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+23 +1
Puerto Rico power grid snaps, nearly 1 million in the dark
Puerto Rico's power grid broke down again on Thursday, leaving some 800,000 customers without power, as the US Caribbean possession struggles to recover five months after Hurricane Maria slammed the island. Justo Gonzalez, head of the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA), said that one of the island's main transmission lines was out of service. Officials said the line should be fully operational again before Friday.
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+18 +1
Electricity restored to 75 percent of customers in Puerto Rico: Utility
Nearly six months after Hurricane Maria decimated Puerto Rico, the island's electricity has been restored to 75 percent capacity, according to its utility company. The Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority said Sunday that 75.35 percent of customers now have electricity. It added that 90.8 percent of the electrical grid, already anemic even before the Sept. 20 storm barrelled through the island, is generating power again.
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+15 +2
Puerto Ricans take matters into their own hands to restore power
Tired of months of ineffectiveness, volunteers and workers are working to fix downed power lines in attempts to restore electricity for the 400,000 people still in the dark still since hurricane Maria. So far, power has been restored to 2,000 homes.
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+10 0
FEMA Contract Called for 30 Million Meals for Puerto Ricans. 50,000 Were Delivered.
The mission for the Federal Emergency Management Agency was clear: Hurricane Maria had torn through Puerto Rico, and hungry people needed food. Thirty million meals needed to be delivered as soon as possible. For this huge task, FEMA tapped Tiffany Brown, an Atlanta entrepreneur with no experience in large-scale disaster relief and at least five canceled government contracts in her past. FEMA awarded her $156 million for the job, and Ms. Brown, who is the sole owner and employee of her company, Tribute Contracting LLC, set out to find some help.
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+32 +1
FEMA Contract Called for 30 Million Meals for Puerto Ricans. 50,000 Were Delivered.
FEMA terminated a big contract with a tiny vendor hired to produce meals for Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria. Now, Congress is asking questions.
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+13 +1
FEMA ending food and water aid to Puerto Rico, official says
More than four months after Hurricane Maria battered Puerto Rico, the Federal Emergency Management Agency is halting new shipments of food and water to the island, an agency official with direct knowledge of the plan told CNN on Tuesday. The island government appeared blindsided by the decision, saying it was still in talks with FEMA on a timetable for assuming control of food and water distribution.
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+21 +1
Trump Administration Tells Puerto Rico It’s Too Rich For Aid Money
MEANS TESTING HAS now come to disaster aid — and it only applies to Puerto Rico. When Congress passed a $36.5 billion disaster relief bill to bolster rebuilding efforts in several wildfire and hurricane-damaged areas in October, it shortchanged Puerto Rico, giving it a $4.9 billion loan instead of the grant that other areas received. Now, it appears the debt- and hurricane-ravaged island won’t even get that money.
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+22 +1
3+ months after Maria, barely half of Puerto Rico has power
Puerto Rico authorities said Friday that nearly half of power customers in the U.S. territory still lack electricity more than three months after Hurricane Maria, sparking outrage among islanders who accuse the government of mismanaging its response to the Category 4 storm.
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+20 +1
Puerto Rico's hurricane destruction may have doomed the world's honeybees
It’s a killer mystery without a killer. The astonishing die-off of honeybees over the past decade is a problem no one knows how to solve, but the key might rest in Puerto Rico, where the so-called “killer bee” spontaneously became gentle. This remarkable evolutionary leap could hold the secret to restoring the global bee population—unless Hurricane Maria kills off these benign “killers.”
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+36 +1
Analysis | Hurricane Maria killed 64 Puerto Ricans. Another 1,000 died because the disaster response was inadequate.
The U.S. excels at delivering international humanitarian relief. But FEMA has a different mission.
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+27 +1
Tesla deploys 6 battery projects in order to power two islands in Puerto Rico, more to come
As part of Tesla’s continuous effort to deploy energy storage systems in Puerto Rico following their power issues after being ravaged by hurricanes, the local government has now announced that the company will deploy 6 new battery projects on two Puerto Rican islands. Several additional larger scale projects are also reportedly in the works.
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+21 +1
Puerto Rico Sketchbook: The Artists with the Shovels
Molly Crabapple spent a week in Puerto Rico, documenting grassroots efforts by communities to rebuild. Here are excerpts from her sketchbook.
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+25 +1
Puerto Rico’s DIY Disaster Relief
Two weeks after Hurricane Maria hit, aid remained a bureaucratic quagmire, mismanaged by FEMA, the FBI, the US military, the laughably corrupt local government. The island looked like it was stuck somewhere between the nineteenth century and the apocalypse. But leftists, nationalists, socialists—the anarchist and feminist Louisa Capetillo’s sons and daughters—were stepping up to rebuild their communities. Natural disasters have a way of clarifying things. They sweep away once-sturdy delusions, to reveal old treasures and scars. By Molly Crabapple.
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+23 +1
A mesh network spontaneously erupts in the US and helps connect Puerto Rico
When goTenna put out their Mesh device earlier this year, I thought the off-grid communication gadgets would be great for an emergency kit or back-country hike. But it turns out that both I and goTenna underestimated how hungry people were for a resilient, user-powered mesh network: thousands of dedicated nodes now populate cities across the country, and volunteers are using them to get Puerto Rico back online after a devastating hurricane season.
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+7 +1
US Government to Continue Funding Hurricane-Stricken Puerto Rican Telescope
Yesterday, the National Science Foundation announced that they’ll keep the storied Arecibo telescope running in the wake of the Hurricane Maria damage. The NSF concluded that the best way forward was to collaborate with “new stakeholders” who will both use and maintain the facility, according to the Record of Decision. There could be some potential demolitions of buildings on the site, but funding will continue.
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+16 +1
FEMA to transport Puerto Rico's hurricane survivors to US mainland
The Federal Emergency Management Agency will help transport hurricane survivors from Puerto Rico to the continental United States, with priority given to approximately 3,000 people who are living in shelters, the agency said. Hurricane survivors who want to temporarily relocate to the mainland, could end up in Florida or New York, as FEMA is working to establish agreements with both states. The two states were selected by Puerto Rican Governor Ricardo Rossello, according to FEMA.
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+22 +1
Can Puerto Rico Be The Model For A Renewables-Powered Energy System?
As the island rebuilds from Hurricane Maria, renewable energy storage companies like Sonnen and Tesla are constructing microgrids on the island to create a more resilient system before the next storm strikes.
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+1 +1
San Juan Mayor Says Hurricane Death Toll in Puerto Rico Could Be 10 Times Higher Than Reported
San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz said Friday the death toll from hurricanes that hit Puerto Rico is actually hundreds higher than official government counts. "It appears that for whatever reason the death toll is much higher than what has been reported," Yulín Cruz said during an interview with CNN's Jake Tapper on "The Lead."
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+22 +1
Puerto Rico's Desperate. China Can Help.
Last weekend, officials in Puerto Rico announced that they're pulling the plug on a controversial $300 million contract to rebuild the island's electrical grid after Hurricane Maria. The previous contractor, Whitefish Energy Holdings LLC, a Montana company with just two full-time employees prior to the award, will leave the island within 30 days, while officials try to find an alternative plan.
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+33 +1
Puerto Rico Says It's Scrapping $300M Whitefish Contract
Puerto Rico plans to cancel a $300 million contract to rebuild the hurricane-ravaged electrical grid that went to a tiny company based in Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke’s Montana hometown, the head of the island’s power utility said. Ricardo Ramos, executive director of the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority, or Prepa, said he will request permission from the utility’s board of directors to end the deal with Whitefish Energy Holdings LLC. The contract stipulates that 30 days of notice is required. Existing work, including on key transmission lines, will continue for now.
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