Some Puerto Ricans have been without power for so long that when the lights come back on the celebration is intense. John Woody, an engineering supervisor with Alabama Power, said he’s seen residents step out onto their porches and bang pots and pans.
You can’t really blame them when many have been without power for five months.
“When we can restore their power it gives them a sense of normalcy back,” Woody told Yellowhammer News. “It puts a smile on their faces, and it also puts a smile on our faces because we know how much it means to them.”
The U.S. territory was devastated by Hurricane Maria in late September, with dozens dying in the most intense tropical storm of 2017. Maria left the entire island and its 3.4 million residents without power.
Utility crews have worked with the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority to restore the power, but the process is slow. Utility trucks must be shipped by barge, for example, and specific conductors must be used that can withstand tropical weather while suppliers for such materials are few.
“I would hesitate to give you a date,” Lt. Col. John Cunningham of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the deputy commander for the Task Force Power Restoration on Puerto Rico, told NBC News of an estimated completion for power restoration. “We would like to go faster, but right now we’re going as fast as we can.”
ABC News reported on Tuesday the restoration effort could last into summer.
Alabama Power is among a number of investor-owned utilities working diligently in Puerto Rico to help restore power to the estimated third of the population still without it. Crews from across the country have descended onto the island to help in the massive effort.
Woody said his crew is currently in Mayaguez in the western part of the island, having left Birmingham on Jan. 20. He said it’s been a rewarding effort to help return a sense of normalcy to the lives of Puerto Rico residents.
“Anytime you come on a storm reconstruction effort you want to do the job well and do it safely,” Woody said.
Lineman Lazaro Gonzalez, part of that crew, told Yellowhammer News the job is similar to other post-storm reconstruction efforts — clearing trees, raising poles, getting lines in the air — but the hardest part is the time away from home. By the time the crew returns home mid-March they will have been there for six weeks. Most jobs on the mainland last two weeks or less.
“It’s really hard being away from my family for so long,” Gonzalez said of his wife, Jaci, 6-year-old daughter Lily and 5-year-old daughter Lola.
But ultimately the sacrifice is worth the time away, knowing that the crew is able to make a difference in the lives of Puerto Ricans.
“I’m really excited,” Gonzalez said. “It’s the part of the job that makes me feel good — being able to help.”
