Communities in Puerto Rico with lengthy power outages after major hurricanes experienced higher death rates in the months following the storms than those that recovered quickly, according to a Washington Post analysis of satellite imagery and death records data.
Light analysis shows where Puerto Rico hurricane damage was especially deadly
November 28, 2023 at 6:00 a.m. EST
Using NASA’s Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite to calculate the average light output of Puerto Rico’s 78 municipalities after hurricanes Maria in 2017 and Fiona in 2022, The Post compared the death rates after each storm with historical levels.
The tropical cyclones left Puerto Rico’s power grid in tatters and unresponsive to the challenging needs of its people for prolonged periods.
In towns still struggling to reestablish power two weeks after the 2022 hurricane, death rates were 40 percent higher than in communities that appeared to recover more quickly. In places that waited more than four weeks to regain power, death rates in the following months spiked 270 percent compared with historical rates.
Less nighttime light
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San Juan
20 MILES
Municipalities where
the most light was lost.
Sources: NASA/NOAA
Less nighttime light
More
San Juan
20 MILES
Municipalities where the most light was lost.
Sources: NASA/NOAA
Less nighttime light
More
Arecibo
San Juan
Mayaguez
Ponce
Municipalities where the most light was lost.
20 MILES
Sources: NASA/NOAA
Less nighttime light
More
Arecibo
San Juan
Mayaguez
Ponce
Municipalities where the most light was lost.
10 MILES
Sources: NASA/NOAA
A similar pattern emerged after the 2017 hurricane, suggesting that the lack of power in the affected communities, which lie mostly outside Puerto Rico’s capital of San Juan and urban core, was a significant factor that increased residents’ risk of death.
“The communities recovering the slowest after disasters also tended to have higher increases in death rates,” said Fernando Tormos-Aponte of the University of Pittsburgh, who is analyzing similar data to determine residents’ vulnerability in a disaster.
The increased death rates also point to the role successive disasters have had on a population that has grown older, sicker and more fragile.
Last year was one of deadliest years in recent history for the island, according to an analysis by The Post and the Center for Investigative Journalism in Puerto Rico. The data showed that with Fiona and the toll of covid-19, the mortality of Puerto Rico’s 3.3 million habitants increased past expected levels.
The data analysis does not make clear if the power outages are the main cause of the higher death rates, but outages can weaken medical services and undermine systems that support public health, such as water filtration, sewage processing and the distribution of relief supplies, said William Straka, an atmospheric scientist at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, who has used satellite imagery to study the impact of access to electricity.
“Not having electric power doesn’t automatically mean you have a higher propensity to die. But it is one factor in significantly increasing the vulnerability and risk for communities hit by compounding disasters,” said Deepak Lamba-Nieves, research director at the Center for a New Economy, a think tank in San Juan. “This underscores the urgency to accelerate and intensify the rate of reconstruction of Puerto Rico in a just and equitable manner.”
There are limitations to The Post’s nighttime light analysis: Cloud cover, moonlight and alternative energy sources such as generators could bias or affect the satellite data.
The bankrupt public utility, Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority, collected power outage data but said it had turned over that information to the private companies that now operate the power grid.
Data provided by Luma Energy, the power company that took control of the island’s electricity distribution and transmission in 2021, largely aligned with The Post’s light analysis.
In an email to The Post, Luma Energy said it would be misleading to attribute “any increase to mortality rates solely to the lack of electricity.” Luma has made “significant and historic progress to improve” the island’s electrical system, the statement said.
Hurricane Maria plunged millions of people into darkness for months — one of the longest power blackouts in U.S. history — and led to the deaths of about 3,000 more people than expected in the six months after the hurricane, according to a government-sponsored analysis by researchers with George Washington University’s Milken Institute School of Public Health.
“This was a long-term power outage over a wide range of areas, which caused a degradation of essential services, which could lead to an increase in mortality in the affected areas,” Straka said.
Nearly all municipalities lost power after Hurricane Maria, but a Post analysis found that communities that waited more than three months for power to be restored had a 25 percent larger increase in death rates during the six months after the storm made landfall compared with others that gained power back sooner.
In Comerío, in central Puerto Rico, and Loíza, a coastal community, the death rates nearly doubled in the six months after Hurricane Maria. The two communities’ nighttime output — the amount of light generated and visible from satellites — didn’t reach consistent levels until nearly nine months later.
Residents in the barrio of Cerro Gordo, in San Lorenzo in the southern part of the island, waited nearly eight months after Hurricane Maria before community members organized their own brigade to restore electricity to their neighbors. Local business owner José García González said they couldn’t wait any longer.
“We were desperate,” said García González, 41, who owns a bar and restaurant in town. “So we did it ourselves. We were afraid, but were more afraid to be without electricity.”
García González said it was difficult to see the suffering in each household wrought by the lack of power.
“There were lots of sick and older people. … Lives were lost,” he said. “If there is no electricity, there is no potable water. The food is ruined. Low-income people can’t keep feeding the generator with gas and oil.”
One man starved to death alone. Another bedridden man succumbed to his illness without electricity to run his machines for treatment, García González said.
It took nine months before nighttime output reached close to pre-Hurricane Maria levels in San Lorenzo, according to an analysis of satellite imagery by The Post.
The power of The Post’s data analysis, Tormos-Aponte said, lies in helping policymakers focus federal resources on the places that need the most protection.
“This data tells us who’s most vulnerable, where they are and how we can change this,” he said.
