciprocity agreement with the USA (they owe PR one, actually more than one).
If Puerto Rico were whiter then the White House might have bothered lifting more than one finger in trying to help them.
"That's the way to do it" - Punch
Puerto Rico was failed by the USA -- no reason for them to seek closer ties to Washington as a state.
You mean except for actually being able to have a voice and a vote in Congress? (5 or 6 congressional seats and two senate seats) Plus they would get to vote for President. They were failed by the current administration and congress because they lack a voice and a vote.
Frankly, independence and membership in CARICOM might be a better solution, with a visa reciprocity agreement with the USA
Won't happen. Frankly Puerto Rico should have petitioned to become a state a long time ago. I understand why they haven't but remaining an unincorporated territory of the US seems like a bad plan given recent events.
http://hydrogenhouseproject.or...
Yes, so why didn't they take the opportunity to decentralize and use ambient energy?
Some of those mountaintops should be great places to put windmills. Some of the rest should be good places to put solar battery shacks on. Deep Sea Siphoning can also provide electricity, as can wave and tidal generators, for cities and homes and hotels closer to the seashore.
SJW: a person who perceives an injustice, and while correcting it, commits a greater injustice.
When the Governor decided to start trashing the USA recovery effort (because of Trump) while standing in front of huge piles of relief supplies, I lost my sympathy.
Huge piles?
It wasn't enough. The Trump administration really dropped the ball.
Why not deliver a portable solar system to each in the interim until the grid can be repaired?
Who is going to pay for it? That's the problem with all of this. Puerto Rico is broke and gets little help from the US government despite every citizen of Puerto Rico being a US citizen.
US gave up quite a bit of property. Philippines after WW2. Their lease on the Canal Zone. Bunch of other small islands. The sun will set up the US empire too, and that will be a good thing.
It seems logical in a place prone to get hit at least once if not more a summer by a hurricane that there should be an emphasis on burying the lines, particularly the high voltage transmission backbone lines.
Puerto Rico get hit by a hurricaine about every three years on average.
As for burying lines, it's a fine idea but an expensive one. Burying lines costs about 5X as much per mile just to lay the lines. And maintenance becomes an issue when you have to dig to solve a problem. Remember that Puerto Rico has a lot of financial problems so spending extra to bury the lines is going to be difficult for purely financial reasons if nothing else.
Whoever was in charge of the power company received lots of money and used it for everything but infrastructure upgrades.
Only the State obtains its revenue by coercion. - Murray Rothbard
If you use the "PPP" purchasing power parity ranking T&T is the richest independent country in the Caribbean. Once territories are included, it changes. Puerto Rico would be at the top of that list with 2015 data of $35,291.80 vs. T&T's $32,194.28.
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The US only cares about the White and the Wealthy. Being part of the US didn't help those thousands of people killed in New Orleans by Hurricane Katrina. PR would be better off if they left the US entirely.
I don't respond to AC's.
They are the richest island in the Caribbean.“
Only the richest Port.
Purchasing Power Parity for all of the Caribbean and Latin America nations (thus not including Puerto Rico). Trinidad and Tobago are tops with around $32,200 PPP. For Puerto Rico we find a PPP around $35,000. Indeed, Puerto Rico is the richest place in the Caribbean, even by purchasing power parity.
T&T has a GDP around $44 billion; PR has a GDP around $105 billion.
Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
> If Puerto Rico were whiter then the White House might have bothered lifting more than one finger in trying to help them.
So Houston and Florida are "white" now? What utter deranged nonsense.
Whiter than Puerto Rico by a long way- and majority English speaking.
"That's the way to do it" - Punch
Puerto Rico was failed by the USA -- no reason for them to seek closer ties to Washington as a state.
They were 'failed' because many, many Americans don't know that Puerto Ricans are also Americans.
If PR was a state at least a few more Americans would realize PRs are citizens, too.
LOL. Well played.
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PPP isn't necessarily that accurate -- it assumes the same goods and purchasing habits between countries.
For one example: cars in Puerto Rico are subject to onerous US regulations, driving prices up. Meanwhile, Trinidad has different regulations that may allow import of cheaper used cars from Europe and Asia.
Diets may also not be the same across countries and regions.
Money does not grow on trees.
But light poles do....
"File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
The point is that you can pick any metric you like and Puerto Rico is at or near the top in the Caribbean.
W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
Have you actually BEEN to TX lately?!?!?
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
Sadly, Slashdot has been infested with Trump-supporting racists, authoritarians, and Russian trolls recently. Yes, it's a shame how far ./ has fallen. I remember it in the late 90s and early 00s as a bastion of tolerance and also as being skeptical of authority.
Cuba. We gave up Cuba after they voted for independence. Puerto Rico has never asked to be independent, or they'd have it.
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The homes without power are systematically without power. The daily work/repairs and accident number is on top of that.
Transformers are a built to order item. That's why when we bid a job thugs don't show up until the end of the job. There are large(months) lead time on things like transformers, switch gear and electrical panels. And money won't really help unless you want to pay 4x as much to get them a few weeks sooner.
What metric, then, do you choose to use that will change the data? PPP tries to equalize for things like cost of goods, regulatory, etc. via a basket-of-goods comparison basis.
Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
The USA never truly had Cuba. If a military occupation counts as ownership, you might as well say the USA gave up France and West Germany and Iraq.
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Puerto Rico is extremely white for a Hispanic island, and they also speak English pretty well. The radio DJs code switch, and if you only know one language you can't follow the conversation. It's basically the US's Quebec. If you even attempt to speak anything other than Caribbean Spanish to them, they will speak only English back if they know it - PR is pretty useless for practicing your Spanish. I suspect the reason they don't let more English into signage and whatnot is to scare off people who might turn it into the East Coast's Hawaii (incl Hawaiian prices).
The difference in response was logistics - you can drive trucks from all over the US to the problem spots on the mainland. But try and get things to PR, nightmare. The infrastructure was also trashed to the point where few people could even get to the docks to unload the supplies and equipment that were arriving. Outside the cities, other than the three unsigned (partially built) interstates, PR is two lane roads on flat land and 1.5 lanes in the mountains (where you must honk when taking blind turns and downward traffic must pull off to the side of the road to let traffic travelling up continue at speed). Those roads have dips that flood 3-4 feet deep during run of the mill rainstorms. After Maria there were probably marine ecosystems developing in those huge pockets of deep water.
...for this hurricane season.
The Filipinos probably want to know what their grandparents were smoking when they voted on that... they went from territory to being a country that requires a lengthy visa application/interview process even for tourists trying to visit the US.
And now the descendants of the guys responsible for the Bataan Death March are the most prominent investors trying to improve their infrastructure. Funny how that works...
No, please. The US is about the only reason cartels and local corruption haven't ruined the island like they have so many other places. I mean, they are also the reason cartels ruined other places, but who says the guy who cut off your leg can't also be the one holding the tourniquet on?
OTOH, it's the perfect revenge on Japan -- take their money, build your country up, then default one fine morning.
Don't worry, I'm sure the local Democratic politicians have thought ahead to the inevitable storms in the area and ensured the government controlled utilities and roads and such are all prepared properly for anything likely to hit Puerto Rico.
If not, it's not like they're going to blame other people who aren't in charge of their local emergency preparedness for their problems, instead, they'll be properly humble and grateful if they ever need to ask others for additional help.
Heck, the local population even has a guaranteed minimum wage much closer to where the local median wage is at then the rest of the country. Their economy is of course super-charged with tons of extra jobs as a result.
The party of stupid and the party of evil get together and do something both stupid and evil, then call it bipartisan.
China is the most prominent investor in PH. Japan is probably not in the top 5.
Also, Catholicism and American GOP conservatism don't really align, other than perhaps on abortion.
Not true at all nor that simple. A majority of white catholics have voted republican in every presidential election since 2000 roughly 55-65% so clearly there is alignment there. The hispanic catholics on the other hand vote democrat rather strongly - about 70% of them. This probably has less to do with religion and more to do with race since the republican party has systematically driven away voters who aren't white. Also the majority of the conservative justices on the Supreme Court are catholic. (Clarence, Roberts, Alito)
The prosperity gospel is not a Catholic idea.
Really? Have you seen the amount of gold leaf in the Vatican? Not exactly a monument to austerity and modest living. Get real. While I hesitate to paint with to broad a brush in many cases, I feel entirely comfortable saying that they catholic church is VERY comfortable with money. They might not be as gauche about it as some of their evangelical counterparts but make no mistake that they care about money a LOT.
The Catholic Church abhors the death penalty.
That has not been their policy for most of their history nor is it their official position even today. The Catechism of the Catholic Church states that the death penalty is permissible in certain cases if the "guilty party's identity and responsibility have been fully determined". Never mind the crusades, the inquisition, countless religious wars, executions of heretics, etc... The catholic church has a long and storied history of support for capital punishment.
The current Pope is very left-liberal as far as wealth concentration and the environment.
No he is not. He's just not as ridiculously far right as the previous popes but don't make the mistake of thinking he's some left leaning hippie. I know a lot of people like him but let's not pretend he's really changing how the catholic church operates or what they stand for. He's at most shaving off some of the pointy bits.
Good point, though technically the US maintained control over Cuba until the 30s via the Platt Amendment (and related treaties), including a 2nd occupation. In retrospect it seems to have been a poor policy, but hey, it was 1900.
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