This is the second installment in a continuing series. Previous installments:
The Big Picture
Our ongoing tracking of the Puerto Rican government’s excellent recovery data site revealed both good news and bad this past week (see graph above).
On the plus side:
- Regular deliveries of diesel fuel (bottom panel, red line) and gasoline (blue line) skyrocketed this week, with gasoline deliveries nearly tripling, and diesel approximately doubling. On an island that remains dangerously dependent upon backup generators for electricity this is a key metric.
- Hospitals with electrical service (black dashed line) jumped, with more than 60% currently powered. But many are running on backup generators, which are not designed for continuous operation for indefinite periods, and breakdowns remain frequent.
- Piped water (orange line) continues a steady recovery, now reaching about 70% of all customers. Recall however that water quality remains poor; most municipalities are still advising their citizens to boil their tap water.
- Cellular service (grey dotted line) saw a modest boost this week, with about 25% of all cellular antennas now back in service.
- Not shown on this graph: 100% of the island’s ports are now back in service, including the home port of the Carnival Cruise Lines ship, Fascination.
But on the other hand:
- Restoration of electrical service (green line) — upon which all else ultimately depends — made no net progress this week. Large-scale outages on the 11th and 13th (perhaps related to heavy rains and flash flooding) briefly wiped out all of the previous week’s gains, leaving the island’s utilities struggling merely to tread water. Electrical service remains stubbornly stuck serving only 10% to 15% of the island’s 3.4 million U.S. citizens.