Currently — September 16th, 2022

What you need to know, currently.

We've had an unusually quiet hurricane season this year, but the National Hurricane Center (NHC) issued a warning today for Tropical Storm Fiona. "Heavy rains from Fiona will reach the northern Leeward Islands Friday afternoon, spreading to the British and U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico Saturday into Sunday morning." said the NHC. "This rainfall may produce flash and urban flooding, along with isolated mudslides in areas of higher terrain. Considerable flood impacts are possible across eastern portions of Puerto Rico."

Fiona is expected to pass by just as Puerto Rico marks the five year anniversary of Hurricane Maria. Maria made landfall on September 20th, 2017 as a devastating Category 4 storm and the archipelago still has not fully recovered. Maria caused the longest blackout in United States history and was responsible for at least 3,000 deaths — many of them resulting from the 11-month-long blackout.  

Rolling blackouts remain an issue even when the weather is good. Puerto Rico's embattled electrical grid relies heavily on imported oil and gas and substantial upgrades and repairs have been put off for years. “Until they rebuild the grid, these blackouts aren’t going to stop,” Federico de Jesús, a political consultant and adviser for the advocacy group Power 4 Puerto Rico told The American Prospect last month. “They could get marginally better, but it’s a systemic failure.”

What you can do, currently.

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