Efforts to completely restore Puerto Rico’s power was set back after an explosion and fire at an electric substation thrusted much of the U.S. territory into darkness. Electricity has been difficult to supply and stabilize since the hurricanes last fall.
The morning of Sept. 17, 2017, the island of Puerto Rico faced one the biggest catastrophes in it’s history. Hurricane Maria came full force to the island elevating to category five. Even preparing for the natural disaster, citizens experienced many losses. The aftermath of Hurricane Maria left many with out a home, food, survival supplies and family members. It left 16 people dead and plenty without power.
Citizens of Puerto Rico complained that they did not receive the efficient help they needed from the U.S government. A few days after the storm, Governor of Puerto Rico Ricardo Rosselló had a public meeting with President Donald Trump. In the meeting, they discussed Puerto Rico’s budget and how horrific the tragedy was.
Many citizens were enraged by the discussion with Donald Trump. Many thought the president would send support to rebuild their homeland.
At the meeting, Trump compared the death totals and damages between Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Maria.
“But if you look at a real catastrophe like Katrina, and you look at the tremendous hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people that died, and you look at what happened here with, really, a storm that was just totally overpowering,” Trump said. “Nobody has ever seen anything like this. What is your death count, as of this moment? Seventeen?”
As of January 2018, Puerto Rico still has not received the funding officials say is needed to repair the country.
Parts of Puerto Rico continued to stay without electricity for several months.
Many Puerto Ricans felt as though they were being neglected by the United States as a territory and as citizens. Many ultimately fled to the United States to live with family and friends until the issues in Puerto Rico are handled. Months later, most of the island gained electricity back, but not for long.
After regaining electricity, the island’s capital, San Juan, experienced an explosion at the electric substation. This left many cities with out any power. According to the New York Times, officials do not know exactly what triggered the explosion. The incident caused for two other substations to be knocked out as well.
The mayor of San Juan, Carmen Cruz, tweeted that there were no injuries were reported but 400,000 people were left in the dark.
Workers immediately rushed to the scene to help repair the towers. They knew that the problem could be fixed within a few days, but the citizens of Puerto Rico did not know that. After the struggle they went through with Hurricane Maria, many were in fear and wondered how long it would take to gain electricity again.
Carmen Adorno, a resident in San Juan, was greatly affected by the black out. That Sunday of the explosion, Adorno was in her living room explaining to her husband how she was very surprised that the light had not gone out since the Hurricane happened.
“Literally a half an hour later, our lights went out,” said Adorno.
She feared for her life because the three months after hurricane Maria hit her home, her house was without power. Adorno and her family were scared that they would spend a long time with out electricity. She believed that her home would be without power for at least two weeks, so her husband quickly purchased gas for their generator.
Adorno and her family were lucky enough to receive power within an hour and a half, but her heart ached for those who could not gain electricity as fast as she did.
“Sadly, there [are] many people who do not have light,” said Adorno.
