Puerto Rico’s power outages are the largest in US history.  More than a month after Maria knocked out the grid on the islands, the vast majority of residents still remain without electricity.  Over 80% of the island still DOES NOT HAVE POWER!  I said it in an earlier post, but we are staying by the Convention Center downtown at the Sheraton which is one of the very few hotels with power….and hotel rooms here are fully booked out for at least the next 6 months or more…that’s the same situation with any hotel that is open and has power. Once you leave the hotel and go a block, there are no traffic signals working, cars and trucks go and do whatever they need to do at their own risk, a few stores that have generators are open and are operating, its an absolute free for all.  So yes, today’s mission was a vital one as we took essential personnel out to finally figure out what’s going on with the power line reconstruction situation here….what’s been getting done…what hasn’t been getting done and where do we go from here.  We flew almost 6 hours and it was a somewhat disappointing as to what has not been happening here.  The people of Puerto Rico are anxiously awaiting power and areas are taking more time than I’m sure they’d like it to.  There are certain areas where the terrain is going to make it difficult and take longer but that’s where helicopters will become extremely vital and essential!