Preliminary evaluations show Hurricane Fiona damaged 50 percent of transmission lines and distribution feeders across Puerto Rico as hundreds of thousands remain without power or water service almost two weeks after the storm hit, officials said Thursday.

As Hurricane Fiona bore down on Puerto Rico two weeks ago, the U.S.-imposed fiscal control board and the U.S.-based judge who handles the public electric utility’s debt restructuring deal forced Puerto Rican lawyers to file motions even as the archipelago was experiencing an island-wide blackout.

In the five years since Hurricane María tore through their country, the people of Puerto Rico have made efforts to rebuild in hopes that they would be ready for the next disaster. Hurricane Fiona, a Category 1 storm that swept through the island on Sunday, has shattered such hopes.

The eye of newly formed Hurricane Fiona neared Puerto Rico’s south coast on Sunday. already causing an island-wide power blackout and threatening to dump “historic” levels of rain.

Kenneth Chesebro, a Harvard-trained lawyer accused of crafting former President Donald Trump’s fake elector strategy to overturn the results of the 2020 election, has kept a “low profile” since the attack on the U.S. Capitol in January 2021, having moved to Puerto Rico last year.

On Monday, U.S. Energy Sec. Jennifer Granholm announced a $453.3 million commitment to finance rooftop solar panels and battery systems for Puerto Rico’s most vulnerable communities.

As the effects of climate change intensify across the Caribbean, it will only lead to more extreme weather events that will in turn force Puerto Ricans out of the places they once considered “safe” and make many reconsider their life plans.

With rising temperatures and the increasing threat of tropical storms due to climate change menacing Puerto Rico, many fear the islands’ access to electrical power will only worsen under privatization.

As Puerto Rico moves toward its stated goal of 100 percent renewable energy by 2050, there are still gigantic leaps that need to be taken if it plans to reach that target date, though it is becoming increasingly unlikely that such monumental steps will be taken.

A U.S. government study has determined that with little room on the island for large-scale solar farms or wind generators, Puerto Rico should aim to reach its clean-energy goals by installing solar panels on all suitable rooftops, along with airports, brownfields, and industrial areas.

Despite ample federal funding, less than one percent of the federal money slated for the island’s public water utility corporation since 2018 has been set aside to buy generators for water pumps. Local officials instead have been forced to rely on a patchwork supply of emergency units.

A group of 16 municipalities filed a lawsuit on November 22 against multiple Big Oil companies for downplaying the risks of their fossil-fuel products on climate change.

Puerto Ricans will likely spend this Christmas without their time-honored tradition of eating plantains with dinner, after Hurricane Fiona destroyed 80 percent of the island’s plantain and banana crops in September.

The U.S. government announced Tuesday that it will provide Puerto Rico with temporary electric generation via barges to help in restoring the island’s storm-devastated power grid and ease repeated widespread outages.

The announcement, made on Friday, is part of the Biden administration’s effort to directly address the disproportionate impacts of pollution that have existed for decades in many low-income communities and communities of color.

The Department of Transportation and Public Works offered incomplete data on the bridges damaged by Hurricane Fiona and does not say whether there was a monitoring plan for those that were in a vulnerable condition before the storm.

Puerto Rico’s Energy Bureau announced Thursday that it will investigate how a private company has handled complaints about electric bills after Hurricane Fiona knocked power out to the entire island.

Two weeks after Hurricane Fiona, non-governmental organizations in Puerto Rico still bear the greatest burden of guiding and caring for survivors of gender-based violence.

Puerto Ricans are pushing for sustained interconnectivity between stakeholders doing the rebuilding in the islands and the diaspora and its allies advocating for long-term investment from the mainland — and these coordination efforts are largely driven by women’s networks.

President Joe Biden visited Puerto Rico on Monday to announce new hurricane relief projects, two weeks after Hurricane Fiona battered the archipelago. Tens of thousands remain without power, and even more worry that aid promised by Biden will be too little too late.

PONCE, Puerto Rico (AP) — President Joe Biden promised to “rebuild it all” while visiting Puerto Rico on Monday, as tens of thousands of people remain without power two weeks after Hurricane Fiona struck and residents worry that Washington’s dedication to their recovery could prove fleeting.