PONCE, PUERTO RICO (WBTW) – A South Carolina utility company is working to restore power in Puerto Rico, where parts of the island still don’t have electricity five months after last year’s devastating hurricanes.
Duke Energy crews are beginning their second month down in Puerto Rico, working in remote, rural areas.
“The people here are fantastic,” said Duke Energy spokesperson Ryan Mosier. “They have a great resilience.”
Mosier is visiting Duke Energy crews stationed in Ponce, Puerto Rico.
They’re working in the southern part of the island, which has struggled to recover from last year’s hurricanes.
“When we arrived on the ground, there were still more than 30 percent of customers without power,” Mosier said. “That number is down to about seven percent.”
Mosier says crews are now using drones to restring power lines and it’s not their only unusual strategy.
“We’ve had to use machetes to clear paths to get access to the equipment we need to repair,” Mosier said. “We’ve used devices similar to a shotgun to shoot lines from one ridge to another because we can’t cross the depth of the ravine.”
Mosier says crews are amazed at how important their roles are, nearly half a year after the storms blew through Puerto Rico.
“It’s been challenging, hard work days, but I think that our team is going to go back home with a new appreciation of what it means to serve a community,” said Mosier.
Duke Energy is expected to stay in Puerto Rico until mid-March.
Then, some crews may stay if their help is still needed.