More than 350,000 customers remain without power in Puerto Rico five months after Hurricane Maria came through and devastated the island's power grid. However, that means that almost 80% have had their power restored due to the mutual aid from the mainland. Armies of bucket trucks and linemen have been deployed to the island over the past few months for the experience of a lifetime. Hard, hard work, for sure, to build electric infrastructure pretty much from scratch, but also rewarding, seeing citizens cheer as their electricity is restored.
With that experience has been the sights of the damage to the equipment and homes, one that these linemen will never forget. Western Area Power Administration has been sharing many photos on its Flickr account, and what follows here are some of the images of the damage workers faced when they arrived.
Photos and captions from WAPA/Flickr.