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.
Puerto Rico in Distress
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Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico today just two weeks after Irma caused as much as $1 billion in damages on the bankrupt island, Bloomberg News reported today. Maria’s top winds were at 155 miles an hour, the National Hurricane Center said in a notice around 6 a.m. EDT. Maria could cause $30 billion in damage to Puerto Rico and the U.S.
The independent investigation of Puerto Rico’s $74 billion debt crisis will be a comprehensive look at the borrowing that pushed the island into its record-setting bankruptcy, according to the executive director of the island’s federal oversight board, Bloomberg News reported yesterday.
Some Puerto Rico general-obligations gained in value after a court ruled that the commonwealth’s transportation agency would retain toll revenue to cover operations instead of paying bondholders, Bloomberg News reported yesterday.