Almost a year after Hurricane Maria ravaged the island’s ailing power infrastructure, the Ruiz family is one of 1,000 still off the grid
Diana Vera-Maldonado, Jose Ruiz Gonzalez and their children in front of their house with the disconnected power line. Photograph: Angel Valentin for the Guardian
They have eaten by candlelight for the past 10 months, powerless and isolated.
Their small home, with its wooden walls and tin roof, nestled high up in the hills of Utuado municipality, somehow survived Hurricane Maria without a scratch. Most others in the surrounding area of this mountainous region were swept apart by the wind. But the hurricane’s raw strength last September didn’t leave everything on their property unscathed. It uprooted a mango tree a few metres down their steep pathway, which crashed onto a pylon that had brought electricity up the slope for 23 years and cut this family of four off from the grid for almost a year.
They were among the remaining 1,000 households in Puerto Rico – almost all living in poorer, remote communities – without electricity in July after Maria practically knocked out the island’s entire ailing power infrastructure...
Ten months without power: the Puerto Ricans still without electricity | World news | The Guardian:
Almost a year after Hurricane Maria ravaged the island’s ailing power infrastructure, the Ruiz family is one of 1,000 still off the grid
Oliver LaughlandOliver Laughland in Utado, Puerto Rico
@oliverlaughlandWed 8 Aug 2018 06.00 EDT Last modified on Wed 8 Aug 2018 22.04 EDTShares3025 Diana Ivelisse Vera Maldonado, Jose Ruiz Gonzalez, and their children in front of their house with the disconnected power line. Diana Vera-Maldonado, Jose Ruiz Gonzalez and their children in front of their house with the disconnected power line. Photograph: Angel Valentin for the GuardianThey have eaten by candlelight for the past 10 months, powerless and isolated.
Their small home, with its wooden walls and tin roof, nestled high up in the hills of Utuado municipality, somehow survived Hurricane Maria without a scratch. Most others in the surrounding area of this mountainous region were swept apart by the wind. But the hurricane’s raw strength last September didn’t leave everything on their property unscathed. It uprooted a mango tree a few metres down their steep pathway, which crashed onto a pylon that had brought electricity up the slope for 23 years and cut this family of four off from the grid for almost a year.
They were among the remaining 1,000 households in Puerto Rico – almost all living in poorer, remote communities – without electricity in July after Maria practically knocked out the island’s entire ailing power infrastructure.
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