With 155 mph winds and 20 inches of rain, 2017’s Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico, cutting off power and leaving the island like a "war zone," with little water, food, or medical supplies. Puerto Rico's rescue efforts were hampered by logistical challenges (its island location and distance from the U.S. mainland) and bureaucratic delays (resources were stretched thin after earlier hurricanes in Florida and Texas), but perhaps most of all by the fact that Puerto Rico was poorly prepared, with an aging infrastructure and a debt-laden economy. Almost a year after Maria, correspondent Laura Sullivan returns to the island in this PBS-aired Frontline documentary directed by Rick Young. The island has long been known as the "poorhouse of the Caribbean," with power plants suffering from a lack of maintenance, and an economy crippled by debt, borrowing, government bailouts, and Wall Street financing that some have compared to a Ponzi scheme. Once the storm hit, there was a slow, inadequate response, and even essential items like roof tarps to keep the rain out were in short supply. Sullivan interviews long-suffering residents, local government officials, and some FEMA personnel and Wall Street figures. President Trump (who quite inaccurately rated his administration's response with an A-plus grade) and other top officials are conspicuously absent. Perhaps the biggest problem here is Puerto Rico being viewed as part of America's imperialist past, and therefore not truly American, which is wrong on a number of levels. A timely documentary that offers a sobering warning of what can happen in our era of climate change, this is recommended. Aud: H, C, P. (S. Rees)
Blackout in Puerto Rico
(2018) 60 min. DVD: $24.99 ($54.99 w/PPR). PBS Video. SDH captioned. ISBN: 978-1-5317-0512-1. Volume 33, Issue 6
Blackout in Puerto Rico
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