Terrible situation. Hopefully, critical systems have generator power. I'll be very glad when this hurricane season has finally passed.

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Originally posted by bigdeal:

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Originally posted by ChicagoSigMan:
I know how they feel. My house is still without power from Irma.

If you don't mind my asking, where are you in Florida? We were without power where I live in Orlando from the Sunday when Irma rolled in, to noon this past Sunday.

We are in Naples. 92% of the county has power but our area seems to be the last to be restored. We evacuated Naples before the storm and went to Orlando. We never lost power there.

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We are in Naples. 92% of the county has power but our area seems to be the last to be restored. We evacuated Naples before the storm and went to Orlando. We never lost power there.

It happens that way sometimes. The crews we sent from MS. are coming home soon, so you can rest assured that it is coming soon. My office took several weeks to get electricity while others had it a week earlier. The metal power pole on top of the office building was bent and needed replacement, a special task.

After one hurricane in 1985 every power pole was down for three miles down a local street. Utility
crews were stringing wire on the ground to get people back up and then coming in several weeks later with the poles.

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Originally posted by the_sandman_454:
At least when the navy decides to park a carrier in PR for its on board hospital, water purification and electric generation capabilities, PR isn't likely to reject it, unlike a few other places when one was offered for disaster response.

That would be interesting since it was only about 15 years ago that the USN- at the insistence of the Puerto Rican mobs - left PR for good. I think some of them are still trying to understand the concept of unintended consequences, especially those around Roosie Roads. Re the USN helping them now, I can only assume they feel as strongly today about the USN getting out as they did then. We have an obligation to honor their wishes.

My employer opened a facility there a year or two ago. I work in IT and we have a young man on our team now, about the last 3 months I think. He's got a degree in computer science, good kid, Jorge. He's a software engineer associate. He's a go-getter to boot.

I guess now that I know someone who is there I have a little more sympathy for folks who have their lives turned upside down. Maybe I am just getting more sympathetic as I get older.

Jorge lives in the NW corner of the island, Aguadilla Pueblo, 00603. He was without power for 7 days with Irma.

Not everyone from PR is an undesirable. I hope my co-worker is OK.

I spent five years living on that beautiful island and working with some gracious, talented, and generous people.

I wonder how many folks who are bad-mouthing Puerto Rico have actually been there.

I started to post earlier, but it came of as "some of my best friends are...."

Being both a "military brat" (my mother was married to both a Navy guy and a USAF guy, among the "five"...) and having a career in the USAF myself, I had the privilege of working and being friends of several people from PR.

And, I cannot recall ever having cross words or anything negative with any of them, contrary to the various other folks, both foreign and domestic, of and every color in Crayola's 64 color box of goodness.

As the bunnyman said, they are Americans, and I do not recall them doing anything of note against the greater majority in the CONUS.

And having suffered through a few (OK, 28 storms in Okinawa in a one year) and many in the Florida Panhandle since Eloise in 1975, I understand the issues, but not the extent that these people are facing, getting hit twice in a few weeks, and enduring total devastation.

We have the means to help them, and I certainly hope we do the best that we can to mitigate this.

The world is watching, and we should be watching and speaking out for them. They are Americans, first...

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Originally posted by ChicagoSigMan:
I know how they feel. My house is still without power from Irma.

You have e-mail.

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Originally posted by 1967Goat:
Not everyone from PR is an undesirable. I hope my co-worker is OK.

Long post deleted before posting. I don't know many Puerto Ricans, but I suspect that the vast majority are not undesirable. The same may not be true of their politicians, any more than it is of ours...

If you have halfway decent electric utility crews, you should be able to completely rebuild the grid and rewire the whole island in 4-6 months.

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Originally posted by V-Tail:
I spent five years living on that beautiful island and working with some gracious, talented, and generous people.

I wonder how many folks who are bad-mouthing Puerto Rico have actually been there.

Probably not many. When the Navy needed us in RR it was a fight to see who got the orders. I got to travel there a lot and loved every minute of it. PR is in their current situation because they have been ill-served by political leadership on the island and in Washington.

However, they are still Americans and deserve the same recovery support that is being provided to Texas and Florida.

I can't fathom 4 to 6 months without electricity. The cities will be unlivable very quickly. I hope they still have a lot of rural areas for kindling and water and whatnot.

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Originally posted by PD:
When the Navy needed us in RR it was a fight to see who got the orders. I got to travel there a lot and loved every minute of it. PR is in their current situation because they have been ill-served by political leadership on the island and in Washington.

However, they are still Americans and deserve the same recovery support that is being provided to Texas and Florida.

PR was the best kept secrect as a duty station in the Army. I shot against the PR guard shooting team many times. I can only hope they rebuild the right way this time.

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Originally posted by Balzé Halzé:
Well, if it wasn't a dump before, it certainly is now.

What is the point of kicking the people of Puerto Rico when they're down? Do they not have enough misery right now to suit you?

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Originally posted by SgtGold:

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Originally posted by PD:
When the Navy needed us in RR it was a fight to see who got the orders. I got to travel there a lot and loved every minute of it.

PR was the best kept secrect as a duty station in the Army. I shot against the PR guard shooting team many times. I can only hope they rebuild the right way this time.

I was there for two years, in a guided missile squadron at Roosevelt Roads. About six years later, I returned for a 2 1/2 year stint as an engineer, working on the design of a new Central Office switching system for ITT.

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Originally posted by Nuclear:
If you have halfway decent electric utility crews, you should be able to completely rebuild the grid and rewire the whole island in 4-6 months.

IF they can get the material. There's way more to a grid than poles and wire . The lead time on a large power transformer can be over a year . If generators are damaged , all bet's are off . Some things are just not sitting in a warehouse ready to be delivered . If you want to scab it together , yeah they can do it reasonably quickly . If you want to build it back right , it's gonna take time .

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Originally posted by sigmonkey:
I have seen devistation from hurricanes and the results of rebuilding efforts.

If this is handled properly, the PR folks will be in better shape than before (the trauma notwithstanding).

What needs to happen is having the people of PR involved in the skills and labor to rebuild, allowing them to earn a living and have pride and ownership in their rebuiling efforts and the follow-on income that they can enjoy when all things are "new and improved".

PR can become "Aunt Tilly's' Pearl", and a great place to visit and experience on par with St. Martens, the Virgin Islands and others.

It does not have to become Haiti.

I am not optimistic. It will take a complete change in culture, political and social. It's possible they will rise to the occasion, but situations like these present opportunities for even more graft, more corruption, more dependence. It takes a society with an ingrained sense of self reliance, personal responsibility, selflessness, and a moral compass. I fear that's been long since been bled out of PR.

We'll rebuild it all nice and shiny and they'll wreck it in a couple years if another storm doesn't beat them to it.

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Originally posted by downtownv:
June 2018, I predict a baby boom, there!

This ^^^ Baby Irma's all over the place.

HK Ag

This could cause SERIOUS civil unrest and riots. Be prepared for the guards of most states sending a detachment of troops to help out.