About 60 utility workers from Wisconsin companies will travel to Puerto Rico next month, where they will help with ongoing efforts to repair the island nation’s electric grid.
Following Hurricane Maria in September, about 3.5 million residents of Puerto Rico were left without power. It’s estimated as much as half the country is still living without electricity three months later.
We Energies spokeswoman Amy Jahns about 35 We Energies employees and 25 Wisconsin Public Service workers are scheduled to leave for Puerto Rico in mid-January, where they will spend four to six weeks helping with recovery efforts. Equipment from the state is already on its way to Florida, where it will be loaded on a barge and sent to San Juan.
The Wisconsin workers will among about 1,500 from U.S. investor-owned electric companies across the country that will help with the relief effort, which is supported by FEMA.