Over the protests of the Puerto Rican government, and groups involved in ongoing recovery efforts on the island, as well as probing questions from lawmakers on the Hill last week, FEMA has decided to pull the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) members who are working on grid repair — from their assignment.
As Chef Bobby states in his tweet — leaving USCE personnel to watch the generators doesn’t address needed grid repair.
One other key point — you see numbers posted in news articles about how many “customers” are still without power on the island. That figure is deceptive. A customer is a meter. So if the figure cited is 20,000, that means there are far more humans without power. A meter can be on a home with anywhere between 1 and 10 people who live there.
NPR points this out:
As of this week the Army Corps had 1,059 contractors on the island, including nearly 700 people working on power lines. Of the island's 1.5 million power customers, officials say about 23,000 — or roughly 70,000 people — are still in the dark.
I took a quick look at the news to see what is being reported:
The US Army Corps Will No Longer Be Allowed To Work On Puerto Rico's Storm-Ravaged Power Grid
The US Army Corps of Engineers will extend its mission in Puerto Rico, but not help repair the power grid as the storm-ravaged island struggles to get things in order ahead of a new hurricane season, officials announced on Thursday.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) partially denied a request from Puerto Rico's representative in congress, Jennifer Gonzalez Colón, two weeks from the start of another hurricane season, even though tens of thousands of residents on the island, or close to 5% of the grid, remain without power and there serious concerns about the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority's capacity to take over the work needed after Hurricane Maria.
FEMA's decision means PREPA and its sub-contractors will be entirely responsible for work on the island's power lines starting Friday. Army Corps personnel who stay on for the energy mission will be responsible for maintaining the three "mega generators" and 700 other generators being used as back-ups and to power parts of the grid until more permanent lines are fixed.
Army Corps Leaving; Puerto Ricans Still Without Power
“It’s not in our culture to walk away from a mission when it hasn’t been fully accomplished, but we follow orders,” Charles Alexander, the Corps’ director for contingency operations, told the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee at a May 8 hearing.
The Corps has been operating under the orders of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Corps leaving Puerto Rico with hurricane recovery unfinished
YABUCOA, Puerto Rico
The Army Corps of Engineers is ending its work to rebuild Puerto Rico's electric grid, despite residents' fears that the island's government won't be able to restore power on its own to more than 16,000 people who remain blacked out eight months after Hurricane Maria.
The federal agency will keep operating more than 700 generators on the island, including three "mega generators" supplementing Puerto Rico's aging and storm-damaged power plants. But on Friday the restoration of thousands of miles of downed power lines will be handed back to the U.S. territory's bankrupt public utility, the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority, or PREPA.
Here’s a look at what the Corps has been doing from their own publicity.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, under mission assignment from FEMA and in support of the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority, is helping restore the power grid in Puerto Rico, including in mountainous towns, after Hurricane Maria pummeled the island's electric infrastructure.
It’s pretty clear that no matter what Puerto Rico begs for, decisions made by those in power ignore their pleas.
Puerto Rico To FEMA: Let The Power Crews Stay
In an urgent letter to the heads of the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Rep. Jenniffer Gonzalez requested that the agencies extend their restoration contracts on the island for up to 90 days.
"Out of an abundance of caution in the face of the upcoming hurricane season," wrote Gonzalez, "I must urge that there be an extension of the mission that allows agency and contract crews to remain in place to see that the system is 100 percent restored."
…
Nearly all of them live in remote, mountainous areas, in communities where fury and desperation have set in as the start of hurricane season looms. This week residents of one neighborhood in the city of Humacao marched on the streets with torches, demanding an immediate restoration of their electricity.
The march.
Translation: With torches in hand, residents of Humacao denounce going more than 8 months without light
While debate rages about what Donald Trump meant by referring to Spanish speaking people as “animals,” my suggestion — look at his actions and those of the agencies he directs.
My conclusion — Trump FAIL, FEMA Fail.
The clock is ticking, and when you take a look at Puerto Rico and the storm season ahead, remember this. It won’t take a hurricane to rip off the blue tarps that are temporary roofs on so many homes on the island. The defoliated and treeless hillsides are ripe for massive mudslides if there is simply heavy rain.
Puerto Rico needs more than our prayers. It needs our votes.
Sadly, a November blue wave will be too late for far too many of our fellow citizens on the island.