The Struggle for Stability in Puerto Rico

Click on the 'Listen' button above to hear this segment. 

A month after Hurricane Maria made landfall in Puerto Rico, only 25 percent of residents have power. Overall, about 80 percent of Puerto Rico’s electric grid was damaged during the storm.

This week, it was reported that the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority, known as PREPA, awarded the contract to rebuild the backbone of the island’s electric grid to a two-year-old company from Montana, Whitefish Energy, which had just two full time employees on the day Hurricane Maria made landfall.

The contract is worth $300 million, and did not come from a formal bidding process.

Maggie Koerth-Baker, senior science writer for FiveThirtyEight, discusses why the contract is raising eyebrows, the state of Puerto Rico's electric grid, and how this contract fits into the push for privatization on the island. 

Father Carlos Gonzalez is a priest in San Juan, who arrived in Orlando this week in order to find sponsors to help his community back home. Father Gonzalez says that the post-Maria recovery just isn’t quick enough for him and many of the people he helps in his community. 

This segment is hosted by Todd Zwillich.