*I'd surmise that the truly heavy Big Unknown is what happens after Puerto Rico gets hit by another Category 4 or 5. Could be 40 years, but it could be two years. Given the glacial slowness and extreme costs of the rebuilding, you have to wonder who, even among the most patriotic, would want to give that effort another try.
*People are leaving the island in the tens of thousands, because, since they're US citizens, they can do that. And, if there's nobody left to appreciate the status quo ante, why spend the huge amounts of money to restore it? Especially if other American areas, such as Florida and Texas, are also being clobbered by climate change, but have more Senators.
https://www.wnyc.org/story/reporters-notebook-puerto-rico-recovery-unknowns-weigh-heavily/
by Alana Casanova-Burgess
(...)
Any time I get into my rental car, the radio delivers a stream of island-wide conversations about how to deal with depression or FEMA or contaminated water. Leptospirosis, a bacterial disease spread by the urine of infected animals, is on the rise in Puerto Rico, and on-air messages advise boiling water for at least three minutes before use.
Many people I've interviewed don't have water at home and have to buy it; they know that when it starts to flow from their taps they'll have to boil it anyway.
But what I've heard myself over and over again, from Adjuntas to Ciales to Isabela, is that it's not the lack of light or water that's grinding so much as it is the uncertainty of when it's coming back. In Adjuntas, it might not be until March. In Ciales, could it possibly be back by January? It's the tediousness of hot days and long nights, stretching on and on....
In Ciales, my aunt told me how she's been coping without power and water. On the mainland, the idea of so many people without power seems abstract. But here it's a sharp reality with its own everyday dangers, like using candles in the dark to read...
And then there's the sound and smell of generators. It's a buzz that infects nearly all my audio recordings; there's no way to get away from the hum, and the car gets too hot with the engine off. In Isabela on Tuesday, when I asked if anyone in a game of dominoes had a generator, the immediate answer from Rafael Rivera was that he didn't have one because the fumes made it hard for him to breathe....
