PBS Nov 13 2017
"WASHINGTON — Puerto Rico's governor on Monday asked the federal government for $94.4 billion as the island struggles to recover from the damage inflicted by Hurricane Maria, with much of the U.S. territory without power and thousands still homeless."
Only got $5B to start; what's the likelihood of this happening?
"Rosello announced that his team will create a portal that will allow the public to track the status of recovery and funds. That is part of an effort to placate concerns after the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority selected Whitefish Energy Holdings to help rebuild the island's electrical system, even though it had just two employees when the hurricane struck.
If this happens, it would help a whole lot of people with their planning.
The contract was canceled on Oct. 29 amid bipartisan criticism from members of Congress and a request by Rossello to void the deal.
On the tax front, Rosello asked Congress to exclude Puerto Rico from a proposed excise tax of 20 percent for merchandise manufactured abroad because products manufactured in Puerto Rico and imported into the U.S. should be treated as domestic products."
What sense is this? It would be a killer.
What's the realistic start of the recovery? Late next year? Or, maybe 2019?
Tracking Recovery Efforts
This is a touchy subject. Ill be keeping an eye on it.
I read yesterday that FEMA has around 4,000 home inspectors active. More than 1 million filed for disaster assistance and most of those need a visit from an inspector.
[sarcasm mode on]I guess by the time FEMA is finally going to transfer money the recipients will be broke, moved to the mainland or both.. [/sarcasm mode off]
Gary wrote:I read yesterday that FEMA has around 4,000 home inspectors active. More than 1 million filed for disaster assistance and most of those need a visit from an inspector.
[sarcasm mode on]I guess by the time FEMA is finally going to transfer money the recipients will be broke, moved to the mainland or both.. [/sarcasm mode off]
I talked to an inspector on Saturday. He is from Washington. He said he will be on the island 2 years!
He also said, it will take 50 years fir PR to totally recover....
Not sure what to say.....
Marion-Olga wrote:He also said, it will take 50 years fir PR to totally recover....
He might be right there. Unless a boatload of money is coming our way and if it's NOT given to local politicians to spend, it will take forever. I won't be around to see it, I guess.
We have been trying to get FEMA to go to our house to access the damage since we left at the beginning of October to no success. Well anyway, we finally spoke to a reasonable person from FEMA the other day and we received a text this morning and my husband called the person back and got him to at least say he would set up a time and day for him to go over to the house. We told him that this is a rental house and we were not looking to repair it but simply to try to recover some of the money for the items we lost and help the owners son to get some help for his house. We lived in a family complex of 4 houses and the only houses you see from the road are the front 2 houses where the mailbox is. Thus those are the houses that they fixed or helped to fix. We have been trying to explain that to the FEMA people several times.
The owners son who owns his own house is fed up and won't even take our calls since FEMA came and inspected his mother's house and his sister's house and never came to our house and the owners house who also has damage. In fact, he still has no power either, the other two houses do have power. Well anyway, we were able to text this person from FEMA pictures of the damage in our house and he is arranging to send someone over. I understand the frustration of the owners son who hasn't seen an inspector. Well hopefully all this will finally come to a conclusion and they can get the help and we can recover some of the expenses we have incurred including the cost of the shipping of our stuff here to Florida and help in getting a place to live.
Currently we are with family and that is getting old. Luckily we are going to NY for x-mas, we had these tickets from way before the hurricane and Jet Blue was able to change the outbound from Orlando instead of Aguadilla. On the return , we will get a place,. We have looked at a few and hopefully there will be availability.
Good luck to everyone there and know that I pray for all of you every night . Feliz Navidad y Prospero Ano Nuevo!!!
Tonie
A FEMA inspector was here and we might get some $$ for damage to the house. We were told that money to generate our own electricity is not part of their budget or so.
Meanwhile, tomorrow three months after the hurricane, still no electricity in our neck of the woods.
About other recovery efforts, FEMA only got 31% of the requests for a "blue roof" done. How difficult is it to get 50,000 tarps shipped and delivered? I guess that many of the 50,000 houses that needed a temporary roof are now damaged beyond repair
This and other numbers of FEMA's recovery efforts here: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DRaL-IwWsAAG_xV.jpg:large
If anything, this makes painfully clear that PR is not getting the help it needs...
We just returned to the States after a visit to our home in Hatillo. Some touring of the island showed severe damage in many areas. Major roads and local business are open and running somewhat normally.
The streets have been cleared of most debris, but much remains to be cleaned up.
We now have running water at our house, but no power. The main power lines on hwy 119 have been rebuilt but they failed to connect my meter to the new line! Made a special trip to Arecibo AEE office, they said a work order to connect would be issued and the work was scheduled to be done the following week. It has now gone into week four and still no hook up!! I contacted my regular electrician there, he told me that he could do the job, but it would cost me over a $1000.00 to do the work.
AEE is supposed to do the work without charge, but they just don't get around to doing it! 
Sitka wrote:AEE is supposed to do the work without charge, but they just don't get around to doing it!
Don't tell me you're surprised. 
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