Only 55 percent of residents have access to drinking water, getting out information about where to go to find resources can save lives.

On Friday, the FCC gave Alphabet, Google's parent company, permission to launch its internet balloon project over Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands. Project Loon transmit internet service from high altitude balloon. Loon has permission to fly 30 of its balloons for up to six months over the affected areas.

Eight local carriers agreed to let Loon use their frequencies to revive connectivity during the recovery effort. The idea, as Harris wrote in Wired, is for Alphabet to set up base stations that will connect to the wireless networks that are still standing. Those will link to balloons flying nearly 13 miles above the Earth, from which cell service will be broadcast down to the islands.