SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico--Weekly power failures, hundreds of un-cleared landslides and more than 25,000 homes with blue tarps as roofs characterise Puerto Rico today as it prepares for the advent of Tropical Storm Karen, expected to approach the area tomorrow, Tuesday.
Recovery from Hurricane Maria has been slow as Puerto Rico remembers those who died two years ago. The Category 4 storm killed an estimated 2,975 people and caused more than US $100 billion in damage. It was the strongest storm to hit the US territory in nearly a century, sparking an estimated exodus of nearly 160,000 people to the US mainland.
Still delayed are millions of dollars in federal funds that local officials say are needed to repair roads, build new homes and improve the island’s unstable power grid, making it hard for Puerto Rico to recover as it struggles to emerge from a 13-year recession.
While Congress has appropriated nearly $43 billion in federal hurricane recovery funds for Puerto Rico, only $13.3 billion of the $21 billion obligated by the US government has been disbursed, said Ottmar Chavez, executive director of the island’s Central Office for Reconstruction and Recovery.
“We certainly still have many needs, and there’s still work to do,” he said.
The state of the power grid remains one of the biggest concerns for Puerto Ricans since reconstruction has not even started.
“It’s a project that will take seven years or more,” said Jose Sepulveda, transmission and distribution engineer for Puerto Rico’s Electric Power Authority.
The power company is seeking $8 billion in hurricane recovery funds for upcoming projects, Sepulveda said, adding that it takes time for the US Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to review those projects.
Critics say Puerto Rico’s government also has moved too slowly and accuse it of bureaucracy as the island recovers from recent political turmoil during which it had three governors in less than a week. Concerns about corruption also remain, with officials recently arresting a former FEMA administrator and the former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of a power company that obtained $1.8 billion in federal contracts to repair the island’s grid after Maria.
Dave Bibo, FEMA’s deputy associate administrator for response and recovery, said the agency continues to work closely with Puerto Rico’s government. He said FEMA now has six times the stock in warehouses across Puerto Rico than it had prior to Maria, and that more than 2,000 FEMA employees remain on the island.
“There’s no question the Maria response and recovery have been among the most challenging missions in FEMA’s history, but we are confident we will support the governor in building back Puerto Rico so it is stronger and more resilient,” he said. ~ SF Gate ~
