THE full extent of the catastrophic damage Hurricane Maria has done to Puerto Rico is not yet known. The storm ravaged the island on September 20th, and then continued to deluge it with rain the next day. It knocked out the electrical grid—it will take months to restore power to the whole island—and put an end to most mobile communication. It rendered many roads and bridges impassable. (In the storm’s immediate aftermath, before relief workers distributed satellite phones, some parts of the island could be contacted only by runners.) The Federal Emergency Management Agency is providing help, relying in part on the $15.3bn in funding that Congress allocated for disaster relief earlier in September, after Hurricanes Harvey and Irma struck Texas and Florida, respectively. But the island’s governor, Ricardo Roselló, is in no doubt that more help is needed. Otherwise, he says, the island faces a “humanitarian crisis”.
Even if that plea is met, it is unlikely to stop the long-term damage to the island. Before the storm, Puerto Rico already faced an economic collapse. Having borrowed too much, and seen its economy shrink almost every year since 2005, the island commenced bankruptcy-like proceedings in May. That was possible because of a federal law passed in 2016. Until then, unlike states and municipalities, it had no way to escape its unpayable $123bn in debt...Continue reading
Source: United States http://ift.tt/2xNuFsL
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