Puerto Ricans Ask: When Will the Lights Come Back On?

CAGUAS, P.R. — Luis Rodríguez looked at the huge concrete power pole in his front yard, resting on his daughter’s Chevrolet and blocking the tow truck he drives to make a living, and wondered: When is help coming?

“Usually, after something like this happens, people are out on the streets working immediately,” said Mr. Rodríguez, who lives with his 16-year-old daughter. “But this time, the government’s response has been very slow.”

Four weeks after Hurricane Maria, packing winds of up to 155 miles an hour, knocked out power to the entire island, 80 percent of Puerto Rico still does not have electricity. Some residents have not had power for 45 days — since Hurricane Irma brushed by after Labor Day.

For Mr. Rodríguez, that means using candles for lighting and a gas stove for cooking. He buys ham and cheese sandwiches and coffee for breakfast.

“The water comes and goes, comes and goes, and it’s just a trickle,” he said. All the food he cooks comes out of cans.

In contrast with Texas after Hurricane Harvey and Florida after Irma, where thousands of repair workers rushed in to restring power lines, only a few hundred electrical workers from outside the island have arrived to help.


It was not until Saturday that the Puerto Rican government said it had the federal funding needed to bring in more workers. And until a week ago, the small Montana company hired to get the lights back on had only 165 workers on the ground; it now has about 300.

In comparison, 5,300 workers from outside the region converged on coastal Texas in the days after Hurricane Harvey to restore a power loss that was about a tenth the size, said Larry Jones, a spokesman for AEP Texas. Electricity was back on for almost everyone within two weeks.

In Florida, 18,000 outside workers went in after Hurricane Irma knocked out electricity to most of the state last month, according to FPL, Florida’s largest power company.

In Puerto Rico, the brunt of the work has been left to the 900 members of local crews.

Industry experts said poor planning, a slow response by power officials and Puerto Rico’s dire financial straits had led to a situation that would be unfathomable in the continental United States. Logistical challenges — like where to house the thousands of extra workers needed to get the lights back on — still have not been resolved.

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