Hurricane Maria, on September 20, 2017, triggered numerous landslides in San Sebastián with the significant amount of rain that fell. The hurricane winds knocked the power out and the entire municipality was left in the dark, as was the rest or Puerto Rico. Two weeks after the hurricane decimated the island, Jiménez noticed that help was not on the way. He decided that San Sebastián would not wait for the
AEE brigades to come. He assembled an
ad hoc team of volunteers, some who were retired AEE electricians and their mandate was to get the electrical power back up and running, for the people of San Sebastián. They were able to restore 92% of the electricity within two months. A monument honoring the accomplishments of the
Pepino Power Authority, as they were quickly named, was erected in Plaza de la Identidad Pepiniana in
San Sebastián barrio-pueblo. In early 2019, Jiménez received an Outstanding Achievement Award from the
National Hurricane Center (NHC) for mitigating the power failure. ==References==