The aftermath of Hurricanes Maria and Irma on Puerto Rico has been quite cruel. The island still suffers from lack of electricity, cell phone signals and potable water. Houses that were not totally ripped apart, had their roofs torn off allowing water, rodents and insects into homes, which bring vector borne disease and toxic mold to millions of suffering Americans. Food crops were decimated and farms destroyed. Despair and anxiety is everywhere.
Today, approximately 3 months after the hurricanes, people still live day by day. If they are lucky, they can scrape together enough money to buy fuel for their generators. The diesel that runs the generators smothers the island in a toxic mix of petro-chemicals, face masks are a must have in many areas. Even as power transmission towers get slowly repaired, the island still faces outage after outage plunging residents back into darkness, danger and misery.
Vice news does an excellent job explaining why it is so difficult to get the power back in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. This is a must watch for all Americans in order to understand the brutal reality of power restoration in the storm ravaged Caribbean.
The video notes that power poles are needed in the (climate change enhanced) natural disaster impacted states of Florida, Texas and California, as well as Puerto Rico.
x xYouTube VideoI did not know that FEMA dollars can only be used for repairs, not upgrades. Since the power grid was in terrible shape before the windstorms, this regulation will not resolve any of underlying problems and needs to go ASAP.