Hurricane Fiona struck Puerto Rico last Sunday, close to the date Hurricane Maria - a devastating Category 4 storm - ripped through the island five years ago.
But despite just brushing the southeastern corner of the island, and arriving as a weaker Category 1 storm, Fiona has caused widespread chaos and destruction.
On today's South Florida Roundup, WLRN's Americas Editor Tim Padgett explained why - and explored in depth what it will take for Puerto Rico to fully recover from these disasters.
“This is such an awfully dysfunctional electrical grid in Puerto Rico. And it just shows you how little has been done to really fix it in the past five years,” he said.
According to the National Hurricane Center, Northern Puerto Rico saw four to 12 inches of rain, with up to 20 inches in some areas. Southern Puerto Rico saw 12 to 20 inches of rain, with some spots receiving more than 25 inches of rain during Fiona.
The island is still recovering from the damage caused by Maria and its fragile power grid remained in desperate need of repairs.
Fiona further damaged the grid, knocking out the power for many. PowerOutage.us, which tracks service disruptions, says that as of late Friday afternoon, 860,631 households are still out of power.
Padgett said that alongside President Biden’s declaration of aid to Puerto Rico, the U.S. could help the island right now with debt relief.
“That’s one of the things that kept it back from really effectively addressing the rebuilding of the island five years ago, it’s what’s going to hurt them as they try to rebuild the island after Fiona,” he said.
According to Padgett, the island and its utility companies are swamped with debt. He said that until the United States can help Puerto Rico figure out how to reduce that debt, it will be hard to keep repairing the island’s poor electrical infrastructure.
For those seeking to help Puerto Ricans affected by the storm, you can reach out to nonprofits such as the Hispanic Federation in Puerto Rico and PRxPR, based in New York. Other groups in South Florida taking donations include the Global Empowerment Mission in Doral.
On the South Florida Roundup, we also spoke to Jesse Scheckner of Florida Politics about the suspension of Miami-Dade Commissioner Joe Martinez, and we talked to Michael Butler of the Miami Herald about the prices of homes in South Florida - which finally appear to be decreasing.
We also spoke to Kimberly Miller of the Palm Beach Post and Taylor Marr, deputy chief economist of Redfin, about a transit project in West Palm Beach and the increase in home purchases with cash.
Listen to the full episode above.
