Puerto Rico in Distress

ABI Analysis

An informal survey by Puerto Rico’s Chamber of Food Marketing, Industry and Distribution of 15 of its members found that there are roughly 1,400 containers of their provisions sitting in U.S. ports, waiting to be shipped to Puerto Rico, according to a commentary in today’s Wall Street Journal.

A U.S. congressional committee yesterday set a Nov. 2 deadline for the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA) to provide information related to its $300 million contract with a small Montana firm to repair damage to the utility’s infrastructure caused by Hurricane Maria, Reuters reported.

U.S. District Judge Laura Taylor Swain granted a motion yesterday that forbids Puerto Rico from using disaster relief money to repay creditors who are owed roughly $72 billion in debt repayments, Reuters reported.

Puerto Rico and Whitefish Energy Holdings yesterday defended their $300 million contract for the small Montana company to repair the U.S. territory’s hurricane-ravaged power grid after the deal was criticized by U.S. lawmakers, Reuters reported. The back-and-forth comes as Puerto Rico struggles to restore power to more than 80 percent of the island a month after Hurricane Maria made landfall.