SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico _ The lights are on again in Puerto Rico. The island's dilapidated electric grid hums with life a year after a meteorological jackhammer named Maria battered the island, toppling its high-tension towers and sending Puerto Ricans into prolonged darkness.
It took a mammoth effort to repair the grid. Thousands of linemen arrived from as far as California, Hawaii and even the Northern Mariana Islands in the Pacific Ocean to stand up power lines and reconnect homes. Twenty massive barges brought 1,000 bucket trucks on loan.
But despite spending as much as $3.2 billion, the federal effort over the past year to restore power to the island didn't build a better and more resilient system. In fact, the grid is more fragile. A severe new storm would put Puerto Rico's 3.3 million residents into deep trouble.
