Puerto Rico’s Finances Add to Vulnerability in Hurricane
Despite the legal dispute, the board’s executive director, Natalie Jaresko, said in a statement Wednesday
that the board was “working closely with Governor Rosselló to coordinate support for Puerto Rico in the aftermath of the storm.”
“We have also reached out to the federal government to activate Title V of Promesa, which allows the board
to work with agencies to accelerate the deployment of grants and loans following a disaster,” she said.
In San Juan, Mr. Soto-Class said that more than 300,000 Puerto Ricans were already without electrical power by early Wednesday afternoon, even before the arrival of the hurricane,
and while he had a generator to provide backup power, most of the island’s 3.4 million people do not.
“This is not an event that is occurring in the Netherlands, where they’re ready for it
and they have a strong economy,” said Miguel A. Soto-Class, president of the Center for a New Economy, a research group on the island.
Its case is being handled in federal court under a special new law, called Promesa, because the existing bankruptcy law excludes Puerto Rico.
President Trump declared a state of emergency in both Puerto Rico
and the Virgin Islands, giving the Federal Emergency Management Agency the authority to deploy personnel and resources for relief.
The United States Virgin Islands has a far smaller population than Puerto Rico,
but on a per-capita basis its debt is much bigger, and even before the hurricane it was struggling economically.
