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A main power line failed Thursday in Puerto Rico, plunging several cities, including San Juan, into darkness. Dennis M. Rivera Pichardo for The New York Times

nytimes.com - by Frances Robles - November 10, 2017

SAN JUAN, P.R. — A main power line that serves the northern half of Puerto Rico failed Thursday, knocking out electricity to seven cities that had only recently regained service and dealing a major setback to the island’s desperate efforts to regain normality.

Seven weeks after Hurricane Maria completely disabled Puerto Rico’s power grid, the island was generating just 18 percent of its electrical capacity, returning service to where it had been two and half weeks ago. On Thursday morning, the island had been at about 43.2 percent of capacity.

The disruption also me ant that many people no longer had running water, because pumping stations are powered by electricity.

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In Dominica, UNICEF is helping children cope with the devastation of Hurricane Maria through play activities and storytelling - Jacqueline Charles

miamiherald.com - by Harika Rayala and Jacqueline Charles - October 17, 2017

 . . . Recognizing that the trauma from Irma and Maria’s one-two punch is creating a sense of hopelessness and powerlessness among survivors, shelter managers and mental health experts in Antigua and Dominica are on a mission to help people cope with the stress and anxiety. But in a region where mental health awareness is just gaining traction, giving that sort of support isn’t easy.

“If we don’t deal with the mental health issue, the psychological first aid … than we are in trouble,” said Wendel De Leon, a behavioral therapist who recently led a team of therapists from Trinidad and Tobago into Dominica.

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dominicanewsonline.com - September 23, 2017

In words ripe with emotion lamenting that “Eden is broken”, Dominca’s Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit addressed the UN General Assembly this morning, seemingly intent on drawing the world’s attention to current conditions in Dominica in what he described as a landscape resembling a war zone.

The image he evoked was in direct support of his plea to fellow world leaders to assist the hurricane-ravaged island by lending the rebuilding equipment which would otherwise remain untouched “waiting for a war” and which is so desperately needed for the work of rebuilding the country. Roosevelt asserted that Dominica is indeed that war, to the applause of the floor.

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bbc.com - September 20th 2017

Hurricane Maria has knocked out power to the entire island of Puerto Rico, home to 3.5m people, emergency officials have said.

Abner Gómez, head of the disaster management agency, said the hurricane had damaged "everything in its path".

None of the customers of Puerto Rico's Electric Power Authority had any electricity, he said.

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