, Columnist
Puerto Rico Could Use Some More Big Government
Army engineers are working hard at hurricane cleanup. But citizens are disillusioned with Washington and San Juan.
Self help.
Photograph: Mario Tama/Getty ImagesYou can’t blame Ana Rodriguez for feeling bitter.
In her hillside home in Cidra, Puerto Rico, a mountain town south of San Juan, she relies on a generator and doesn’t think she’ll have electricity for another year — despite Governor Ricardo Rossello’s recent promise to have 95 percent of Puerto Rico’s power generation restored by Dec. 15. Bent and toppled utility poles and licorice strands of downed power lines still embroider local roads nearly two months after Hurricane Maria roared through.