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A28 u.s. news
Dialuna 4 OctOber 2021

Puerto Ricans fume as outages threaten health, work, school

Puerto Rico Gov. Pedro Pierluisi “It really puts a dent in my paycheck,”
blamed the outages on management she said. “I have to rethink things. ...
failures at the Electric Power Author- I’m going to have to risk my health
ity and called the repeated failures just to be able to pay the rest of the
“untenable.” bills.”

Pierluisi himself has faced calls to Like other Puerto Ricans, Maysonet
resign — hundreds gathered to pro- has modified her diet, turning to
test near the governor’s mansion on canned goods, snacks and crackers
Friday — and many are demanding that won’t spoil in a power outage.
that the government cancel Luma’s
contract. “Just when I’m about to cook some-
thing, the power goes out. Then it’s,
The president of the power author- ‘I guess I’m having another bowl of
ity’s governing board resigned last cereal,’” she said.
week and a new executive director,
Josué Colón, was appointed, promis- Those who can afford it buy genera-
ing to visit all generation units to pin- tors or invest in solar panels, but bud-
point the problem. gets are tight for many on an island
(AP) — Not a single hurricane has hit boilers and condensers. In one recent mired in a deep economic crisis and
Puerto Rico this year, but hundreds incident, seaweed clogged filters and “I recognize the critical condition a government that is effectively bank-
of thousands of people in the U.S. a narrow pipe. that they’re in,” he said. “We’re not rupt.
territory feel like they’re living in the going to stop until the problem is
aftermath of a major storm: Students Luma also has implemented selective corrected.” Even attempts to rely on alternate
do homework by the light of dying blackouts in recent weeks that have sources of energy often are frustrated.
cellphones, people who depend on affected a majority of its 1.5 million Some people have taken to banging
insulin or respiratory therapies strug- clients, saying demand is exceeding pots at night in frustration in addition Manuel Casellas, an attorney who
gle to find power sources and the supply. to organizing protests. recently served as president of his
elderly are fleeing sweltering homes 84-unit condominium complex, said
amid record high temperatures. Luma took over transmission and dis- Among those planning to join is Car- the owners agreed to buy a genera-
tribution in June. Puerto Rico’s gov- men Cabrer, a 53-year-old asthmatic tor more than a year ago at a cost of
Power outages across the island have ernor said the company had pledged and diabetic. She has been unable to $100,000. However, they first need
surged in recent weeks, with some to reduce power interruptions by 30% use her nebulizer and recently had to a power company official to con-
lasting several days. Officials have and the length of outages by 40%. throw out insulin for lack of refrig- nect the generator to the grid. He has
blamed everything from seaweed to eration. The heat forces her to open made four appointments, and said
mechanical failures as the govern- The island’s Electric Power Authority her windows and breathe in pollution officials canceled them all at the last
ment calls the situation a “crass fail- has long struggled with mismanage- that aggravates her asthma. She cooks minute without explanation.
ure” that urgently needs to be fixed. ment, corruption and, more recently, and washes clothes at irregular hours,
bankruptcy. fearing the power will go out again. “This has created great annoyance,”
The daily outages are snarling traffic, he said. “This is a building with many
frying costly appliances, forcing doc- In September 2016, a fire at a power “This has turned into abuse,” she said elderly people.”
tors to cancel appointments, caus- plant sparked an island-wide black- of the outages. “I’m constantly tense.”
ing restaurants, shopping malls and out. A year later, Hurricane Maria hit Casellas himself has at times been
schools to temporarily close and even as a Category 4 storm, shredding the The outages are especially aggravat- unable to work at home or the office
prompting one university to suspend aging power grid and leaving some ing because power bills have been because of power outages at both. If
classes and another to declare a mora- customers up to a year without pow- rising and the pandemic has forced he can’t meet with clients, he doesn’t
torium on exams. er. many people to work or study from get paid. Like others, he is consider-
home. ing leaving Puerto Rico.
“This is hell,” said Iris Santiago, a Emergency repairs were done, but re-
48-year-old with chronic health con- construction work to strengthen the Barbra Maysonet, a 30-year-old call “Every time the power goes out here
ditions who often joins her elderly grid has yet to start. center operator who works from it pushes your post-traumatic stress
neighbors outside when their apart- home, said she sometimes loses an button,” he said, referring to the
ment building goes dark and the hu- “We’re on the verge of a collapse,” entire shift and doesn’t get paid for harrowing experiences many went
mid heat soars into the 90s Fahren- said Juan Alicea, a former executive lack of power. She’s hesitant to work through after Hurricane Maria, with
heit. director of the authority. at the office because she doesn’t want an estimated 2,975 people dying in
to expose her mother and grand- the aftermath. “You can’t live without
“Like any Puerto Rican, I live in a He said three main factors are to mother to COVID-19. electricity.”
constant state of anxiety because the blame: Officials halted maintenance
power goes out every day,” she said. of generation units under the er-
“Not everyone has family they can roneous belief they would soon be
run to and go into a home with a gen- replaced. Scores of experienced em-
erator.” ployees have retired. And investment
to replace aging infrastructure has
Santiago recently endured three days dwindled.
without power and had to throw
out the eggs, chicken and milk that Puerto Rico’s power generation units
spoiled in her refrigerator. She said are on average 45 years old, twice
power surges also caused hundreds those of the U.S. mainland,.
of dollars of damage to her air condi-
tioner and refrigerator. Luma has said it expects to spend
$3.85 billion to revamp the trans-
Puerto Rico’s Electric Power Author- mission and distribution system and
ity, which is responsible for the gen- company CEO Wayne Stensby said
eration of electricity, and Luma, a pri- Luma has made significant progress
vate company that handles transmis- in stabilizing it. He noted that crews
sion and distribution of power, have have restarted four substations, some
blamed mechanical failures at various of which had been out of operation
plants involving components such as since Hurricane Maria.