Puerto Rico News Digest For February 11, 2018

BREAKING:

POWER OUT ACROSS NORTHERN PR

FIRE AT MONACILLOS STATION LEAVES THOUSANDS IN THE DARK

Photo: John Mudd, via Twitter.

Many parts of northern Puerto Rico, including large swaths of the San Juan metro area, were plunged into darkness on Sunday night, seemingly due to a fire at the Autoridad de Energía Eléctrica's Monacillos substation in Río Piedras. The failure at Monacillos may have created a domino effect which knocked other substations out of service. Per AEE, the San Juan and Palo Seco power plants are currently offline. 

According to both El Nuevo Día and power utility customers on social media, sectors of the following municipalities have been affected: San Juan, Carolina, Trujillo Alto, Guaynabo, Caguas, Camuy, Hatillo, Manatí, Arecibo,  Río Grande, Barceloneta and Luquillo. At this time, the cause of the fire is unknown. AEE sources have stated that it could take as long as 16 hours for power to return to most of the affected areas. Follow our Twitter feed for the latest.

ROSSELLO AND GONZALEZ ANNOUNCE RECOVERY FUNDS

From Caribbean Business: 

"Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rosselló, along with Resident Commissioner Jenniffer González announced an allocation of $16 billion in federal funds for the island’s recovery after Hurricane Maria. This appropriation is part of budget legislation approved by Congress and signed Friday by President Donald Trump..."

MALL OF SAN JUAN TO MAKE $10M FOR 2018

From News Is My Business:

"Taubman Centers Inc., owners and operators of The Mall of San Juan, anticipated Friday that they will generate $10 million of net operating income (NOI) from that asset in 2018, some of which may come from sources other than sales activities..."

PR SENDS ATHLETE TO WINTER OLYMPICS

From Time: 

"Carrying Puerto Rico’s flag at the 2018 Winter Olympics Opening Ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea, Flaherty beamed as the first representative for Puerto Rico at the Games since 1998, when it sent another alpine skier and two-man and four-man bobsled teams to Nagano, Japan."

Puerto Rico News Digest For October 4, 2016

WEATHER SYSTEM COULD BECOME STORM

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From The National Hurricane Center:

"Showers and thunderstorms continue in association with a low pressure area 
located about 500 miles northeast of Puerto Rico. Satellite wind data indicate 
that the low is producing winds to gale force, and the system could become su-
fficiently well organized to result in the formation of a tropical storm later today.  
The low is expected to move generally northwestward at 10 to 15 mph over the 
next few days, and upper-level winds are forecast to become less conducive for 
development. Formation chance through 48 hours...high...80 percent. Formation 
chance through 5 days...high...80 percent..."

BOARD SETS DEADLINE FOR TURNAROUND PLAN

From The San Juan Daily Star:

"Puerto Rico’s newly created federal oversight board on Friday set an Oct.14
deadline for the island’s governor to draft a fiscal turnaround plan, as protesters
at its first public meeting compared the board to “slavery” and said it was “pilla-
ging Puerto Rico.” The board asked Gov. Alejandro García Padilla to present a
plan laying out his vision for stabilizing Puerto Rico, which is grappling with $70
billion in debt, a 45 percent poverty rate and a decade-long recession..."

DONAHUE TO TESTIFY ABOUT BLACKOUT

From Caribbean Business:

"The Senate Committee on Energy and Water Resources has summoned the ch-
ief restructuring officer of the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (Prepa), Li-
sa Donahue, to appear Tuesday as part of the hearings that began last week to in-
vestigate the possible reasons that led to the collapse the electrical system on Sep-
tember 21 and the delay in the restoration of electrical service. The president of the
committee, Popular Democratic Party Sen. Ramón Luis Nieves, said that Donahue
should give details before the Senate panel about the work done by her firm, Alix
Partners, since it was hired by Prepa in September 2014 to restructure the utility’s
debt and transform the operations of the public corporation..."

CUSTOMS SEIZES $1.5M IN COUNTERFEIT GOODS

From News Is My Business:


"U.S. Customs and Border Protection San Juan Field Operations announced today
that 206 seizures where made of counterfeit products, valued at $1.5 million, wh-
ich were illegally imported into Puerto Rico via international mail. A wide range
of counterfeited products was seized during the enforcement effort, called “Oper-
ation Silver Snake 2,” to include: consumer products, apparel, footwear, textiles,
pharmaceuticals, and more, the agency said. Various international mail packages
inspected by CBP officers at the San Juan International Mail Branch revealed pro-
ducts that infringedintellectual property rights. The majority of the seized products
originated in China, the agency said..."

Puerto Rico News Digest For September 26, 2016

THREE MURDERED IN CAROLINA ON SUNDAY

As reported by El Nuevo Dia, three people were murdered Sunday night at around
7:30 PM on Road PR-857, in the Canovanillas sector of Carolina. A 911 call alerted
the police to three people who had been shot. Upon arriving, police found the bodies
of Julio M. López Castro, age 41, and Jonathan J. López Pizarro, age 22. A 23-year-
old man, Jonathan Rodríguez Cabrera, was taken to Centro Médico in Río Piedras
with various gunshot wounds. He died while receiving treatment. These three killi-
ngs were part of seven overall murders registered across the island during this past
weekend. The number of murders for the year in Puerto Rico now stands at 484, 70
more than at this time last year.

TOURISM COULD FACE LOSSES FROM BLACKOUT

From Caribbean Business:

"Despite the lengthy lines thousands of Puerto Ricans did on hotels and restaur-
ants after the island remained partially dark for more than 40 hours, the final bal-
ance of the incident isn’t necessarily positive for Puerto Rico’s tourism industry,
much less for the general economy. While hundreds of hotels saw a significant in-
crease in their occupancy since Wednesday, others have had to cancel reservations
due to the outage or have had to send guests to a different accommodation because
their electric plants didn’t work, exploded, or simply couldn’t tolerate the emergen-
cy usage, revealed economist Jorge Elguera to Caribbean Business. Similar incide-
nts occurred at some restaurants that didn’t have electric generators or hadn’t given
them maintenance..."

PPT CANDIDATE CALLS FOR PLACITA AGREEMENT

From The San Juan Daily Star:

"Puerto Rican Working People’s Party (PPT by its Spanish initials) candidate for
the San Juan municipal assembly Jorge Farinacci Fernós on Thursday proposed
reaching a “consensual agreement” that will allow the harmonization of the inter-
ests of the diff erent sectors at the Placita de Santurce. “We have to recognize that
we are all part of the same community, so we have to try a reach a consensual agr-
eement,” Farinacci Fernós said, referring to the public dispute between the reside-
nts and business owners in the area. Farinacci Fernós noted that certain issues need
to be cleared up regarding the aff ected parties and the interests involved, such as the
fact that residents of the area have a right to be able to rest and to the “tranquility they
deserve after a long day at work;” the businesses and their staff s, which are trying to
make a living, and the people who visit the establishments to enjoy one of the only
open public spaces remaining in Puerto Rico..."

UNITED WAY: ECONOMY STRANGLING NON-PROFITS

From News Is My Business:

"In Puerto Rico’s embattled economy, everyone is at risk. Nonprofit organizations
are no exception.To survive, organizations are cutting staff, services and administra-
tive costs, maxing out their credit cards and even borrowing from their board mem-
bers. Those are among the findings of a recent informal survey conducted by United
Way of  Puerto Rico, a coalition of 131 charitable organizations. “There was nothing
surprising [in the survey] since we constantly receive financial reports and do moni-
toring. What does worry us is that there is too much dependence on government fun-
ds,” said United Way President Samuel González..."

Updates on The Puerto Rico Blackout

From our Twitter feed:

Tweets by @ThePRMonitor

         

Puerto Rico News For September 22, 2016

LIGHTS OUT FOR PUERTO RICO

PLANT FIRE LEAVES ALL OF PR WITHOUT POWER

A fire of unknown origin broke out yesterday afternoon at the Central Ag-

uirre power plant in the southern town of Salinas, causing a massive failu-

re which left the entire island of Puerto Rico -- along with Vieques and Cu-

lebra -- without electrical service. The power failure also left over a quarter

of a million households without running water. Police were deployed acr-

oss the island to direct traffic at select interesections, with two officers,one 

in Guaynabo and one in Caguas, being hit by cars. Both received non-life-

threatening injuries.

Hotels all over the San Juan metro area and beyond were packed, as many

island residents opted for staying in air conditioned hotel rooms rather than

suffer the lack of power in their homes. Lines to check in at the Convention

Center Sheraton were reportedly over an hour long. 

Classes were suspended for today at all public schools, the University of

Puerto Rico, and at most private schools and universities. Non-essential

government employees were instructed to show up for work on Thursday

at 12 noon. While power has been reestablished for about 130,000 users a-

cross Puerto Rico as of this writing, over one million households are still
without electricity this morning. Ports, ferries and airports were operating
normally yesterday and this morning. No out of the ordinary flight delays
have occurred or are expected.

Yesterday's failure resulted in the largest blackout in Puerto Rico since 

1980.

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