JUDY WOODRUFF: It's hard to
fully comprehend, but more than
four months since hurricanes

swept through the Caribbean,
about half of Puerto Ricans
remain without electricity.

This week, Governor Ricardo
Rossello announced the island's
public energy monopoly would

be sold off to private companies
following a series of scandals.

In the first of two
reports from Puerto Rico,
special correspondent
Monica Villamizar looks

at what's behind the delay
in restoring power and
how people are coping.

MONICA VILLAMIZAR: When
Hurricane Maria struck
in September, fires
broke out and victims

had to run to the station
to inform firefighter Ronald
Vega and his colleagues.

There was no way to dial 911.

This fire station in the
eastern town of Naguabo is
now functioning normally.

But at Ronald Vega's home
nearby, there is no electricity.

He uses a generator at night and
relies on emergency food aid.

The signs of water damage
still loom above his head.

RONALD VEGA, Firefighter
(through translator):
It's not easy.

It's such a tough situation.

I'm paying at least $15
a day for the fuel of my
generator during the week.

That's every day.

MONICA VILLAMIZAR: As a
firefighter, Vega makes
less than $20,000 a year.

Before the storm he was already
supplementing his income with
part-time work at Walgreens.

Four months after the storm,
about 450,000 of the 1.5 million
electricity customers are

without service.

Blackouts occur regularly
our hours at a time,
even in San Juan.

Outside the capital,
destruction remains.

In Salinas, home to the island's
largest power plant, Barber
Julio Ortiz set up shop at a

ruined gas station.

It took him three months to
find an inverter to connect
his razors to the car battery.

MAN (through translator)
People have to survive
one way or another.

I have to make it happen
somehow because, you know,
money doesn't grow on trees.

MONICA VILLAMIZAR: The response
here remains an emergency.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
coordinates repairs by private
contractors using dollars

from FEMA, the Federal
Emergency Management Agency.

WOMAN: We're standing at the
lay-down yard where all of
our large items come into.

MONICA VILLAMIZAR: The
Army Corps oversees
materials distributed
across the island, but

under the federal Stafford
Act, FEMA is only allowed to
restore infrastructure exactly

as it was before a disaster.

In some cases, materials in
Puerto Rico were so outdated
that the Corps had to get them

made especially for the
island, furthering delays.

COL.

JOHN LLOYD, Army Corps
of Engineers: It really
doesn't allow us to do
more resilient or hardening

work that made that Puerto
Rico's grid definitely needs.

MONICA VILLAMIZAR: Colonel John
Lloyd directs the Army Corps'
operation from the headquarters

of the electricity utility.

What's the point of restoring
it to something old and
essentially in bad shape?

COL.

JOHN LLOYD: The work that we
are doing does - - it brings it
up to code, and in many cases

the grid wasn't to current code.

MONICA VILLAMIZAR: And
when do you think everybody
will have power again?

COL.

JOHN LLOYD: We will slowly
get more customers online.

I think by the middle of March,
end of March, we're going to
see the majority of customers

with power.

MONICA VILLAMIZAR: Many people
have accused Puerto Rico's
only electric utility company,

PREPA, of being
corrupt and wasteful.

Before the storm, PREPA was
bankrupt, and it saved money
by cutting down on important

maintenance.

After the storm, PREPA
contracted Whitefish,
a small, Montana-based
firm, for repairs it

could not complete.

The contract was canceled,
but PREPA still has to pay
Whitefish more than $100 million

for work done.

And then this week, the Puerto
Rican governor announced that
PREPA will be privatized over

the next 18 months.

GOV.

RICARDO ROSSELLO, Puerto
Rico (through translator):
The process will begin
for PREPA assets to

be sold to companies who will
transform the generation system
into a modern, efficient,

and less expensive
one for the people.

MONICA VILLAMIZAR: The
privatization is not expected
to affect the repair schedule.

About 80 percent of electrical
infrastructure was destroyed.

PREPA told us that
restoring power everyone
on the island, not just
the majority, is expected

to take at least until
May, eight months
after Hurricane Maria.

Houses across the
countryside are lined with
blue tarp on their roofs.

But not everyone is waiting
for outside help to move
forward with repairs.

ARTURO MASSOL DEYA, Casa
Pueblo: We don't depend upon
the grid to supply the needs of

Casa Pueblo.

MONICA VILLAMIZAR: Arturo Massol
Deya is the head of Casa Pueblo,
an environmental organization

in Adjuntas.

This local community
center has been running on
solar energy since 1999.

The sun powers everything,
from industrial coffee grinders
to medicine refrigerators,

as well as radio station.

ARTURO MASSOL DEYA: Lighting
was a critical thing.

And it was a way to teach people
how inexpensive, easy it is to
embrace renewable energy sources

like the sun, in which you are
less vulnerable, because the
capture of the energy and the

utilization of the energy is
at the point of consumption.

MONICA VILLAMIZAR: Casa
Pueblo is technically still
connected to the grid.

But it creates so much
power that it can send
it back into the system.

The Puerto Rican government
still hasn't approved
regulations for people
to provide power to

the grid with solar.

In addition to the costs of
infrastructure, that's one more
barrier to making alternative

energy widespread.

The government does plan
to increase renewable
power from only a small
amount to 30 percent

of the island's energy,
so it can be more prepared
for the next hurricane.

This place became a very
important power source
for the entire community
after the hurricane.

People were coming here to
charge their phones and get
solar lamps and refrigerators.

And the radio station never
stopped broadcasting, because
it runs on solar power.

It's a community station where
people call in to request
their favorite salsa songs and

make dedications to
friends and family.

In the hills around his town,
Arturo has installed solar power
systems to connect vulnerable

people isolated from
the power network.

Jonathan is disabled,
living with his grandmother,
Luz Leida Plaza.

With solar, they have lights
and power for their phones and
a tiny fridge for medicine.

The same system powers a
neighbor's dialysis machine.

LUZ LEIDA PLAZA, Adjuntas
(through translator):
Before they had a solar
system, my neighbor

told me he had to connect
his mother's machine to
a car battery all night.

MONICA VILLAMIZAR: It's a
familiar story to Ronald Vega.

RONALD VEGA (through
translator): In some
places, they are
fighting, fighting to get

electricity.

People in many villages
say they feel that they
have simply been forgotten.

And that's because, in many
places, they are still without
power and lights, and it's been

more than 116 days.

MONICA VILLAMIZAR: And
like Casa Pueblo, his fire
station is now prepared.

Thanks to a solar power system
brought to the island by
Las Vegas firefighters, they

are strong enough to
weather the next hurricane.

For the "PBS NewsHour,"
I'm Monica Villamizar
in Puerto Rico.

JUDY WOODRUFF: And in the
coming days, we will continue
our series After the Storms

with additional reports from
Puerto Rico and from Texas.