Lights Come On At Post-Maria Puerto Rico School, Glorious Pandemonium Results

The image is blurry but the joy is ot: A teacher rings a bell
in a Puerto Rican school that erupted into gleeful pandemonium
 this weekwhen electricity was finally restored, four months
after Hurricane Mariet

One of our biggest national shames is the response the United States has had to the aftermath of Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico.

Large swaths of the island still have no electricity, about four months after the hurricane blasted Puerto Rico.

At last report, at least 17 percent of the island still had no power because of the storm. If the U.S. allowed a mainland state to go that long after a disaster without electricity, there'd be rioting in the streets.

There's plenty of blame to go around for the slow response in Puerto Rico.

In any event, a viral video that surfaced this week both enrages me and fills me with absolute joy. Enrages, because it shows the power coming back on after nearly four months. What the hell took so long?

Absolute joy, because this happened in a school. The teachers and students were in there, doing the best they could without electricity, and then what seemed impossible happened: The lights flickered back on.

The pandemonium in the school that resulted is a wonder to behold. Watch and enjoy:

Last Week's Ice Storm REALLY Clobbered New Brunswick

Trees laid low in New Brunswick, Canada after last week's
ice storm. 

Remember that ice storm in Vermont last Tuesday, the one that made that morning's commute hell, closed most of the schools and dropped a few trees and power lines.

That storm got much worse once it got to New Brunswick, Canada, just east of Maine, and they're still reeling up there.

There's videos, too at the bottom of this post.

The storm in New Brunswick cut power to at least 130,000 people there. Nearly a week later, about 25,000 people were still without power, mostly in New Brunswick's Acadian peninsula, which was hardest hit.

The Canadian government is sending troops in today to help with cleanup and power restoration, says the Globe and Mail.  In some places, ice is still on the trees, and gusty winds are making some of them fall, leading to new power outages.

At least two people died in the New Brunswick storm and at least 31 people have suffered carbon monoxide poisoning from generators used during power failures.

We here in Vermont really dodged a bullet with this one, didn't we?  I'm still slipping on the ice, but at least the electricity is still on, and the trees in my yard remain pretty much intact.

Here's some videos out of New Brunswick:

First, a train makes its way through sagging trees and branches laid low by the ice:



ere's a view from inside a house at night as a big tree gives way under the weight of the ice:




Power flashes in Moncton, New Brunswick at night as power lines fail under the ice: