Power has been restored to about 5% of customers in Puerto Rico after nearly all of the island’s 1.57 million customers were left in the dark on Sept. 20, when Hurricane Maria left the power grid in shambles.
An initial reconnaissance of the damage from the Sept. 19 Puebla-Morelos earthquake that killed over 300 people and toppled over 40 buildings in Mexico City found that seismic building codes—put in place after a 1985 deadly quake—were effective, according to a Stanford University professor.
The U.S. House of Representatives edged U.S. flood insurance policy—and with it, risk financing needed to rebuild after losses from flooding—closer to rationality with a unanimous vote April 28.
Rebuilding after the Feb. 2011 magnitude-6.3 earthquake in Christchurch, a city of 382,000 people, offers a cautionary tale for future disaster recovery.