Puerto Rico is facing the aftermath of another massive storm — 5 years after Hurricane Maria devastated the island. Now, Fiona's destruction is putting those lessons for the federal government to the test.
Stephanie Rojas/APA road is blocked by a mudslide caused by Hurricane Fiona in Cayey, Puerto Rico, on Sunday.Exactly five years after Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico, killing at least 3,000 residents and causing the collapse of the island's electricity system, the U.S. territory is again facing the aftermath of aas a Category 1 hurricane on Sunday, hundreds of thousands of Puerto Ricans were again without electricity.
Anne Bink, the associate administrator of the Office of Response and Recovery at the Federal Emergency Management Agency, says the agency is much better situated to respond to Fiona than it was for Maria. "We have 10 times the food, 10 times the water that we had when Maria struck and made landfall in Puerto Rico," Bink says."And we also have triple the generation support, the temporary power support."
But funding for Puerto Rico has come slowly. In 2020, three years after Maria, the Trump administrationThat work is ongoing and is speeding up," Bink says, adding that FEMA has been"laser focused" on resiliency — hardening the systems against natural disasters, such as hurricanes and earthquakes.
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