The Mess in Puerto Rico. No power on the whole island for 4-6 mos.

Puerto Rico should be a state, if that's what the people of Puerto Rico want. The problem with statehood is not only that the Republican Party is very much against it for political reasons. There has been more than one referendum on whether to become independent, retain the current nebulous status, or to become a state. In the most recent vote (and in others) the pro-independence party and the pro-commonwealth party both called for boycotting the referendum. Result? Although something like 97% of the voters wanted statehood, only 23% of registered voters participated in the most recent referendum. Puerto Ricans need to have a vote where all the people participate. At least a large enough percentage of voters to make the results valid.

Decide the issue once and for all, then stop with the referendums. They serve no purpose other than to continue the present dysfunctional condition. The pro-independence party and the pro-commonwealth party boycott these things because they are afraid that they would lose, that statehood would win, and that they would forfeit whatever local political power they possess. That's a bizarre state of affairs, in my opinion. Sure, the GOP opposes making Puerto Rico a state, but if the people there don't have an honest vote on the issue of statehood, nothing will happen. All that occurs is that the Republicans can point to these worthless referendums and claim that there isn't a majority that want a change in the current status. That leaves Puerto Rico powerless. They can't work in Congress to get the aid they desperately need, because they have no senators and no members in the House.

 

On top of all the problems, a dam failed... this could get even uglier.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/sep/22/puerto-rico-hurricane-maria-dam

Two towns in western Puerto Rico have been evacuated in the wake of Hurricane Maria, after a dam failed causing “extremely dangerous” flooding, the US National Weather Service said on Friday.

The municipalities of Isabela and Quebradillas, home to some 70,000 people, were being evacuated with buses because of a crack in the Guajataca dam.

The 345-yard (316-meter) dam holds back a manmade lake covering about two sq miles (five sq km) and was built decades ago.

“This is an EXTREMELY DANGEROUS SITUATION. Buses are currently evacuating people from the area as quickly as they can,” the NWS tweeted.

 

I thought this thread would be about how Puerto Rico just got flattened by Maria and is facing a dire calamity with failing dams, no clean running water, and no electricity. Instead of statehood, I thought we should be talking about how we should be airlifting tons of resources their way to make them safe and put them on the road to recovery as soon as possible. I recognize that their colonial status is an impediment to those things happening and they probably do need to sort of their status so they can be treated like equals. But I still think the message at the present moment should be: **** status, we need to go help.

 

Not that it matters to the disaster there but Puerto Ricans don't pay personal Federal income tax on the island and that is one of the main reasons many Puerto Ricans don't want statehood. They like the current set up from a personal financial set up though the debt issue is causing huge problems.

The electrical grid has teetered on disaster for years. Only the touristy parts have had consistent power on the island until the hurricane.

 

It's s shame this is not getting more coverage. These are American citizens. Apparently most of the island is lacking water, electric, and cell service. 95% of cell towers damaged. Hospitals have 2-3 more days worth of medicine. Only 10 flights allowed per day at the airport due to damaged radar systems.

For those that read Spanish, this the Puerto Rican newspaper site.

https://www.elnuevodia.com/

 

It's unfortunate that as Americans we allow an idiot to play games with our country for his own selfish political purposes while massive, real problems slide by without much attention.

 

I wonder who would care if hundreds of thousands of Puerto Ruicans started streaming into the mainland because the island can't recover. Worrying about the illegal Mexicans "taking our jerbs" will suddenly shift to the very legal Puerto Ricans showing up to take our jerbs.

 

I worked in Florida for Irma under the power company.

I can tell you from this little experience, getting the equipment down there is probably a logistical nightmare.

Florida Light and Power contracted hundreds of trucks from tree management and other line men from across the country.

The problem is logistics not politics

 

haven't been following.... has the US military gotten involved? Something like 2-3x of what we saw in N.O. after Katrina. Sounds like a job for them.

 

Hey Glynch, your take on Puerto Rico is just as wrong as your take on Venezuela. Lol

 

or simply a humanitarian crisis

they are American citizens (2nd class it seems)... some 3+M of them

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/sep/26/puerto-rico-brink-humanitarian-crisis-media

 

Utilities hire a lot out of the military. That being said putting up power lines is a certified electrician job.

They might not have the personnel

 

Yes there are massive problems both with the status of Puerto Rico along with historical mismanagement that made PR more vulnerable and with logistics. Things in PR should not be built back to what it was before but should take advantage of new technologies and practices and build something better. I've been pushing that instead of rebuilding a centralized power grid they should instead follow the cooperative model and rebuild a distrubuted power grid that takes advantage that PR has a lot of sun and wind rather than relying upon imported fuel.

I did a quick analysis and small scale solar generators could be provided for PR for not much more than gasoline generators. Further within two months these would end up saving money since you would still have to keep on buying imported fuel for gas generators. If PR is going to recover and eventually become successful they are going to need to think about things in a much different way than beofre.

 

This will happen. Once travel gets back to normal there will be an exodus from PR since power will not be restored for months and even then the economy will still be in shambles.

 

We should impeach Puerto Rico's President.

DD