The devastating blows dealt to Puerto Rico by Hurricanes Irma and Maria are putting the woebegone U.S. territory’s bankruptcy on the backburner, Reuters reported yesterday. The team of judges overseeing the case has directed parties to put legal issues on hold indefinitely, as the territory recovers from an unprecedented one-two punch of natural disasters. Judges have also told parties the island’s fiscal turnaround blueprint may need to be redrafted once the cost of the destruction becomes clear, as well as how much aid Puerto Rico is expected to get from the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency. Maria was ranked a Category 4 storm, near the top of the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale, with winds of up to 155 mph (250 kph), when it made landfall on Puerto Rico on Wednesday as the strongest storm to hit the island in nearly 90 years. It struck less than two weeks after Hurricane Irma wreaked havoc there. Officials in Puerto Rico have said power could be out for months, while devastating flooding continues to ravage low-lying areas on the mountainous Caribbean isle.
