At a Glance
- "The PTSD is really strong," one resident says.
- Many fear they'll be forgotten.
- Fiona brought heavy rains, flooding and landslides, five years after Maria's devastation.
Carlos Correa and his father rode out Hurricane Fiona on Sept. 18 in their home in central Puerto Rico, just like they did Hurricane Maria almost exactly five years prior.
Fiona brought their property less physical damage, but the emotions piled on to memories of Maria.
“The PTSD is really strong around here but, you know, we have to stand still and keep going," Correa said. "For some people, it’s really hard.”
He was one of several people interviewed Thursday via video, phone and social media messaging who talked about how it feels to live in a place repeatedly hit by disasters in recent years, including storms and earthquakes.
(PHOTOS: Hurricane Fiona’s Devastation In Puerto Rico)
Correa, 40, and his 80-year-old father, Luis, live in Caguas, which, with about 126,000 residents, is one of Puerto Rico's largest municipalities.
Their house is more strongly built than many others nearby. Those were the ones that didn’t fare as well in Fiona’s heavy rain and high winds.
“Some of them still have the blue tarps from FEMA from five years ago,” Correa said.
Maria killed an estimated 3,000 people in Puerto Rico. Some households were without electricity for more than a year.
Officials say that won’t happen this time, but there’s no clear timeline for restoration. Friday morning, five days after the storm, less than 40% of the island’s 1.5 million power customers had electricity, according to Puerto Rico’s official disaster dashboard. A single account can represent multiple people.
Nearly 30% of water customers were without service.
(MORE: Where Will Fiona Go Next?)
At the same time, excessive heat warnings and heat advisories were issued for all of Puerto Rico’s coastal areas, with “feels like” temperatures into the triple digits.
“It’s hotter than usual. We were definitely feeling it here,” Alexandra Martinez, who lives in Mayaguez on the island’s western coast, said. “I just got out of the shower and when I touched the bed, I felt it, it’s burning up.”
Martinez described her feelings about not having electricity, again.
“You get a lot of mixed emotions because we know we’re stuck about the power situation. We can’t really do much about it. Most of us are like 'yeah, nothing is working lately, and now we have this,'” she said.
“Right now it’s just let’s do what we can to survive. We’re in hurricane mode - don’t buy cold things at the grocery store, and get your water, and try to get home before it’s dark.”
(MORE: Eyewitness: Inside Fiona's Assault On Turks and Caicos)
A road that was blocked by a tree in her community was cleared Thursday. But others were still impassable.
“Between the neighbors, everyone had begun just trying to clean up and just trying to move everything out of the way to make our way into town,” Martinez said. “We know it’s going to be a while for the government to get us.”
Disaster aid after Hurricane Maria has been mired for years in delays, political wrangling and missteps by government agencies and others.
"We are American citizens of second class ... nobody should have to deal with things we are dealing (with) now,” lleana Rivera, a lawyer who lives with her spouse and two children in the central municipality of Cidra, said.
President Joe Biden has vowed to do better this time.
“We’re with you. We’re not going to walk away,” Biden said at a briefing Thursday, according to the Associated Press.
(MORE: Aerial Video Shows Devastating Fiona Flooding)
Still, some worry that Puerto Rico will be forgotten with the possibility of a hurricane hitting the U.S. Gulf Coast next week.
“We are always concerned that even though we are U.S citizens we are left on the back burner,” Correa, who works in the travel industry, said. “We understand that some of the bureaucracy is because of the political corruption on the island, but moments like this we need aid as fast as possible to restore and help families that really need it.”
Correa’s birthday is Sept. 20. He can easily rattle off the names of five hurricanes that have hit on or around that time.
“Hugo, Hortense, George, Maria and now Fiona,” Correa said. “All of them are at the same period of dates.”
Eight of 11 communities in Caguas, where Correa lives, were still completely cut off from surrounding areas, the AP reported.
“At least as a Puerto Rican the good thing of us is that we all help each other,” Correa said.
“Things have come around us and we’re still here, somehow. We’re still here.”
The Weather Company’s primary journalistic mission is to report on breaking weather news, the environment and the importance of science to our lives. This story does not necessarily represent the position of our parent company, IBM.
