Puerto Ricans still without electricity

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This video from the USA says about itself:

30 October 2017

Democracy Now! has just returned from Puerto Rico, where we interviewed Ángel Figueroa Jaramillo, head of the Puerto Rico electrical workers’ union, just as the island’s governor announced he was instructing the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority, known as PREPA, to cancel its controversial $300 million contract with the tiny Montana-based company Whitefish Energy.

The move came after enormous pressure and scrutiny of the contract to reconstruct Puerto Rico’s electrical power grid devastated by Hurricane Maria. Whitefish Energy is based in the tiny hometown of Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke. The head of the private equity company that backs Whitefish, Joe Colonnetta, was a Trump campaign donor. All of this comes as a leaked copy of the contract sparked even further outrage last week, when it revealed that the terms barred penalties for work delays and prohibited the project from being audited.

Translated from Dutch NOS TV today:

More than three months after Hurricane Maria raged over Puerto Rico, almost half of the island still has no power. According to the electricity company of Puerto Rico, much remains to be done to repair all damage to the power grid.

55 percent of the approximately one and a half million households now have electricity again. These are the first official figures from the government

Earlier figures said 64% supposedly had electricity again.

after Puerto Rico was hit by Maria, with wind gusts of up to 250 kilometers per hour. As a result of the hurricane, dozens of people died.

Here, the NOS quotes the much too low official figure. Eg, the New York Times says Hurricane Maria killed over a thousand people.

A municipality on the island, the mountain area of ​​Ciales, is still completely without electricity. It is unclear when the power network for this region will be restored. The US military previously expressed the expectation that the entire island will be connected to electricity again in May.

“This is mentally very difficult,” says one of the residents who are still without power. “It feels like a lack of respect for us, I know the damage was big, especially in the mountains, but in my opinion it takes too long.”

Months after Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico, we take you inside a suicide prevention call center, where the phones keep ringing: here.

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