Wednesday, December 15, 2021
On September 20, 2017, Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico, collapsing the power grid and leaving many residents without electricity for nearly a year.
On this day in 2017, Hurricane Maria struck Puerto Rico as one of the strongest storms to hit the island in modern times. The wind and rain were devastating, but the lasting wound was the power grid, which was knocked out almost entirely. Some residents waited nearly a year for electricity to return, in the longest blackout in American history.
An island cannot be reached by convoys of trucks the way the mainland can, so fuel, parts, and crews arrived slowly, and every repair depended on a supply line across the sea. Water pumps, hospitals, and communications all leaned on power that was simply gone, and the death toll climbed for months after the winds died down.
The lesson is to prepare for the long version, not just the storm. Stored water, a way to make power that does not depend on deliveries, and a plan that assumes an extended power outage could last weeks are what separate discomfort from disaster when help is far away.
