Puerto Rican Residents Are Fixing Their Town’s Power Grid Themselves

Residents in the town of Coamo, Puerto Rico, have resorted to building their own power grids after months of requesting Puerto Rico's power company and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to restore power in the region — suffering from the longest spell of power outage in U.S. history — didn’t yield any result.

Residents of Coamo — a town high in the mountains of southern Puerto Rico — have started to restore their own power by pulling power lines from undergrowth and digging holes for wooden posts in efforts to bring back power to the town of 40,000, NBC reported.

Vice Mayor Edgardo Vazquez is amassing troops that include teachers, handymen, a postal worker and an accountant, backed by municipal workers with professional equipment, tools and experience in light electrical work.

“If we don't do this, we'll be without power until summer," Vazquez said.

Frustrated by months of heat and darkness, residents of the town lamented the slow progression towards the restoration of power in the region.

In January, one of the residents Carmita Rivera called a meeting at her home to find a resolution to the problem.

"Desperation set in," Rivera said. "We all felt like: 'What about us? We're human beings. Enough is enough.'"

According to Rivera, fifty people showed up to the meeting and swiftly went to work.

Puerto Rico's power company and the Corps of Engineers have thousands of workers and managers from mainland public utilities and private companies working across the island to restore power to the hurricane ravaged island of Puerto Rico. However, the hilly terrain and slow arrival of supplies have delayed the restoration efforts in the region. Currently more than 400,000 power customers in the island remain without power.

San Sebastian, a western mountain town in Puerto Rico, has restored power to nearly 2,000 homes with the help of municipal workers, retired company workers and volunteers. The Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority expressed their displeasure with the actions of the locals and filed a complaint with police and the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

According to reports, by law, only the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority, or PREPA, has authority to work on the island's power grid. However, in Coamo's case, the vice mayor of the town said they have procured permission from the regional PREPA director, who has provided them materials and permission to reuse cables that weren't damaged in the storm. A power company official comes by afterward to ensure the work is properly done.

On Friday, Puerto Rico announced it will receive close to $16 billion in federal aid under the disaster recovery package signed by President Donald Trump.

The funds will contribute toward the Community Development Block Grant program to restore and fix its electric grid that was destroyed during the hurricane, resulting in hundreds of thousands of people living in darkness for months following the event.