Anger grows as Puerto Rico misses power restoration deadline

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press


Danica Coto, Associated Press
Updated 12:22 pm, Friday, December 15, 2017

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Union leaders representing Puerto Rico power company workers slammed local and federal officials on Friday as the U.S. territory missed a deadline to restore 95 percent of power as promised by the island's governor.

Puerto Rico is currently at 64 percent power generation nearly three months after Hurricane Maria hit, and the situation has sparked a growing number of protests organized by hundreds of neighborhoods that remain in the dark.

 
UTIER union president Angel Figueroa said one of the biggest problems is that workers with Puerto Rico's Electric Power Authority still don't have the equipment or material to meet the governor's goal.

"We've been forced to recycle materials," he said, adding that residents in the southern mountain town of Villalba recently bought basic supplies for government workers so power could be restored in their neighborhood.

Read more: http://www.chron.com/news/world/article/Anger-grows-as-Puerto-Rico-misses-power-12433530.php

[Drahthaardogs]

1. Rumor has it (from someone in the know) is that

Everything will have to built from the ground up. The infrastructure is more or less but bubblegum and glue. You cannot fix it with standard parts because NOTHING is standard.

Now what is really fun is that the feds are saying Whoa, we are NOT paying for a whole new grid.

[BumRushDaShow]

2. "Infrastructure project"

But we know Drumpf didn't really mean REAL "infrastructure" when he blabbered on about doing such things.

[TexasBushwhacker]

5. Yup. It was already falling apart before the hurricane n/t

[Hortensis]

3. They should be so angry. I'm angry. And it also

has to do with all of us, not just them, because we're all Puerto Ricans to the Republicans and the billionaire class controlling them. Disposable. They'll empty our budget into their pockets and pull the plug on any of us any time they think they can get away with it.

Only imagine what these authoritarian locusts would do if we didn't still have the power of the vote. Speaking of, PR is small, but those who voted voted overwhelmingly Democrat in 2016, undoubtedly a factor in how much relief to allocate, or withhold. How will PR's voting system work in 2018?

[TomSlick]

4. I appreciate that it is unrealistic but

Everyone in Puerto Rico needs to migrate to the States - immediately register to vote - and vote in a Congress that will get this fixed.