The infrastructure is destroyed. It's going to take at LEAST 6-9 months to fix the basics and restore some power. It's going to take YEARS to rebuild, but their Power Co is so corrupt I do not see this happening unless the government steps in. I'll be there in a few weeks to assess the total damage done. It's going to be miserable.
There is one potential silver lining for PR. Instead of relying on the territorial government which is bankrupt and corrupt perhaps communities could start with building their own electrical cooperatives using local generation from wind and solar, two things PR has a lot of. This way they could rebuild faster and also create a more distrubuted and resilient power infrastructure that isn't dependent on imported fuel.
On top of all the problems, a dam failed... this could get even uglier. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/sep/22/puerto-rico-hurricane-maria-dam Two towns in western Puerto Rico have been evacuated in the wake of Hurricane Maria, after a dam failed causing “extremely dangerous” flooding, the US National Weather Service said on Friday. The municipalities of Isabela and Quebradillas, home to some 70,000 people, were being evacuated with buses because of a crack in the Guajataca dam. The 345-yard (316-meter) dam holds back a manmade lake covering about two sq miles (five sq km) and was built decades ago. “This is an EXTREMELY DANGEROUS SITUATION. Buses are currently evacuating people from the area as quickly as they can,” the NWS tweeted.
Terrifying indeed. The guy who recorded that is both brave and a little dumb. But you need more balls than brains to chase storms. If the wind had blown out that glass we would've been watching "Hurricane Maria: The Blair Witch Version", with someone later displaying the video from the recovered camera that went skittering on the wind around the room, photographing a glass-mangled corpse from all angles. This also tells me how easy I had it in Katy, on the "not-dirty" side of the storm, when Ike rumbled through. NOTHING like Maria.
That guy was very dumb - the sliding glass door was so close to being blown out and he just stood in front of it for hours. Intense video though - like an endless tornado.
First thing I thought. When your window is pulsating/bowing in and out, the last place you want to be is holding your hand against it. I was waiting for that thing to blow
