Abstract
Twenty-one vulnerabilities to the passage of hurricane María of different sectors and activities of the Puerto Rican economy are analyzed and their causes and effects discussed. This analysis shed light on the potential roots of the problems uncovered by the passage of María. The history of debt of the Commonwealth suggests that financial decisions made decades before the passage of María led to the collapse of infrastructure after the hurricane event. Out of control capitalism, unacceptable behavior in professional and governmental elites, and the bypassing of Constitutional controls on burrowing resulted in a level of corruption that exacerbated the biophysical effects of María on Puerto Rico. Unfortunately, the same forces that collapsed the economy and exacerbated the effects of María are at work in the recovery from both extreme events.
Now Hurricane I shuffle the cards and deal anew.
I shake up hierarchies, turning everything upside down.
I control the destiny of all whose path I cross.
Within this savage turmoil, winds furl towards my trashing core; my central eye ever more apparent. Reinforcing. Ravaging.
I am the Cyclops.
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- 1.
Puerto Rico at that time had 5500 trailer trucks, 3700 dump trucks, and 20,000 trucks that handle loose cargo and refrigerated cargo.
- 2.
The Constitution is also under attack by undermining religious freedom and separation of church-state. For example, while over half of the Island had no electricity, the Legislature passed a Bill “to restore religious freedom”, a Bill objected by constitutionalists as one that reduced religious freedom by allowing businesses and service providers to deny business or services to those they deemed objectionable on a moral grounds. This Bill was not signed into law.
- 3.
The Postal Service reported a tenfold increase in mail volume after the hurricane.
- 4.
Vandals stole diesel from the portable electric plants of communication towers and other government installations. They cut optic fiber, probably confusing them with copper wire, which they stole from buildings and electric lines to recycle. Cars were high jacked to steal the gasoline in their tanks. Gasoline tanks of parked federal vehicles were slashed from below to steal the gasoline. Medical equipment was stolen from hospitals, as were portable electric plants from everywhere. Some Electric Company workers were connecting businesses only if they got paid (through an intermediary who asked as much as $3000/connection), leading to a checkered pattern of buildings with and without electric power.
- 5.
By February 2018, the accumulated debt of the Energy Company was 9 billion dollars while its estimated value was 4 billion dollars.
- 6.
On March 2, 2018, the Commonwealth Comptroller reported that the Department of Transportation and Public Works failed to supervise or control the use of asphalt on roads and also failed to implement a single project out of 119 deemed necessary for maintenance of road safety.
- 7.
Due to María, Río Grande de Arecibo flooded areas not previously inundated including Parcelas Luis Rodríguez Olmo, Arecibo Garden, Reparto Martell and Reparto Márquez, the water reaching 10 feet in places.
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Lugo, A.E. (2019). The Roots of Vulnerability. In: Social-Ecological-Technological Effects of Hurricane María on Puerto Rico. SpringerBriefs in Energy(). Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-02387-4_5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-02387-4_5
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