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Power Bills, Blackout Risks, and Eighty Years of Island Life · 787daily — Puerto Rico Every Morning

• 0:00
  This is 787daily, your Puerto Rico briefing for Wednesday, October 28.
• 0:03
  Grab your coffee.
• 0:04
  If you're watching your electric bill, it might need to be a strong one.
• 0:08
  Let's start there.
• 0:09
  La Fortaleza says the Emergency Fund is not being tapped for electricity relief, at least for now.
• 0:14
  Using that money would require authorization from the Oversight Board, so for the moment, no rescue from that pot.
• 0:19
  Relief is one question.
• 0:20
  Keeping the lights on is another.
• 0:22
  LUMA Energy projected selective blackouts Tuesday night, with more than 100,000 subscribers at risk of losing power.
• 0:27
  The forecast showed a deficit of more than 300 megawatts at the early-evening demand peak if no generator recovers.
• 0:33
  And 80,000 subscribers were already without power at five p.m.
• 0:36
  If you were one of them, that is a long evening, and we hope the lights are back on for you.
• 0:41
  That pressure on household budgets is exactly what the Senate had in mind.
• 0:45
  It passed House Bill 133, which caps monthly payment-plan installments for water and power debts at 5% of household income.
• 0:51
  For families trying to catch up on what they owe, that's a number they can plan around.
• 0:56
  Now a clean turn to some federal money.
• 0:58
  The Federal Emergency Management Agency has obligated 753,000, $618 for Puerto Rico projects covering infrastructure and flood control, plus public facilities.
• 1:06
  And here's a number worth smiling about.
• 1:07
  Life expectancy at birth in Puerto Rico in 2023 was 84.1 years for women and 76.6 for men, according to a study from the Puerto Rico Institute of Statistics.
• 1:17
  The headline figure: 80.4 years overall.
• 1:19
  That's a lot of mornings with café con leche.
• 1:21
  One more item for the household budget.
• 1:23
  The price of liquefied gas will rise in early November, by eight to $10 per 100-pound cylinder.
• 1:28
  If you cook with gas, you'll want to know before you reach for the next refill.
• 1:33
  That's your briefing.
• 1:34
  You can read every story in full at 787daily.com.
• 1:37
  I'm glad you spent part of your morning with 787daily, and I'll see you tomorrow.
• 1:42
  And before you go, your Puerto Rico fun fact for today: Bacardí runs one of the world's largest rum distilleries just outside San Juan, nicknamed the Cathedral of Rum.