TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums US VI and Puerto Rico Power in San Juan

Anybody with first hand knowledge of how San Juan is now doing for power? OSJ? Condado? Santurce? Ocean Park? Are the major 'general'stores open( Marshall's,Costco,Walmart,Super-Max). Heard mixed info as to whether San Juan is getting back on its feet. Thanks.

San Juan has power with the exception of a few smaller streets which should be with power by this weekend.
The power has sometimes been shut off for a few hour while the tweek the different areas.
Only about 15% of the island is without power but that should be restored by the end of next week.
All the supermarkets and stores are in operations.
It's almost as though the hurricane never hit.

Really? That's certainly not what I am reading elsewhere. What is your source?

My source is my eyes, the restaurants and the stores I visit
The long gas lines disappeared a month ago.
Everything is functioning except in some of the mountainous areas.
There are no shortages of anything.
The US Army did a great job over a month ago by delivering generators and fuel on a 24/7 basis for the gas stations which ended the gas shortage in under a week and they had tanker trucks filling the generator fuel tanks at all the hospitals and clinics and some of the larger supermarkets

Thanks Carol.... Exactly my question. Need to hear from people with 'boots on the ground' or really solid contacts....I keep getting either no info ( tons available about BVI/ USVI) or conflicting info.

OK, what I hear has to do with Puerto Rico as a whole, more than San Juan in particular, but it seems that your estimate of power to the country as a whole is off..

The estimate on the power for the island according to FEMA last week was 20% of the island still had no power and according to the local news this week it went down to 15%.
One of the places that's without any electric is the island of Vieques.

JD as for boots on the ground, I have more then boots I also have properties.

Thanks...exactly what I was hoping for.... Any idea on shops/groceries etc?

Every shop you mentioned and many others are fully stocked.

Why debate. This website is updated daily.
http://status.pr/?lng=en

Thanks! What are the AAA and AAE stats? What do they represent? Are these just for SJU or the whole island?

Have friends with family there. What I am hearing is that the statistics are skewed. That is, yes, 90% of the islands power may be restored, but that does NOT mean that 90% of the islands residents have power.

Priority is being given to things like government offices, first responders, hospitals, and the like. Then next priority is gas stations, grocery stores, other infrastructure stuff. Basically, the very last priority is power into individual homes.

This makes sense, of course. The people there understand the priorities. Visitors are probably not going to have any serious problems. Still, it is worthwhile remembering that there are still a WHOLE LOT of people on the island that are making due without any power in their homes.

Another major issue is if a property is ABLE to accept power, i.e. is the service entrance undamaged or repaired, has the property been inspected and given authorization to reconnect power lines, etc.

The AAA Authority for the water and sewer aqueducts
The AEE Authority for the electric.
It's for the whole island

OK, so according to that website, only 68% of power is on, through today. So the local reports seem to be somewhat optimistic?

Usually the local reports are days old before they're published.

Any update on the power in OSJ and Santurce? The web link hasn't changed in a couple of weeks so wondering if it is accurate. What is the Condado 'strip' like? Thanks and Happy New Year.

The Condado is up and running. All hotels and restaurants are operational.

Wisconsin news reports local utilities sending 60 workers to join the 1500 US utility workers leaving for Puerto Rico this next week to help restore electric. Brings the total number of workers in country to 5,500. "40% of PR still without power."

Wow, 40% still without power.. Wow.

Just for fun I tried to book 20 hotel rooms at 20 hotels around the island for 2!weeks from now and I was able to. Not sure what the 40% is but probably the rural areas that didn't have much to start.

The "without power" can be a bit misleading as there may be "power" at the street/road but the individual structures may not be able to accept power, i.e.be hooked up due to damage.

That is probably a big part of it. We had a house in VT that got damaged (basically destroyed, although structure was still intact, but moved off its foundation) and power was disconnected from it. So technically we probably we're without power until we completely cancelled our account. I imagine there's a number of houses that power has been disconnected from until they are repaired. I think there's likely remote areas that are completely without power still as well. Hotels are generally in more populated areas.