Almost five years ago to the day, Hurricane Maria wrought catastrophic damage on Puerto Rico. Now another hurricane has caused an island-wide power outage, provoking new questions about the use of billions in federally-allocated disaster relief funds.
One million households are without power in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Fiona, then a Category 1 storm, made landfall on the island's southwestern coast Sunday afternoon. These outages began even before the storm came ashore, with power lines coming down as the storm's gusts reached the island. Puerto Rico's governor, Pedro Pierluisi, has described the damage as "catastrophic" and many remain impacted by mudslides and widespread flooding after parts of the island received nearly 3 feet of rain.
