Each community across the archipelago faces its own obstacles, but all share the awareness that we cannot rely on a federal and a local government that have chronically failed us.
There for quite some time. it s great to talk to you. what can we expect, gabe, the president is going to be seeing there today, and hear really from officials for what they need? reporter: good morning. president biden just saying that puerto rico really hasn t been very well taken care of. that does echo some of the frustration that we have heard from some residents on the ground who more than two weeks after hurricane fiona still do not have power. behind me you see power crews that took overpower transmission in puerto rico last year. you see the work crews here, they ve been here throughout the morning. this is one of the neighborhoods that still does not have power. we have spoken with several residents who say that they ve been waiting for power to be restored here, but, yasmin, it s actually the southwestern part of this island, some of the more rural areas that are dealing with those power outages right now. according to luma energy, 92% of
Distribute power. there has been a lot of controversy how luma energy has done its job. some residents have said their power bills have gone up and power outages have gone up and protests here in puerto rico over the last several months. and there s a lot of frustration, too, about whether the local government did not learn its lesson following hurricane maria, and how much american taxpayers, taxpayers on the mainland, which by the way, in puerto rico, there are american citizens here, too, but american taxpayers on the mainland will have to foot the bill for billions of dollars in repairs to the power grid. and some activists here on the island say there that there should be more focus on renewable energy and solar power, but right now, there s still so many questions about how to adequately rebuild this power grid to prevent future storms. every hurricane season, this comes up. and once again, communities like this one, more than two weeks after hurricane fiona, are now having to de
Here, some communities that were among the hardest hit were left off that disaster declaration. they have since been added. but there has been frustration not just against the federal government but the local government here and this power company, luma energy, which, as i said, took over power distribution last year. there have been outages mounting over the last several months, protests here as well. and there has been frustration that more lessons were not learned following hurricane maria five years ago last month. so, again, power is being restored here in puerto rico, but 92% of this island now has power. but for those 8% that do not, it has been a very long recovery. and still to come, and that is what president biden and the first lady will be seeing when they come here later today. they re set to take part in a community effort to pack and distribute supplies and also be briefed by local officials about the emergency response.