WASHINGTON — The destruction left after Hurricane Maria has Puerto Ricans in Maryland and the continental United States feeling paralyzed because they cannot reach many family and friends on the devastated island.
The last message Edmundo Torres, of Gaithersburg, Maryland, received from family the morning of Hurricane Maria said simply 鈥渆sto est谩 duro鈥� which translates to 鈥渢his is hard.鈥� It would be two days after the storm before he received any news.
鈥淚鈥檝e been heartbroken over the images you see coming out of the island,鈥� said Candy Cintron, a DJ for the local Latino radio station, El Zol 107.9. 鈥淵ou see the places that you recognize and were really beautiful completely destroyed. You don鈥檛 see the beaches anymore, you don鈥檛 see the luscious palm trees. There鈥檚 just sand and water everywhere.鈥�
Puerto Rico is home to approximately 3.4 million people, and has been entirely without power, as well as most cell phone service, since just hours after the Category 4 storm made landfall Wednesday. Carmen Yul铆n Cruz, mayor of San Juan, said that the island is facing four to six months without electricity.
Cintron, who lives in Clinton, Maryland, with her wife and two-year-old daughter, told Capital 91欧美激情 Service that she has been unable since Tuesday evening to reach her mother in Naranjito, an inland city towards the middle of the island.
鈥淢y cousin told me that they could not get to my mom because so many roads are blocked in Naranjito,鈥� said Cintron. 鈥淚 know that she鈥檚 physically okay because she has a cement house, a generator, and a water pipe installed, but my mom has a heart condition. I don鈥檛 know what that means for her with all this stress.鈥�
According to the National Weather Service in San Juan, the northeast part of the island remains under a flash flood watch as rainfall is expected to continue through Friday.
鈥淭here is a feeling of despair in not knowing what to do,鈥� Cintron said. 鈥淚 think in the past three days, I haven鈥檛 slept for more than eight hours. I only sleep when I鈥檓 exhausted, and even then my phone is up extremely loud just waiting for some update.鈥�
For Torres, who has lived in Gaithersburg for the last year, it is 鈥渋ncredibly frustrating鈥� to not be able to receive news from anyone outside of San Juan, the capital city and main hub of the island. Family and friends have started to check in, he said, but are often only able to after traveling towards bigger cities like San Juan.
鈥淚t is not only my family I worry about, but most of my friends are also on the island,鈥� Torres said. 鈥淚 cannot be sure if their houses are flooded or what other needs may have arisen. My best friend鈥檚 family had to evacuate their house the night of the storm because of flooding.鈥�
Torres鈥� family lives in Salinas, Ponce and Cabo Rojo, towns in the southern areas of the island that still do not have functioning communications.
鈥淚 spoke with my mother in Salinas and my father in Ponce, the day before the storm,鈥� said Torres. 鈥淭hey were calm, which I attribute that to preparing for Hurricane Irma just a week earlier.鈥�
His uncle traveled from Salinas to San Juan on Thursday morning to be able to deliver the call that while everyone was okay, the situation in Puerto Rico was 鈥渧ery ugly.鈥�
Torres has yet to hear from his father in Ponce, but told Capital 91欧美激情 Service that his mother called him Thursday after traveling north to check on a friend.
For both Cintron and Torres, the lack of communication with Puerto Rico makes it hard to know exactly how to organize support in any official capacity for the island, especially since they are unable to travel home.
鈥淚 am talking with some people and we鈥檙e going to start getting donations of first aid and other supplies like diapers, water and canned foods together,鈥� Cintron said.
鈥淚t doesn鈥檛 matter how much money you have in PR right now, you cannot get to the store to buy anything,鈥� she added. 鈥淢oney will not create that much of a difference, it鈥檚 the money we need to be able to transport these goods to the island.鈥�
Torres finds solace in his 鈥渇riends of the diaspora boricua鈥� (other Puerto Ricans on the U.S. mainland), who are also anxiously awaiting information about relief efforts for their home.
鈥淐urrently the main highways are clogged, main bridges collapsed, and fuel is in limited supply,鈥� Torres added. 鈥淚 have started seeing reports from previously unreachable towns asking for supplies of basic necessity. This is the one way that we ‘puertorros’ in the states can help.鈥�
