When Hurricane Fiona lashed Puerto Rico Sunday, it left at least one dead, washed out bridges and roads, ripped off roofs and sent more than 2,100 people scrambling to emergency shelters. It also laid bare, once again, just how sickly the island’s power infrastructure is.
Even before the storm touched land on the southwestern tip of the island, it had provoked a general blackout that affected the entire U.S. territory of 3.1 million people. Luma Energy said that it restored power to more than 100,000 of its 1.5 million clients.
The power outages hit as Puerto Rico’s Electric Power Authority, known as Prepa, is dealing with a bankruptcy with no clear end in sight. Court ordered mediation to reduce the $9 billion debt the company owes broke down on Friday — just hours before Fiona hit — opening the door to prolonged and costly litigation with bondholders.
