Environment
Hurricane Fiona Exposes Puerto Rico’s Failure to Fix Frail Power Grid
- Power company fails to strike deal on its $9 billion debt
- More than 1 million customers were without power early Monday
When Hurricane Fiona lashed Puerto Rico Sunday, it left at least one dead, washed out bridges and roads, ripped off roofs and sent more than 2,100 people scrambling to emergency shelters. It also laid bare, once again, just how sickly the island’s power infrastructure is.
Even before the storm touched land on the southwestern tip of the island, it had provoked a general blackout that affected the entire US territory of 3.1 million people. Luma Energy said that it restored power to more than 100,000 of its 1.5 million clients.