45 Percent Of Puerto Rico Still Without Electricity, 4 Months After Storm

More than one-fourth of Puerto Rico still lacks electricity four months after Hurricane Maria struck the island.

Around 45 percent of the neighborhoods on the island still have no electric service, CBS correspondent David Begnaud tweeted on Wednesday. The current electric grid only serves 55 percent of the island even though 81 percent of the power generation has been resorted., he reported.

Electricity has been out so long that students at the Academia Bautista de Puerto Nuevo in San Juan jumped for joy when the lights came back on, ABC News reported. The school was without power for 112 days after Maria struck on Sept. 20, 2017.

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The Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA) and the federal government might be making the situation worse by hoarding materials needed to rebuild power lines, The Intercept alleged.

Federal agents raided a PREPA warehouse and seized building materials on Jan. 6, The Intercept said.

“Lying about not having the parts to cover the inefficiency of PREPA is outrageous and those responsible must be taken before state and federal authorities to be criminally processed immediately,” Eduardo Bhatia, the minority leader in Puerto Rico’s Senate, told the media.

More than 329,000 Puerto Ricans have flown to Florida since Oct. 3, Begnaud tweeted. Puerto Rico’s population in 2016 was 3.411 million.

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