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^- Good morning and Happy New Year.
^I'm Diana Holland, US Army Corps of Engineers
^and from the very historic fort of Old San Juan,
^I'd like to provide an update on the corps hurricane
^response efforts in Puerto Rico.
^We currently have over 5,000 people on the ground.
^That includes corps employees plus contractors
^continuing to work hard to return Puerto Rico
^to normal condition.
^We have continued to work hard on our mission
^assignments, achieving new milestones
^during the holiday season.
^And here are a few of those milestones.
^During the week of Christmas, our temporary emergency
^power team installed the 1000th generator in Puerto Rico.
^That exceeds the number of generators installed
^following hurricanes Katrina, Rita, and Sandy combined.
^And the number required here continues to climb.
^We've also recently established five micro grids
^at Culebra, Maunabo, Patillas, Naguabo and Yabucoa.
^These are areas that don't expect to get power
^from the grid in the near future
^and we wanted to employ alternative solutions
^to bring some relief to those communities.
^Micro grids also give us a chance to test the system,
^find faults in the nearby lines sooner, rather than later.
^We are working closely with FEMA and PREPA
^to determine additional locations that might
^be right for this initiative.
^As of last week, we've cleaned up 1.7 million
^cubic yards of debris across 52 municipalities.
^And as of this week, we've installed over
^30,000 blue roofs across all 78 municipalities.
^There is much work to be done and consequently
^understanding the remaining needs,
^FEMA has extended the blue roof application
^deadline to 10 January.
^But most importantly, we continue to
^prioritize repairs to the electrical grid.
^We, working with PREPA and other industry experts,
^have reached almost 70% of pre-storm load
^and just over half the customers who had power before
^the hurricane have the potential for power now.
^I know there's a lot of frustrations as to why
^this is taking so long to restore electricity
^to all of Puerto Rico.
^There are many reasons for the duration of this effort
^and we've been honest and forthright
^about those challenges from the beginning.
^Those reasons include age and condition
^of the infrastructure before hurricane Maria,
^the challenges associated with the amount of
^materials that had to be shipped from
^the mainland to Puerto Rico.
^Of note, some of the materials arriving today
^were actually placed on order 45 to 60 days ago.
^And terrain and accessibility to the lines and towers,
^where work needs to occur, is another challenging
^aspect of this task.
^Repairing the grid is a tough mission.
^But if it were easy, then repairs would have
^been completed long ago.
^Instead, FEMA and the government of Puerto Rico
^requested assistance from the Corps of Engineers
^and we did not shy away.
^Instead, we stepped up and are determined
^to make a difference each day that we are here.
^The 2017 hurricane season was tough on our region,
^in Florida, the US Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico.
^The response effort applied by the Corps of Engineers
^in the South Atlantic division has exceeded all
^metrics of any storm in the corps history.
^We look forward to 2018, a year when our
^region will heal, recover and be stronger.
^We are proud to be a part of this effort
^and our employees are so proud and dedicated
^that they remained here during the holidays
^to continue to work.
^And on behalf of the Corps of Engineers,
^we'd like to wish everyone a happy and healthy new year.
^(speaking foreign language)
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