The occurrence of Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico on 19th September left many areas without electricity for more than two months, especially those in rural areas. The strong winds caused some electric poles to fall and others to tilt (Maria, 2018). The power lines became loose, almost touching the ground. All efforts to stop the situation were unsuccessful as all the engineers at Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA) were unable to control the strong winds that were travelling at 280 kilometres per hour, leading to a blackout (Maria, 2018). The storm caused a lot of destruction and demolished a lot of buildings. Many people lost their lives, and a lot of people became jobless. Most of the institutions were not in operation. Hospitals were closed, schools and bank ATMs were not working, and restaurants also were closed due to poor food preservation (Maria, 2018).
The writer used a lot of statistics to explain how people were affected by the strong storm. The writer quotes that after the storm had occurred, more than 200000 people moved to the United States to search for jobs. He also adds that after the storm, approximately more than 1000 people lost their lives (Maria, 2018). To explain more about the restoration of electricity, telecommunications, cellular and internet services, he uses bar graphs with percentages to visualize the data. There is a flow of ideas in the writer since he starts to explain how the earthquake began, the destruction it caused, what led to the destruction and possible remedies to stop the hurricane from occurring again(Maria, 2018).
In conclusion, the writer says that corruption and neglect led to power disruption in Puerto Rico(Maria, 2018). Unstable leadership in the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA) has contributed significantly to these adverse weather conditions. Every four years, new governing members are appointed, creating the problem design and implementation of new ideas to halt the situation and be ready for any emergencies.
References
Maria Gallucci, a freelance science writer, is the 2017–2018 Energy Journalism Fellow at the University of Texas at Austin.
