As October rolls in, slow-moving flood crests and sluggish drainage persisting weeks after the passage of Hurricane Florence are leaving large eastern areas in the affected states too inundated for accurate damage assessments.
Quentin Wheeler, a retired U.S. Navy helicopter pilot and the CEO of a North Carolina company called Applied Drone Systems, has been flying drone missions over flooded towns in southeastern North Carolina during the Hurricane Florence emergency.
After a management crisis in early July, operations at the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority have settled down following the appointment of electrical engineer José F. Ortiz as the utility’s new executive director and chief operating officer.
After months of struggle to restore power in Puerto Rico, the territory’s Gov. Ricardo Rosselló on Jan. 22 announced that the state-owned Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority will be privatized.
A newly released draft federal National Mitigation Investment Strategy stresses the nation must become more resilient through better agency coordination, stricter building codes and development of more natural features such as wetlands.
As private and public agencies
continue to restore power to the 70% of Puerto Rico that is still without electricity, the island’s government announced it will cancel a $300-million grid-reconstruction contract with Whitefish Energy.
Puerto Rico’s damaged infrastructure has caught the attention of Google, Tesla and other firms that are pitching ideas such as cellular-signal-relaying balloons and off-grid power distribution.
Many Puerto Ricans are living without reliable power, water and cellular coverage as the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers implements a temporary relief system for critical infrastructure and works to stabilize the spillway of a hurricane-damaged dam.
