Puerto Rico Morning Brief Friday, October 16, 2026

A 33-year-old Ohio resident, Reid Hoffman Brendamour, died after jumping from a rock into the river at the El Hippie pool in Naguabo. Puerto Rico Police reported the incident at 5:48 PM after a 9-1-1 call. Agent Jon Alexander Velázquez Berríos of the Naguabo district conducted the preliminary investigation. He referred the case to Agent Miguel Sánchez of the Homicide Division of the Humacao Criminal Investigations Corps and to prosecutor Miguel García.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Puerto Rico demanded on Thursday, October 15, that Edwin González Montalvo resign as secretary of the Puerto Rico Transportation and Public Works Department. The group confirmed that the department voluntarily sent U.S. immigration authorities (ICE) the confidential information of about 6,321 immigrants who hold driver’s licenses in Puerto Rico. ACLU executive director Annette Martínez Orabona said González showed he cannot meet the duties of his office by handing data to ICE and refusing to produce information so the public could know the truth. The department delivered the data in a document dated January 29, 2025.

Puerto Rico has the most rip current deaths of any U.S. jurisdiction so far this year, with 18 fatalities, according to preliminary National Weather Service data. Fourteen of the dead are men and four are women, aged 21 to 75. The total exceeds the 11 deaths reported in all of 2025 and the 16 in 2024.

Puerto Rico’s Energy Bureau concluded that the April 16, 2025 island-wide blackout was caused by a combination of technical failures in the electrical system. These included rodent damage to protection wiring, deficiencies in backup systems and vegetation management problems. The blackout began at 12:38 PM, when a tree near transmission line 50100 caused an electric arc. The initial fault worsened because a switch at Cambalache did not respond as it should, allowing the fault to remain active in the system.

The federal court overseeing the bankruptcy of the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA) extended the appointment of the lead mediator handling settlement negotiations through April 1, 2027. U.S. District Judge Laura Taylor Swain granted an urgent request from the Financial Oversight and Management Board on Friday, October 16. Her order extended and ratified the appointment for another six months. The extension can be renewed again if necessary.

Nine years after Hurricane María, FEMA has committed $29.98 billion to rebuild what the 2017 hurricanes and the disasters since have broken in Puerto Rico. By October 14, COR3 had paid out $7.36 billion of that sum, or 24.5%.