Wednesday, May 30, 2018

Harvard study estimates thousands died in Puerto Rico because of Hurricane Maria

Miliana Montanez cradled her mother’s head as she lay dying on the floor of her bedroom here, gasping for air and pleading for help.
There was nothing her family could do. It took 20 minutes to find cellular reception to make a 911 call. Inoperative traffic signals slowed down the ambulance struggling to reach their neighborhood through crippling congestion.
Ivette Leon’s eyes bulged in terror as she described to her daughter the tiny points of light that appeared before her. She took one last desperate gulp of air just as paramedics arrived. Far too late.
More than eight months after Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico, the island’s slow recovery has been marked by a persistent lack of water, a faltering power grid and a lack of essential services — all imperiling the lives of many residents, especially the infirm and those in remote areas hardest hit in September.
A new Harvard study published Tuesday in the New England Journal of Medicine estimates that at least 4,645 deaths can be linked to the hurricane and its immediate aftermath, making the storm far deadlier than previously thought. Official estimates have placed the number of dead at 64, a count that has drawn sharp criticism from experts and local residents and spurred the government to order an independent review that has yet to be completed.
The Harvard findings indicate that health-care disruption for the elderly and the loss of basic utility services for the chronically ill had significant impacts, and the study criticized Puerto Rico’s methods for counting the dead — and its lack of transparency in sharing information — as detrimental to planning for future natural disasters. The authors called for patients, communities and doctors to develop contingency plans for such disasters.

Researchers in the mainland United States and Puerto Rico, led by scientists at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, calculated the number of deaths by surveying almost 3,300 randomly chosen households across the island and comparing the estimated post-hurricane death rate to the mortality rate for the year before. Their surveys indicated that the mortality rate was 14.3 deaths per 1,000 residents from Sept. 20 through Dec. 31, 2017, a 62 percent increase in the mortality rate compared with 2016, or 4,645 “excess deaths.”
“Our results indicate that the official death count of 64 is a substantial underestimate of the true burden of mortality after Hurricane Maria,” the authors wrote.
Carlos R. Mercader, executive director of the Puerto Rico Federal Affairs Administration, said in a statement Tuesday that the territorial government welcomes the new Harvard survey and looks forward to analyzing it.
“As the world knows, the magnitude of this tragic disaster caused by Hurricane Maria resulted in many fatalities,” Mercader said. “We have always expected the number to be higher than what was previously reported.”
He said such studies — including a forthcoming George Washington University probe into hurricane fatalities — will help Puerto Rico better prepare for disasters and prevent the loss of life.
Maria, which caused $90 billion in damage, was the third-costliest tropical cyclone in the United States since 1900, the Harvard researchers said.
They also said that timely and accurate estimates of death tolls are critical to understanding the severity of disasters and targeting recovery efforts. And knowing the extent of the impact “has additional importance for families because it provides emotional closure, qualifies them for disaster-related aid and promotes resiliency,” they said.
The researchers noted that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that deaths can be directly attributed to storms such as Maria if they are caused by forces related to the event, whether it is flying debris or loss of medical services.

Miliana Montanez, 29, in Caguas, Puerto Rico, in late March, with a memorial book for her mother. (Erika P. Rodríguez for The Washington Post)
“The worst part was knowing I could do nothing to help her,” said Leon’s daughter, Montanez, a 29-year-old mother of two. “Knowing she didn’t die peacefully means I will never have closure.”
 3:55
Inside a Puerto Rican NICU: 'This is a time to be brave'
In the aftermath of Hurricane Maria, doctors and parents struggle to provide for some of Puerto Rico’s most vulnerable babies. 
The uncounted
Puerto Rico’s government faced immediate scrutiny after initially reporting that 16 people had died as a result of the storm, which strafed much of the island Sept. 20. That number more than doubled after President Trump visited in October, when he specifically noted the low death toll. The number kept rising until early December, when authorities said 64 had died.
The official toll included a variety of people from across Puerto Rico, such as those who suffered injuries, were swept away in floodwaters or were unable to reach hospitals while facing severe medical conditions. One was a person from the city of Carolina who was bleeding from the mouth but could not reach a hospital in the days after the storm. After arriving, the patient was diagnosed with pneumonia and died of kidney failure. Another, from Juncos suffered from respiratory ailments and went to the hospital — only to be released because of the coming storm. That person later returned, dead.
The new study indicates there probably were thousands more, like Leon, who died in the weeks and months that followed the storm but were not counted. Their deaths have long raised questions about the manner and integrity of the Puerto Rico government’s protocols for certifying hurricane-related deaths.
Gov. Ricardo Rosselló’s administration did not immediately release mortality data, nor did officials provide much information publicly about the process officials were using to count the dead. But officials and physicians acknowledged privately that there were probably many, many more deaths, and bodies piling up in morgues, across the island.
After pressure from Congress and statistical analyses from news organizations that put the death toll at higher than 1,000, Rosselló enlisted the help of George Washington University experts to review the government’s death certification process. He promised that “regardless of what the death certificate says,” each death would be inspected closely to ensure a correct tally.
“This is about more than numbers,” Rosselló said at a news conference in late February. “These are lives — real people, leaving behind loved ones and families.”
 2:16
Deciding whether or not to leave home: One Puerto Rican family's struggle
The Riveras have run a successful business for decades in Yabucoa, Puerto Rico but after Hurricane Maria keeping it going without power is a new challenge. 
Lynn Goldman, dean of GWU’s Milken Institute School of Public Health, expects an initial report to be released in coming weeks. The school’s findings will include the first government-sponsored attempt by researchers and epidemiologists to quantify Hurricane Maria’s deadliness. Experts are assessing statistical mortality data and planned to dive into medical records and to interview family members of those who have died.
Some cases are obviously storm-related, Goldman said, such as someone dying after a tree branch falls on his head while clearing debris, or someone who suffers a heart attack during the storm and is unable to get help. But death certificates bearing the phrase “natural causes” will require further investigation.
The Center for Investigative Journalism in Puerto Rico has gone to court in an effort to seek the island’s mortality data for the months since November, the last month the government of Puerto Rico shared mortality data publicly. The Puerto Rico Institute of Statistics also announced in recent weeks that it would perform an independent death count and use subpoena powers to retrieve the data.
Spokesman Eric Perlloni Alayon said in a statement that the government is still trying to verify the death toll and does not plan to release any new data.
The Harvard researchers reported that there are several reasons the death toll in Puerto Rico has been drastically underestimated. Every disaster-related death, they said, must be confirmed by the government’s Forensic Sciences Institute, which requires that bodies go to San Juan or that a medical examiner travel to the local municipality.
“As the United States prepares for its next hurricane season, it will be critical to review how disaster-related deaths will be counted, in order to mobilize an appropriate response operation and account for the fate of those affected,” the authors wrote.
'Natural causes'
Many families here are awaiting clarity on what happened to their loved ones when “natural causes” became the only explanation. That is what was written on Leon’s death certificate. The Puerto Rico Department of Justice’s Yamil Juarbe said in a statement that it is customary for local officials in these cases to review bodies for any signs of trauma and talk to relatives to learn about the deceased’s medical history. That information is collected and sent to the central office of the Forensic Sciences Institute.
Leon’s family said that her name was misspelled on the death certificate and that her death was incorrectly attributed to diabetes; they say she did not have any known chronic diseases. Officials later corrected the documents.
After falling ill while delivering donations to people who lost their homes in a nearby city, Leon sought treatment at Auxilio Mutuo, a private hospital in San Juan. The hospital never lost water service or electricity, said hospital spokeswoman Sofia Luqui, and the 600-bed facility experienced higher-than-usual patient volume after several other hospitals were forced to close.
Leon was diagnosed with diverticulitis and was sent home with prescription drugs, but she did not improve. Montanez said that at 7 a.m. the following morning, her father summoned her to the family home because Leon was short of breath. She died not long after.
Montanez tried for days to have an autopsy performed, but she said no government agency or private medical organization had the capacity to conduct one. Per her wishes, Leon was cremated a few days later in a rushed ceremony because the funeral home was damaged by the storm and was facing an influx of bodies.
Montanez stays awake many nights replaying her mother’s last days. She tries to remember the woman who loved to make wry jokes, who gave each of her neighbors a whistle to call for help in an emergency during the prolonged blackouts, who organized trick-or-treating by lantern light for the children in the barrio after the hurricane.
But mostly Montanez thinks about the storm. The darkness. The lack of services.
“Everything failed. From Day One, everything was failing,” Montanez said. “There are many stories like ours.”

A view in Caguas, Puerto Rico, in March, six months after Hurricane Maria. (Erika P. Rodríguez for The Washington Post)
McGinley reported from Washington.

Arelis R. Hernández and Laurie McGinley
Harvard study estimates thousands died in Puerto Rico because of Hurricane Maria

Monday, May 28, 2018

Walgreens Launches New Multi-Million Pound Investment Campaign In Puerto Rico

Walgreens has announced the launch of a new investment campaign in its Puerto Rican drug stores, which is set to amount to approximately $35 million by the end of the summer.
The investment comes as part of a recovery campaign following last year’s hurricanes and will see features such as new patient health rooms, an expanded beauty offering and FedEx OnSite services.
Having this month reopened its final drugstore in Toa Baja, the company is also developing its beauty offering in all Puerto Rico stores, which will include a bigger range from brands such as No7, Botanics, Soap & Glory and YourGoodSkin. According to the company, the stores will feature a new beauty consultation area where specially trained beauty consultants will help customers discover new products. A marquee beauty experience will offer additional prestige beauty brands in 10 locations.
Alex Gourlay, President of Walgreens, said, “We are very excited to not only rebuild, but continue to innovate in our stores by bringing new features and services to a community where we have provided trusted care for nearly 60 years.
“Our employees’ response in the community over the last year is the perfect example of what it means to work at Walgreens. Whether they were working to re-establish pharmacy services or going door-to-door to hand out bottled water, we could not be more proud of how our employees continued to care for the community. They, along with our customers on the island, deserve this commitment.”


Wednesday, May 23, 2018

Puerto Rico gov submits $25B budget amid deal with board

Puerto Rico’s governor proposed a $25 billion budget to the island’s legislature Tuesday in which retired government workers would keep their monthly pensions uncut and public school teachers and police officers would get pay raises.
The budget also contains $25 million for a voluntary buyout program as the U.S. territory’s government faces new austerity measures while it struggles to recover from Hurricane Maria amid an 11-year recession.
“There are a lot of challenges to overcome, but I’m certain we are headed in the right direction,” Rossello said during his annual budget address.
The governor kept his promise not to implement a 10 percent reduction to the public pension system as sought by a federal control board overseeing Puerto Rico’s finances. While the proposed cut to a system facing nearly $50 billion in liabilities might not be made in the upcoming fiscal year, it could come the following year.
Rossello delivered his address two days after he reached a tentative deal with the control board to reverse its decision to eliminate a Christmas bonus and reduce vacation and sick days for public workers. In exchange, Rossello said Puerto Rico would adopt at-will employment for the private sector as part of an overhaul of local labor laws, including a new work requirement for certain people enrolled in a nutritional assistance program.
“For those families … who are thinking about leaving Puerto Rico, look at this budget deal as a first step for a new opportunity to stay here,” the governor said.
However, the deal with the board is still tentative because Puerto Rico’s legislature first has to agree to at-will employment, in which employers would be able to dismiss a worker at any time without having to prove just cause.
“In my opinion, it’s bad,” said Thomas Rivera Schatz, president of the island’s Senate and a member of the governor’s party.
The budget submitted by Rossello also calls for a $50 million-a-year fund to help municipalities and a $25 million fund for scholarships to the University of Puerto Rico, which will see its undergraduate cost rise from $57 per credit to $115 by next year and then to $157 by fiscal year 2023.
In addition to a $1,500 annual salary increase for teachers and police officers, the budget would slash an 11.5 percent sales-and-use tax on processed food to 7 percent starting in August.
Rossello also said his administration would start renovating roads with $600 million in local and federal funds following Hurricane Maria, which caused overall damage estimated at more than $100 billion. He said Puerto Rico also has an additional $817 million to renovate homes and some $120 million to build new housing projects.
However, Rossello said federal funds cannot be the only solution to Puerto Rico’s economic problems, saying that statehood is needed.



FILE – In this Nov. 14, 2017 file photo, Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rossello, left, speaks during a Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources hearing on hurricane recovery, on Capitol Hill in Washington. Rossello submitted a $25 billion proposed budget to the island’s legislature on Tuesday, May 22, 2018, in which retired government workers would keep their monthly pensions and public school teachers and police officers would get pay raises. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)

Puerto Rico gov submits $25B budget amid deal with board

Friday, May 18, 2018

Corps leaving Puerto Rico with hurricane recovery unfinished

The Army Corps of Engineers is ending its work to rebuild Puerto Rico’s electric grid, despite residents’ fears that the island’s government won’t be able to restore power on its own to more than 16,000 people who remain blacked out eight months after Hurricane Maria.
The federal agency will keep operating more than 700 generators on the island, including three “mega generators” supplementing Puerto Rico’s aging and storm-damaged power plants. But on Friday the restoration of thousands of miles of downed power lines will be handed back to the U.S. territory’s bankrupt public utility, the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority, or PREPA.
The Corps took over power restoration efforts in Puerto Rico on Sept. 30 after PREPA failed to call in mainland utility companies under a disaster response plan known as mutual aid, in which power companies from around the U.S. send staff to help stricken areas.
Puerto Rican officials said 98.86 percent of PREPA’s customers had electricity Thursday, but 16,723 remained without power as the longest blackout in U.S. history continued.
Trump administration officials say a big federal presence is no longer needed to hook up the relatively few remaining connections in the often-remote areas where people are still without power. But many people on and off the island are dissatisfied by the decision to pull out the Corps without Puerto Rico’s power fully restored.
“It’s not in our culture to walk away from a mission when it hasn’t been fully accomplished, but we follow orders,” Charles Alexander, the Corps’ director for contingency operations, told the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee at a May 8 hearing.
The Corps has operated under the orders of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which says it has deferred to Gov. Ricardo Rossello’s requests on the extent and duration of federal assistance to Puerto Rico. FEMA on Thursday indefinitely extended the Corps’ power generation mission but did not extend the grid repair work because Rossello did not request that.
Most of those still without power live in the town of Yabucoa, which was the first place in Puerto Rico struck by Hurricane Maria on Sept. 20.
Alberto Rodriguez, a 65-year-old retiree, has solar panels and a diesel generator supplying power to the house where he takes care of his wife, who is confined to bed after suffering a stroke a month after the hurricane.
“I’m very worried because we are still without power. We’ve been using these generators for so long, at any moment they might fail,” he said. “I don’t think they should leave before completing the work because there are people here still waiting for electricity.”
The Corps of Engineers has received more than $2 billion to restore power to Puerto Rico, overseeing more than 1,200 personnel on the ground and more than 1,000 contractors, with more than 650 of them working directly on distribution and transmission lines. Contractors included Fluor Corp., an Irving, Texas company that obtained two contracts worth a total of $1.3 billion.
The Corps helped energize some 80 percent of transmission lines and nearly 90 percent of distribution lines across Puerto Rico, erecting more than 52,000 power poles and stringing more than 5,700 miles of wire.
Corps contractors planned to work in the northern cities of Arecibo, Bayamon and Caguas and the southern city of Ponce through the end of Friday. A group of Corps officials plans to remain in Puerto Rico for several weeks to demobilize contractors and hand logistic operations back to FEMA and PREPA.
Besides the residents of Yabucoa, hundreds of people don’t have power in the central town of Comerio, where Mayor Jose A. Santiago said many feel they have been forgotten.
“They feel that there is no reason why they’ve been left for last,” he said. “What is painful is not the amount of people without electricity. It is the time that these people have been without power and we don’t see an articulate plan from the government, nobody seems to be worried with this.
“It is so uncertain and so much suffering because, in that darkness, there is terrible sadness.”
___
Associated Press photojournalist Carlos Giusti reported this story in Yabucoa and AP writer Michael Weissenstein reported from Havana.
Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Carlos Giusti and Michael Weissenstein


n this May 16, 2018 photo, a worker with Cobra Energy Company, contracted by the Army Corps of Engineers, installs power lines in the Barrio Martorel area of Yabucoa, a town where many people are still without power in Puerto Rico. The Army Corps of Engineers is ending its work to rebuild Puerto Rico’s electric grid, despite residents’ fears that the island’s government won’t be able to restore power on its own to more than 16,000 people who remain blacked out eight months after Hurricane Maria. (Carlos Giusti/Associated Press)

Corps leaving Puerto Rico with hurricane recovery unfinished

Friday, May 11, 2018

Gov. Scott misses the mark on Puerto Rican statehood

Florida Gov. Rick Scott, who is running for the U.S. Senate, recently came out in support of making Puerto Rico the 51st state of the Union. In his remarks, Scott claimed that “the U.S. should ‘respect the will of the people of Puerto Rico.’” I could not agree more. The problem is that the clear majority of Puerto Rican voters have consistently rejected the idea of statehood in five referenda held on the matter. In 1967, 1993, 1998, 2012 and 2017, Puerto Rican voters have reiterated time and again that they do not want Puerto Rico to become a state. Unfortunately, when it comes to this highly divisive issue, many stateside politicians ignore – either willfully or unwittingly – the complicated history of U.S. colonialism in Puerto Rico and our people’s repeated attempts to change that reality.
The history of referendum results and how they were set up is key to understanding this issue. Let us recap. After losing the first two votes held on the matter in 1967 and 1993, the statehood movement attempted to rig the process and held a referendum in 1998 which excluded the Commonwealth option. Puerto Ricans did not fall for this trap and 51 percent voted for the “None of the Above” option. In 2012, after packing the Supreme Court of Puerto Rico and overturning the legal precedent for that option to appear on the ballot, the statehood party once again tried to rig the ballot by excluding “None of the Above.” This time, voters cast blank ballots to protest and statehood received only 45 percent of the vote, which is lower than the 46 percent it received in 1998.
Given that the referendum results were inconclusive, the Obama administration proposed, and Congress approved, a process whereby the Puerto Rico State Election Commission (CEE in Spanish) would receive $2.5 million in federal funds for an educational campaign and referendum with options to resolve the status of Puerto Rico. Release of the funding was contingent upon the U.S. Department of Justice approving the language of the ballot and the educational materials to ensure they complied with the Constitution, laws, and public policies of the U.S. government. Having won the governor’s mansion, the Legislature, and the non-voting delegate Resident Commissioner position in Congress in the 2016 election, the pro-statehood New Progressive Party (NPP) had a once in a lifetime opportunity to hold a first-of-its-kind “federally sanctioned” referendum.
Then, something unexpected happened. The Department of Justice reviewed the referendum materials sent by the Commonwealth government and it decided that changes needed to be made because the language was misleading. This was another attempt by the statehood faction to artificially manufacture a statehood “win” by excluding other options or wording them in such a way their supporters would find unacceptable. This was the same strategy statehooders employed in 1998 and 2012; which explains the need for DOJ to have a role in the first place.
Yet, instead of fixing the language to ensure it complied with DOJ requirements – and so Congress would take the referendum seriously – the governor decided to go ahead with a statehood referendum that excluded the current Commonwealth status, or any autonomic alternative, and presented voters with the faulty ballot rejected by the Attorney General. This was clearly an attempt to fulfill a campaign promise and avoid risking defeat. Again, voters saw right through it and every non-statehood political party in Puerto Rico called for a boycott of the vote. The day of the referendum, only 23 percent of voters showed up at the polls. This is significant in an island with average voter turnout of more than 70 percent.
Policymakers on Capitol Hill should keep this history in mind the next time statehood supporters come knocking on their door alleging that statehood has the support of 97 percent of Puerto Ricans. That is simply misleading and inaccurate. With eight out of 10 voters choosing not to vote in that referendum, the results do not express the true desire of the people of Puerto Rico to achieve self-determination. In addition, why would Congress pay attention to the results of a referendum that purposefully ignored the conditions it set for such a vote? Why was the current pro-statehood government so afraid of holding a vote according to DOJ guidelines? For the longest time statehooders have been clamoring for federal buy-in to resolve this dilemma. Unfortunately, what they got was an expensive political check the box exercise that was rightly ignored in Washington.
After a severe financial crisis that has resulted in more than 600,000 Puerto Ricans leaving the Island, $72 billion in debt, and a botched federal response to Hurricane Maria, Puerto Rico needs to rebuild. Tens of thousands of homes remain without power, 8 months after the storm, and hundreds of thousands of Puerto Ricans – all U.S. citizens – continue to be displaced in states all over the mainland. Now is not the time to play politics with the aspirations of the people of Puerto Rico.
What Puerto Rico deserves is a fair and inclusive self-determination process to end more than 100 years of U.S. colonialism in the island. What it does not need is stateside politicians fishing for campaign contributions by twisting the truth about this critical matter. Puerto Rico has always rejected statehood. After President Trump’s insults to Puerto Ricans and his failed hurricane disaster relief efforts, that rejection is likely to continue.
Mark-Viverito was the immediate past Speaker of the New York City Council and is now a Senior Advisor for the Latino Victory Project.
BY MELISSA MARK-VIVERITO
Gov. Scott misses the mark on Puerto Rican statehood

Thursday, May 10, 2018

U.S. at Odds With Puerto Rico on Post-Hurricane Miscues

U.S. officials disputed a top aide to Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rosselló in testimony Tuesday over who was to blame for mistakes that delayed repairs to the U.S. territory’s hurricane-ravaged power grid.
Witnesses gave conflicting accounts to the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee on why the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers was tapped to lead the power restoration efforts in Puerto Rico after last year’s devastating hurricane season and the timetable given for restoring service.
The lights still aren’t back on for 23,000 customers of Puerto Rico’s bankruptcy public power monopoly, known as Prepa, with 10 days left until the Corps is scheduled to end its mission assignment and three weeks until the next hurricane season.
At midnight on May 18, the Corps plans to transition the remaining repair work to Prepa and demobilize hundreds of federal contractors, said Charles Alexander, the Corps’ director of Contingency Operations and Homeland Security.
“We run out of money on the 18th and we run out of authority,” Mr. Alexander said.
He also contradicted testimony by Christian Sobrino, the head of Puerto Rico’s fiscal agency and top aide to Gov. Rosselló, who said the Corps pledged to have service restored across the island within 40 days of its mission assignment. The governor has repeatedly criticized the Corps for falling short of that timetable.
Mr. Sobrino told the committee that the mission assignment document “was signed because they put it in front of the governor and asked him to sign it so that we could have energy in 40 days.”
But Mr. Alexander said the Corps established clear target dates for bringing customers back online that were “not consistent with what I believe the governor unilaterally declared, which we never believed was feasible.”
“The notion that our chief of engineers would say that Puerto Rico would have power in 40 days—here, sign this—is the first time I’ve ever heard this,” Mr. Alexander said.
Prepa tapped private reconstruction contractors from the mainland U.S. in the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Maria, which struck the island on Sept. 20 and laid waste to a power grid that hadn’t been maintained for years.
Awash in $9 billion in debt, Prepa has been operating since last year under bankruptcy protection while the governor tries to push a privatization framework through the Puerto Rico legislature.
As Prepa hires replacements for the departing Corps contractors, the rising bills to repair power lines in remote, mountainous regions have unnerved creditors who are fighting for maximum repayment in the court-supervised bankruptcy.
The first contractor on the island after Hurricane Maria, Whitefish Energy Holdings LLC, was fired by Gov. Rosselló on Oct. 30, a month into its $300 million deal, after U.S. officials found irregularities in how the contract was awarded and priced. Prepa made its first request for mutual assistance from other utilities the next day.
Lawmakers have previously questioned the delay in seeking help under Prepa’s standing mutual assistance deals, industry-standard agreements designed to repair power systems at cost after a natural disaster. Mobilizing crews from the mainland to replace linemen hired by Whitefish introduced another delay in the reconstruction efforts.
“The decision not to act for a full month afterwards was one of those decisions where you look back and say, we could have seen a different effort in terms of what could have come to Puerto Rico more readily,” said Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska.
Contradicting Mr. Sobrino’s version of events, U.S. Energy Department Assistant Secretary Bruce Walker said the Corps was mission-assigned to Puerto Rico by the Federal Emergency Management Agency “because Prepa did not call for mutual aid.”
“I was there, sir,” Mr. Sobrino said.
“As was I,” Mr. Walker said. He said it was the first time in his 30-year career he hadn’t seen mutual aid invoked.
Mr. Sobrino defended Prepa’s decision-making and said the mainland utilities that could have helped were occupied with storm damage in Texas and Florida while Prepa had already lined up its own contractors in the weeks between Hurricane Irma and Hurricane Maria.
Another person familiar with the matter told The Wall Street Journal that FEMA initially wanted power restoration contracts funneled through Prepa. But the Corps raised doubts about whether large contractors would be willing to do business with Prepa given its cash crunch, this person said.
Those concerns have been borne out for Whitefish, which is owed more than $100 million under its canceled deal, according to court papers.
Write to Andrew Scurria at Andrew.Scurria@wsj.com

By  Andrew Scurria
Christian Sobrino, left, an aide to Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rosselló, testified before a Senate committee Tuesday about hurricane recovery efforts in Puerto Rico. Also pictured are Walter Higgins, chief executive of the island’s power monopoly, Prepa, center, and Jose H. Roman Morales, president of Puerto Rico's Energy Commission.
Christian Sobrino, left, an aide to Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rosselló, testified before a Senate committee Tuesday about hurricane recovery efforts in Puerto Rico. Also pictured are Walter Higgins, chief executive of the island’s power monopoly, Prepa, center, and Jose H. Roman Morales, president of Puerto Rico's Energy Commission. PHOTO: PABLO MARTINEZ MONSIVAIS/ASSOCIATED PRESS

Conflicting accounts of power restoration efforts emerge at Senate hearing

U.S. at Odds With Puerto Rico on Post-Hurricane Miscues