Satellite photos show Puerto Rico went dark after Hurricane Maria
When Hurricane Maria's Category 4 winds roared across Puerto Rico last week, it left the U.S. territory and its 3.4 million residents nearly entirely without power.
It's possible that parts of Puerto Rico could be without electricity for months, due in part to the hurricane's diagonal track across the entire island. The darkness that has fallen on the island is so prevalent that it's even visible in photos of the territory taken from space.
A nighttime photo taken of Puerto Rico from space on September 25 shows most of the island has gone completely dark. This is particularly apparent when this picture is compared to images taken prior to the storm, which show the bright lights of cities around the island.
The power failure isn't the only problem facing Puerto Rico. Communications are also hobbled. According to reporting from the Associated Press, 1,360 of Puerto Rico's 1,600 cell phone towers are no longer in service.
While the power outages across the island are devastating, they aren't a surprise.
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Governor Ricardo Rossello reportedly predicted that 100 percent of the island would be without power after Maria. The territory's aging infrastructure is in part to blame for the widespread outages.
The storm is the worst to hit the island in modern memory, and now, the territory is facing months or even years of rebuilding.
Miriam Kramer worked as a staff writer for Space.com for about 2.5 years before joining Mashable to cover all things outer space. She took a ride in weightlessness on a zero-gravity flight and watched rockets launch to space from places around the United States. Miriam received her Master's degree in science, health and environmental reporting from New York University in 2012, and she originally hails from Knoxville, Tennessee. Follow Miriam on Twitter at @mirikramer.
