Page 11 - ARUBA TODAY
P. 11
WORLD NEWS A11
Tuesday 9 January 2018
More equipment, crews head to Puerto Rico for power boost
By DANICA COTO division controls that ware- Power lines lay broken after the passage of Hurricane Maria in Dorado, Puerto Rico. Federal
Associated Press house and said it of lacked officials said on Monday, Jan. 8 2018, that efforts to fully restore power to Puerto Rico in the wake
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico transparency in inventory of Hurricane Maria should get a boost with more work crews and more equipment in upcoming
(AP) — Federal officials and accountability. Power weeks.
said Monday that efforts company spokesman Car-
to fully restore power to los Monroig did not return a (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)
Puerto Rico in the wake of message for comment.
Hurricane Maria should get More than 40 percent of sibly can.” An upcoming Rico’s finances amid an 11- the island’s north coast. Ju-
a boost with more work Puerto Rico’s power cus- shipment of 1,250 miles of year recession said Mon- dith Enck, a former regional
crews and more supplies in tomers remain in the dark conductor wire and 6,000 day that it is considering administrator for the U.S.
upcoming weeks. nearly four months after the poles made of wood, con- four projects worth a total Environmental Protection
The U.S. Army Corps of En- Category 4 storm hit the is- crete and galvanized steel of $1.5 billion to help re- Agency, said Monday that
gineers said it is getting its land, causing an estimated will soon coincide with the store energy. The projects officials earlier had rejected
own barge to ship items $95 billion in damage and arrival of nearly 2,500 new include a proposed $860 the waste-to-energy plant
and that materials it re- killing dozens of people. workers in the next two million waste-to-energy and accused the compa-
quested several months Lloyd said crews are still weeks, officials said. In ad- plant and a $47.5 million ny of trying to exploit post-
ago have been manufac- assessing damage and dition, a federal control wind farm, both of which hurricane conditions to get
tured and are finally on that his agency is still wait- board overseeing Puerto would be located along its project approved.q
their way to the U.S. terri- ing for the shipment of
tory. “We’re doing every- hundreds of thousands of
thing we can to increase poles, transformers, fuses,
the (power company’s) towers, insulators, bolts and
ability to do this as fast as other pieces. Of the nearly
possible for the people 31,000 poles ordered, al-
of Puerto Rico,” said Col. most 12,000 have arrived.
John Lloyd, who is helping Meanwhile, of the more
oversee power restoration than 6,000 transformers or-
efforts for the Corps of En- dered, only 412 have ar-
gineers. He told The Asso- rived, but more than 630
ciated Press that officials were expected this week.
over the weekend also Lloyd said most of the is-
discovered some needed land should have power
equipment in a previously by end of February or early
overlooked warehouse March, estimating it could
owned by Puerto Rico’s be fully powered by May.
Electric Power Authority. “Four months is a long time
The lack of some of those for people to be without
hard-to-find pieces had power,” he said. “We try to
delayed energizing cer- do this as fast as we pos-
tain lines, according to the
Corps of Engineers, which US senator: no evidence of ‘sonic attacks’ in Cuba
said the material included
transformers, splices and By M. WEISSENSTEIN try, which oversees domes- contents of those briefings. blow to U.S.-Cuban rela-
hundreds of a key small Associated Press tic security and works with Cuban and FBI officials did tions that were restored
piece no longer in stock HAVANA (AP) — Republi- foreign law-enforcement not immediately respond under President Barack
elsewhere. can Sen. Jeff Flake says the agencies. to requests for comment Obama.
Puerto Rico’s energy infra- U.S. has found no evidence The Cubans told Flake the on Saturday. “The Cuban Interior Minis-
structure is about 44 years that American diplomats in FBI has told them that, after Secretary of State Rex Til- try is saying the FBI has told
old, compared with an av- Havana were the victims of four trips to Cuba, its agents lerson has said he’s “con- them there is no evidence
erage 18 years in the U.S. attacks with an unknown have found no evidence vinced these were tar- of a sonic attack, even
mainland, so a lot of parts weapon. that mysterious illnesses geted attacks,” but the though that term is being
damaged or destroyed by Flake, a Senate Foreign Re- suffered by U.S. diplomats U.S. doesn’t know who’s used, attack, there is no
the hurricane are no lon- lations Committee mem- were the result of attacks. behind them. The U.S. has evidence of it,” Flake told
ger available and have ber and a longtime leading Flake told The Associated withdrawn most of its dip- the AP. “As I said, I won’t
to be manufactured, advocate of detente with Press on Saturday morning lomats from Havana, citing talk about what I have
Lloyd said. It is unclear Cuba, met Friday with high- that classified briefings from a health risk, and forced seen in a classified setting,
why power company offi- ranking Cuban officials U.S. officials have left him many Cuban diplomats to but nothing is inconsistent
cials had not provided the including Foreign Minister with no reason to doubt the leave Washington. with what the Cubans
equipment previously. The Bruno Rodriguez and offi- Cuban account, although Cuba has decried the re- have said, and I think the
Corps of Engineers said the cials from the Interior Minis- he declined to discuss the ductions as an unjustified FBI would say that.”q
company’s transmission
