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- Eight Years Since Hurricane Maria. One Year of Connect Puerto Rico.
Eight Years Since Hurricane Maria. One Year of Connect Puerto Rico.
The storm left Puerto Rico in the dark. Connect Puerto Rico is building a community to shape the energy solutions people need most.
Jillian Melero
September 20, 2025
AI-generated illustration of a Puerto Rican neighborhood where residents install panels, carry tools, and work together. The image represents community efforts and collaboration to shape Puerto Rico’s future.
Art direction by Jillian Melero • Art generated by DallE3 • Sept. 20, 2025
Today is a day that means a lot.
On September 20, 2017, Hurricane Maria made landfall in Puerto Rico.
The storm destroyed homes and infrastructure, and the collapse of the electrical grid left families without power, water, or medical care for months for many, a year or more for some. Nearly 3,000 lives were lost, not only in the storm itself, but in the long blackout that followed.
One year ago today, I launched Connect Puerto Rico on beehiiv.
(After some testing on Medium)
I started this newsletter to keep the spotlight on Puerto Rico, not as a story of crisis or recovery but to focus on building for the future.
This issue is a little different — a chance to reflect on why we’re here and where we’re going. Our regular monthly news roundup will be in your inbox soon.
Thank you for being part of our first year.
Journalist Eliván Martínez Mercado of the Centro de Periodismo Investigativo (CPI) has published Los Estragos del Apagón. The book gathers testimonies from families of Hurricane María’s victims, exposing how most deaths came not from the storm itself, but from the longest blackout in Puerto Rico and U.S. history.
Martínez Mercado documents how government negligence and a fragile grid turned a natural disaster into a preventable human tragedy, and why the lessons of Maria matter for every community in the path of stronger, more frequent storms.
What We’re Here to Do
Connect Puerto Rico exists to track the people, policies, and projects shaping renewable energy development in Puerto Rico. We’re focused on three solutions to ongoing challenges:
Modernizing infrastructure
Growing the local workforce
Centering Puerto Rican expertise in decision-making
Our goal is to inform policy, direct investment where it’s needed most. We want to bring changemakers together to accelerate renewable energy development in Puerto Rico. And we want to do so in a way that centers the knowledge and needs of Puerto Rican communities.
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