“Welcome to Puerto Rico, this is what we know as ‘life,’” Eduardo Perez, a former Major League baseball player and ESPN commentator who was hosting the news conference, told those gathered. The power in Puerto Rico is generated in the south and largely consumed in the north, a situation which leaves long transmission lines vulnerable to damage. Reached on his cellphone, the chief operating officer said: “I don’t know anything about that,” and the line went dead. A website for arborists showed the company had advertised for workers to help clear difficult terrain by hand in Puerto Rico. The failure on April 12 occurred after a tree fell on the main line to the capital, San Juan.

Source: New York Times April 18, 2018 16:08 UTC