Puerto Rico was left completely without electricity after an massive power outage hit the island on Wednesday. It is the largest power outage in U.S. history.
Puerto Rico’s electrical grid experienced a major failure, leaving an estimated 1.5 million people in darkness. According to the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority, restoring power could take between 24-36 hours.
Seven months after Hurricane Maria destroyed the island’s electrical grid, Puerto Ricans continue to deal with this sort of catastrophe on a regular basis. Just last Thursday, another power outage left 870,000 people, more than half the island, without electricity.
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The federal government’s response to the island following Hurricane Maria has been roundly slammed by Puerto Ricans, legislators, and the general public. Not only did it take the Trump administration much longer to respond to the crisis than it did to help Texas after Hurricane Harvey and Florida after Hurricane Irma, but the financial aid the government has provided to the island isn’t nearly enough to finance a decent recovery effort.
FEMA has also failed the island completely. After promising to deliver 30 million meals, the agency only delivered 50,000.
BREAKING: Puerto Rico is suffering the largest blackout in US history, the second largest ever in the world. Do you wanna know why? Because Donald Trump has done nothing to actually help. Except throw paper towels into a crowd. Trump is to blame for this. https://t.co/oJDI5r9e4d
— Scott Dworkin (@funder) April 18, 2018
Trump has yet to comment on the crisis.
