Latest / 787daily — Puerto Rico Every Morning / Rivers, Rip Currents, Rodents and a Slow FEMA Rebuild

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Rivers, Rip Currents, Rodents and a Slow FEMA Rebuild · 787daily — Puerto Rico Every Morning

• 0:00
  This is 787daily, your Puerto Rico briefing for Friday, October 16.
• 0:04
  We start with a sad one.
• 0:05
  On Wednesday, 33-year-old Reid Hoffman Brendamour, a visitor from Ohio, died after jumping from a rock into the river at the El Hippie pool in Naguabo.
• 0:13
  Our thoughts are with his family and loved ones.
• 0:16
  That story points to a bigger worry about water.
• 0:18
  The National Weather Service says Puerto Rico has reported 18 rip current deaths so far this year.
• 0:23
  That is the most of any U.S. jurisdiction.
• 0:25
  So if you're heading to the coast this weekend, take the warnings seriously, and swim where you know the conditions.
• 0:31
  The island's water is beautiful, but it deserves respect.
• 0:34
  Now to a story about privacy and trust.
• 0:36
  The ACLU Puerto Rico is demanding that the secretary of the DTOP resign.
• 0:40
  The group says the department voluntarily sent confidential information on about 6,321 immigrant drivers to ICE, and did it without a court order.
• 0:48
  The call for a resignation is the ACLU's, and it puts a hard question to the agency about how it handles the data people hand over to get a license.
• 0:57
  Next, the lights.
• 0:57
  Remember the island-wide blackout of April 2025?
• 1:00
  We now have an official explanation.
• 1:01
  The Energy Bureau concluded it was caused by technical failures, including rodent damage to protection cabling.
• 1:06
  A small problem in the wrong place, and the whole system felt it.
• 1:10
  The power system's money troubles are still in court.
• 1:13
  U.S. District Judge Laura Taylor Swain has extended the PREPA bankruptcy lead mediator's appointment through April 1, 2027.
• 1:18
  That means the talks over the utility's debt will keep going for at least another stretch.
• 1:23
  Rebuilding is the thread that runs through all of this, so here is where it stands.
• 1:27
  FEMA has committed $29.98 billion to rebuild Puerto Rico after the 2017 hurricanes and the disasters since.
• 1:34
  As of October 14, COR3 had paid out 7.36 billion of it.
• 1:38
  That is 24.5%, less than a quarter, nine years on.
• 1:42
  Behind that gap are the roads, the homes and the power lines people are still waiting on.
• 1:47
  That's your 787daily for today.
• 1:49
  You can read every story in full at 787daily.com.
• 1:53
  We'll be back with you next time.
• 1:55
  And before you go, your Puerto Rico fun fact for today: Mosquito Bay in Vieques is the brightest bioluminescent bay in the world.
• 2:02
  It holds the Guinness World Record.
• 2:04
  Have a great weekend, Puerto Rico.