Aug 15, 2018 - Science

Some Puerto Ricans spent 11 months without power

Tourists in Old San Juan in April. Photo: Jose Jimenez/Getty Images

After 11 months, the last residential customers of the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority are being reconnected. But the island's electricity system isn't in much better condition than it was before Maria cut power to every home and business, the N.Y. Times' Frances Robles reports from Ponce, P.R.

The big picture: After $3.2 billion, 52,000 new electrical poles and 6,000 miles of wire, "many billions of dollars more must still be spent to reconstruct the system." And José Ortiz, the new chief executive of the power authority, known as Prepa, "estimates that up to one-quarter of the work done hurriedly to illuminate Puerto Rico after the storm will have to be redone."

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