The week of September 20–26 in Puerto Rico played out in government and politics, the economy, and energy.
Accountability and instability defined the week. A joint assessment placed blame for the island’s slow reconstruction on both the US and Puerto Rican governments, while regulators ordered Banex International Bank into liquidation over insolvency and financial deficiencies. Add to that a still-active seismic sequence in the south-southwest following a magnitude 4.8 earthquake.
Daily life showed mixed signals. Employment grew 0.9% in August with 8,700 new jobs added, even as unemployment climbed to its highest level since 2023, a reminder that growth and hardship can coexist. Meanwhile, roughly 22,000 people received notices about recovering pandemic rental assistance funds, and the San Juan power plant’s unit #6 and seven portable generators remained limited to diesel amid the Bay Pilots–New Fortress dispute, at least until Monday. On a brighter note, NASA opened its first Earth Information Center in the Caribbean, and entrepreneurs donated a 3,740-acre natural area to the Conservation Trust of Puerto Rico.
On water, Carraízo fell 0.18 m between AAA’s readings of September 20 and September 27, to 40.63 m, still within AAA’s safe band, as rationing for its customers remained paused since September 2. Next week, watch whether AAA confirms publicly that east-side rationing in Río Grande, Canóvanas and Loíza has ended, and whether the Canóvanas filtration plant returns to operation.
The week on the water — every reservoir’s readings, the rain over the watersheds and the pace toward the next band line — is in today’s Water Week in Review.
The week’s developments
What to watch
| Watch (From the daily Water Watch's own reading of the trend) | Why |
|---|---|
| Río Grande, Canóvanas and Loíza | whether AAA says in public that the east-side rationing is over, and posts that the Canóvanas filtration plant is back in operation. |
The live picture is on the water page, the power tracker and the legislature tracker; each development above opens the full write-up. This is the 4th Week in Puerto Rico (last week’s is here).
Sources: the linked reporting; AAA’s reservoir chart and rationing notices; the US Drought Monitor. Reservoir levels are AAA’s chart readings, and the drought map is a weekly expert synthesis of indicators, not a rainfall total.
Corrected October 7: an earlier version gave Carraízo’s change as the week of September 20–26; it runs between the readings of September 20 and 27.