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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.
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).
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.
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.
I lived there from 1976 - 1989. I won't call it a 3rd-world country at all. The neighborhoods I lived in / hung out at were 1st-world, all the way.
The PR people see on TV is not all of PR. Yes, a lot of it looks like that.. but another lot of it is immaculate lawns, concrete houses with concrete roofs, pools, etc.
The media seems obsessed with showing the tin shack side of Puerto Rico.
Plaza Las Americas, built in 1968, is still my yardstick for malls. The malls in the US may be larger, but the malls here all look unfinished next to Plaza. My family was friends with the family that built Plaza. No expense was spared.
The power grid, on the other hand, has always been a disgrace. By age 8 I knew how to oil, wick and trim oil lamps and cold-blast hurricane lanterns because the power went out all the time, even in the 1st-world 'hoods. Some of that was the power union -- whenever they need something done to the contract, they'd blow up a couple of large transmission towers. Blam, in the dark for 4 hours.. or all night.
I could say South Florida is a 3rd-world country, you know. But it isn't. Same with PR.
The "Civilized World" jumped the shark ca. 1973.