Puerto
Rico is now in its 100th day since Category 4 Hurricane Maria struck
the island, damaging vast amounts of infrastructure and nearly
eliminating its electrical and running water systems.
Though
some of these basic necessities have returned to the island,
residents who have electricity say that "blackouts are part of
life" and are angry that they are still in "recovery mode."
Clear
statistics on electricity are hard to obtain on the island, a U.S.
"territory." According to several news outlets, one million
people are still without electricity. But according to Engineering
and Agronomy High School President Pablo Vazquez, only 44 percent of
Puerto Rico's nearly three million residents have reliable energy in
their homes.
"We
had to cancel our Christmas Eve dinner," resident Irma
Rivera Aviles told NPR. The vast majority of the population on the
predominantly-Catholic island was forced to spend Christmas in the
dark.
While
infrastructure in and around the tourism-dependent capital city of
San Juan has returned, rural areas remain without adequate health
care.
In terms
of transportation, 27 sections along several highly-traveled highways
are closed, 15 fallen bridges have not been rebuilt and hundreds of
traffic lights are down.
Full
report:
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