Preliminary evaluations show Hurricane Fiona damaged 50 percent of transmission lines and distribution feeders across Puerto Rico as hundreds of thousands remain without power or water service almost two weeks after the storm hit, officials said Thursday.

As Hurricane Fiona bore down on Puerto Rico two weeks ago, the U.S.-imposed fiscal control board and the U.S.-based judge who handles the public electric utility’s debt restructuring deal forced Puerto Rican lawyers to file motions even as the archipelago was experiencing an island-wide blackout.

Since Hurricane Fiona swept over Puerto Rico on Sunday, residents along the southern coast have seen little state or federal aid in their communities, forcing them to survive mostly on their own.

In the five years since Hurricane María tore through their country, the people of Puerto Rico have made efforts to rebuild in hopes that they would be ready for the next disaster. Hurricane Fiona, a Category 1 storm that swept through the island on Sunday, has shattered such hopes.

The eye of newly formed Hurricane Fiona neared Puerto Rico’s south coast on Sunday. already causing an island-wide power blackout and threatening to dump “historic” levels of rain.

On the island of Puerto Rico, there are more than 40,000 people using electrical devices that extend their lives, and during emergencies they are more vulnerable.

With this year’s hurricane season only a few days away, most forecasters have predicted a fairly “normal” season with an average of 14 named storms, seven hurricanes, and three of those reaching Category 3 or above—though experts still warn to prepare for the worst.

Hurricane María, a Category 4 storm that swept through Puerto Rico in September 2017, left the island with a “new coast,” according to a new study by the Institute of Investigation and Coastal Planification of Puerto Rico.

The Supreme Court now has a historic opportunity to begin taking apart the colonial framework undermining Puerto Rico by turning the page on the century-old Insular Cases and the legal precedent that has perpetuated systemic biases—and it should.

As fuel in Puerto Rico grows scarcer after Hurricane Fiona, an oil tanker loaded with much-needed diesel fuel is treading water off the coast of Puerto Rico, unable to dock because a 1920 law, known as the Jones Act, requires ships to be U.S.-owned if they want to load or unload.

Latino Rebels Radio: September 22, 2022

After Hurricane Fiona made landfall in Puerto Rico on Sunday, Congress returned to Capitol Hill on Monday to questions from Latino Rebels about how officials will respond to the crisis in the U.S. colony that has left vast swaths of the island without power or running water.

Hurricane Fiona unleashed more rain on Puerto Rico on Monday, a day after the storm knocked out power and water to most of the island, and National Guard troops rescued hundreds of people who got stranded.

Puerto Ricans will likely spend this Christmas without their time-honored tradition of eating plantains with dinner, after Hurricane Fiona destroyed 80 percent of the island’s plantain and banana crops in September.

The Department of Transportation and Public Works offered incomplete data on the bridges damaged by Hurricane Fiona and does not say whether there was a monitoring plan for those that were in a vulnerable condition before the storm.

Puerto Rico’s Energy Bureau announced Thursday that it will investigate how a private company has handled complaints about electric bills after Hurricane Fiona knocked power out to the entire island.

Two weeks after Hurricane Fiona, non-governmental organizations in Puerto Rico still bear the greatest burden of guiding and caring for survivors of gender-based violence.

President Joe Biden visited Puerto Rico on Monday to announce new hurricane relief projects, two weeks after Hurricane Fiona battered the archipelago. Tens of thousands remain without power, and even more worry that aid promised by Biden will be too little too late.

PONCE, Puerto Rico (AP) — President Joe Biden promised to “rebuild it all” while visiting Puerto Rico on Monday, as tens of thousands of people remain without power two weeks after Hurricane Fiona struck and residents worry that Washington’s dedication to their recovery could prove fleeting.

President Joe Biden on Monday will survey damage from Hurricane Fiona in Puerto Rico, where tens of thousands of people are still without power two weeks after the storm hit. The Category 1 hurricane knocked out electrical power to the U.S. territory of 3.2 million people, 44 percent of whom live below the poverty line.

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — The U.S. government announced Wednesday it would temporarily waive a federal law and allow foreign diesel deliveries to Puerto Rico as it faces a dwindling supply of fuel nearly two weeks after Hurricane Fiona pummeled the U.S. territory.