Are you ready for a hurricane? I hope we are...
Almost 1 year ago as Maria was about to hit Puerto Rico, phrases like “Catastrophic Destruction”, “Imminent Danger”, and “Unprecedented Damage” were coming at us from all sides. The radio, newspapers, even our cell phones were notifying us of the impending beast of a storm that was upon us. Then as we were hearing about the tremendous damage that the storm had caused on our sister islands, everything went silent. All that was left to do was hunker down and wait in the dark.
I had only been on the island for a few years so I was terrified, not knowing what to expect. So together with family and friends, we gathered and waited it out. Not realizing then the tremendous journey that would be ahead of us. We tried to get some sleep, and I am grateful we did, for what was going to happen in the next exhausting 24 hours, we could have never planned for.
After the storm, as we ventured out of our house, the damage was obvious. The trees were gone, the poles were down, the streets were gone. Looking down one street all we saw was water, and then we noticed the top of a car. That was our way out of the neighborhood. It would be at least a day before the water would recede enough to where we were able to leave. We could have never imagined the damage we saw. We were scared and felt alone. It took ten days to be able to find a signal were we could make a few calls and let our family know we were ok. Then the signal was gone again. Cell phone service was sporadic at best. It took two weeks and countless hours of waiting on line to get gas, and then we were only allowed to buy 20 dollars worth. It took our house 97 days to get running water, and 78 days for electricity. We lost our jobs, we lost our car, we lost our home, there were times I thought we would lose our sanity too.
Worst part is, we made out pretty good in comparison. I have friends who just got their electricity back in May! We left our home, but that was by choice, without work, we had no way to pay rent, others lost their home, their property.
Watching the news today, as I see those little x’s on the hurricane map, looking a little too close for comfort, it makes me nervous. They bring back bad memories and feelings I thought that I had overcome. We are in peak hurricane season, so it is to be expected, I just can’t help feeling that we are not prepared. It is too soon. I just started working again 2 months ago. There are many people like me, just barely getting back to a new “normal”.
Then I drive around and see electric poles that were just repaired, some still leaning, others broken and just hanging there. Roofs of buildings still torn and unrepaired. It seems like every street you drive down there are houses still with blue tarps, and others that were just abandoned, still with clothes in the closet. Many street lights are still down.
The fear I have, is that we don’t need a major hurricane to cause a relapse of all the progress that was made. Many have tried to go on with their lives, and we are succeeding albeit slowly. Many have left the island, and not being here it’s easy to forget the daily struggles that we are still going through. The island is not back to normal. The damages were so many and so big, that a lot of the work that was done were just band-aids. There is a saying here that says “pa resolver” in other words “this will do for now”, just a temporary fix. But is that enough? Will those repairs prove strong enough to make it through another storm? I don’t know, and I certainly hope we don’t have to find out anytime soon.