Tropical Storm Erika (2015): Pre-María Infrastructure Warning

Tropical Storm Erika struck Puerto Rico on August 28, 2015, during the early stages of the island's fiscal crisis. While far less powerful than what would come two years later, Erika exposed vulnerabilities that, left unaddressed, would make Hurricane María catastrophic.

Impact:
- 4 deaths from flooding and mudslides
- Over $50 million in damage
- Major flooding in southern and western municipalities
- Infrastructure damage to roads, bridges, and water systems
- Power outages affecting tens of thousands

Warning Signs:
Erika revealed exactly the infrastructure failures that would prove fatal during María:
- Drainage systems overwhelmed by moderate rainfall
- Roads and bridges in poor condition, washed out by flooding
- Electrical grid vulnerable to even moderate wind and rain
- Communication systems disrupted
- Emergency response hampered by infrastructure failures

Why the Warning Went Unheeded:
- Puerto Rico was in the midst of its fiscal crisis (Governor García Padilla had declared the debt 'unpayable' in June 2015)
- The Fiscal Oversight Board had not yet been created (PROMESA passed in 2016)
- Federal disaster relief was minimal
- Infrastructure investment was impossible under austerity conditions
- Two years later, María would exploit every vulnerability Erika had exposed

Erika was the warning. María was the consequence of ignoring it. The colonial fiscal crisis made it impossible for Puerto Rico to invest in infrastructure resilience — and the federal government did not step in to fill the gap.