https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2018/0716/Lights-slowly-come-on-for-Puerto-Ricans-in-rural-areas

Somebody here or in the ham forum was asking about the status of Puerto Rico's power problems. The article sums it up pretty well, there are still some folks that don't have power almost 10 months after Maria hit. They also mentioned a bunch of folks lost power when the remnants of tropical storm Beryl hit a few weeks back. If a weak tropical storm could cause issues, that's telling me the replacement grid isn't going to be much better than the grid was before Maria.

If they get hit again, it's likely they'll be right back in the same boat. Sad.

That was me. Thanks for the link. Kinda hard to grasp no power for 10 months. I've been without for 2 weeks, that was really just the inconvenience of getting gas for the generators and keeping the oil changed.

Wish I'd gotten in on those before the tariffs hit.

I'm still keeping an eye on the rigid panels. I may buy a few at a time and get myself set up with maybe 3kW worth (10 of the 320W panels) and set them up on my big shed. That way I can have an off-grid system that's still close enough to run extension chords to the house if I need to. And, the shed will still look like a shed from the street.

Hi Planemaker, we are getting back to almost full restoration of electric service, but as you say, the grid is fragile and any weak storm could create interrumptions in some areas of the island.

I think there is a contract of about 900 million dollars for restructuring the grid to make it more resilient and stronger so it can withstand storms better.

But right now there seems to be some management issues related to political power struggles in the administration of the power company. Some groups wants to privatize the power utility, others dont want that, others wants to see how they can have a piece of the pie in the contract for the restructuring phase of the grid, and who knows what else may be in the pot.

What does all that means for the common folk? What are the lessons learned?

Be self sufficient, be prepared for power outages and the consecuences it creates.

And thanks for yout interest in the well being of the US citizens here in PR.

I know that in the guard, we are still rotating people down there to help, the concept that you do not have power for that long is insane.

Played golf Monday and waved the twosome up to join us since the hags in front were so slow.

Puerto Ricans. Mom an Pop on the mainland now for 25 years. Kid born and raised here.

Anyway, nice guys. Asked how his family was making out on the island and he said they just got the power back on.

They're from the middle of the island.

Hurricanes fuck shit up.

Who knew?

PR was fucked up before the Hurricane. They will be just as fucked up 2 years after !

Thats wishful thinking, I think it would take more than two years.

BTW, FEMA has released their assessment of how well they did responding to last year's serial disasters. There was a mix of patting themselves on the back and oops, we forked up. It's a really good read with lots of good data/statistics in the report  a message to folks to be prepared to take care of themselves.

2017 FEMA Hurricane AAR

sadly,  the many thousands of pueto ricans that moved to Florida most likely won't return.  Damn shame.