Puerto Rico crisis: Full power restoration will take 6 months

PW Power Systems CEO Raul Pereda on Tuesday said that his company would like to help restore power to Puerto Rico. However, many companies may be skeptical about doing business in Puerto Rico because of its massive $72 billion dollar debt load.

“They are in a tough financial situation we are working with PREPA [Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority], we are working and directly with them through FEMA. We are going to try and be flexible. We are obviously running a business but we also are looking for an opportunity to help,” he told Fox Business’ Melissa Francis on “After the Bell.”

Pereda believes that it will take approximately six months to fully restore power to the island.

According to the New York Times, 84% of the island is without power and 67% of cell phones towers are currently down.

Pereda explained why it’s going to be difficult to restore power to Puerto Rico as opposed to the U.S. mainland.

“They have a couple of challenges; I think being on an island is tough. When we have power outages here in the Northeast, you have the ability to have crews drive from other states nearby, so it’s difficult. You gotta sail, cruise there. You’ve got to find housing for them, they can’t go back home [and] you have to air lift things into there,” he said.