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Puerto Rico: A Real Life Worst Case Scenario

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An AMO UH-60 scan be seen through the destruction in Ponce, Puerto Rico on Sunday, September 24. U.S. Customs and Border Protection photo by Kris Grogan

In late September Hurricane Maria knocked out power to all of Puerto Rico’s 3.4 million people. In January, 35% remain with out power. That’s over 1.19 million people who have been without power for months.

Most people are not equipped to handle a power loss for a week. They’d lose the food in their refrigerator and quickly burn through any canned and dry foods they have.

Without access to stored water, survivors would be dependent on handouts from governments or NGOs to keep them alive. That’s not a position you want to be in with your family. Watch the video below to see people, American citizens, queuing up for water and food. They have been forced to live for months without power, in the midst of trying to rebuild every other aspect of their lives.

To help mend Puerto Rico’s broken power infrastructure, the government is calling for private investment. The island’s leaders plan to sell the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority to a private company with hopes that new investment and expertise can help prevent such a tragedy from happening again.

Daniel Bases reports at Reuters:

“The Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority has become a heavy burden on our people, who are now hostage to its poor service and high cost,” Governor Ricardo Rossello said in a statement. “What we know today as the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority does not work and cannot continue to operate like this.”

Less than 64 percent of homes and businesses are receiving power, according to the latest data from the U.S. Department of Energy. PREPA had promised that most of the island would have power by the end of December. The new plan calls for 30 percent of power generation to be from renewable sources.

Rossello described how the process for breaking up the company would occur in three phases, calling it a move toward a “consumer-centered model.”

Read more here.

Traumatized Puerto Ricans see uncertain, insecure future

Dark, desperate life without power in Puerto Rico

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E.J. Smith - Your Survival Guy

E.J. Smith is Founder of YourSurvivalGuy.com, Managing Director at Richard C. Young & Co., Ltd., a Managing Editor of Richardcyoung.com, and Editor-in-Chief of Youngresearch.com. E.J. graduated from Babson College in Wellesley, Massachusetts, with a B.S. in finance and investments. In 1995, E.J. began his investment career at Fidelity Investments in Boston before joining Richard C. Young & Co., Ltd. in 1998. E.J. has trained at Sig Sauer Academy in Epping, NH. His first drum set was a 5-piece Slingerland with Zilldjians. He grew-up worshiping Neil Peart of the band Rush, and loves the song Tom Sawyer—the name of his family’s boat, a Grady-White Canyon 306. He grew up in Mattapoisett, MA, an idyllic small town on the water near Cape Cod. He spends time in Newport, RI and Bartlett, NH—both as far away from Wall Street as one could mentally get. The Newport office is on a quiet, tree lined street not far from the harbor and the log cabin in Bartlett, NH, the “Live Free or Die” state, sits on the edge of the White Mountain National Forest. He enjoys spending time in Key West and Paris. Please get in touch with E.J. at ejsmith@yoursurvivalguy.com