“The lack of power is the root of everything,” Mr. Laboy Rivera said. “This is a very challenging time right now for Puerto Rico.’’

Countless small businesses, like Ms. Gonzalez’s, remain closed because they do not have power or a working generator (there is an epidemic of broken generators). On an island driven by tourism, many hotels are not open for guests. Manufacturers have operated in fits and starts.

At the unemployment office in Bayamón, about a 20-minute drive from Ms. Gonzalez’s restaurant, hundreds line up every weekday morning to try to collect emergency unemployment benefits. More than 22,000 applied in October, compared with 6,800 in the same month last year, according to the Puerto Rico Department of Labor.