Hurricane Maria Devastates Puerto Rico, Exposing Infrastructure Collapse While McKinsey Continues Advising on Privatization and Austerity

Hurricane Maria struck Puerto Rico on September 20, 2017, knocking out the entire electrical grid, leaving thousands without shelter, and causing thousands of deaths directly or indirectly—exposing catastrophic infrastructure failures resulting from decades of austerity and debt service prioritization. The storm revealed the consequences of PREPA’s chronic underinvestment: 98% of electricity came from imported fossil fuels, creating extreme vulnerability and the highest electricity rates in the U.S. mainland. Recovery was devastatingly slow, complicated by infrastructure problems that were ultimately the result of years of neglect and the austerity measures McKinsey had helped design just months earlier. Rather than pausing austerity or reconsidering privatization, McKinsey continued advising the fiscal board throughout the disaster, billing over $2 million monthly. Writer Naomi Klein documented what she called ‘disaster capitalism’—‘how the already rich and powerful systematically exploit the pain and trauma of collective shocks like superstorms to build an even more unequal and undemocratic society.’ Klein reported that following Maria, McKinsey pushed ‘massive cuts to education, hundreds of school closures, wave after wave of home foreclosures, and the privatization of some of Puerto Rico’s most valuable assets.’ The hurricane became a justification for accelerating the very privatization and austerity policies that had created the vulnerability. McKinsey’s continued role demonstrated the firm’s willingness to profit from disaster, billing millions while Puerto Ricans suffered without power, water, or medical care. The consulting firm’s recommendations prioritized creditor repayment and asset privatization over disaster recovery and infrastructure resilience, exemplifying how management consultants serve financial extraction over human welfare.