Posted on 10/11/2017 5:55:24 AM PDT by cll
Vacations are not supposed to go like this. Never did I imagine that instead of swimming in the Caribbean, we would be trudging through sewage-contaminated water in a desperate attempt to reach the airport. The airport, like everything else in Puerto Rico, was crippled. No electricity, no flights. This was the reality that my wife and I, along with six of our closest friends, were facing days after Maria paid visit to Puerto Rico.
It was at the airport hotel that our fate would change. A member of our group, desperately searching for answers, located someone from FEMA. We were directed to a person who would take us to a shelter in the nearby town of Carolina. The uncertainty of the days ahead filled us all with anxiety, fear and helplessness. But soon we learned how fortunate and blessed we really were: We were about to see the selflessness and compassion of the Puerto Rican community.
Maria Teresa Serrano Elementary school was our home the next five days. We slept on military-style cots in the school cafeteria and showered with a hose. There was no power. But we were lucky: We were about to come under the compassionate care of the Puerto Rican people. Despite everything they themselves had suffered, volunteers and government officials spent their days protecting us, providing for us, caring for us and working tirelessly to help us find our way home.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Neat story.
We’re familiar will PR helpfulness from our week on the island some years ago.
Wait, someone from FEMA was there? I was told by competent authorities (the media) that Trump had abandoned Puerto Rico because they were brown. (Is an “s” tag really necessary?)
Very nice!
I worked in PR for several years and can indeed say the selflessness of the people is their greatest asset.
I always felt completely welcome and treated equal to a local.
From the janitor up to the CEO, people on the island had a profound respect for relationships with other people. Never once did I feel taken advantage of and many times was shocked by their generosity.
Coming back to NYC from that was always hard..
Why go to the Caribbean during hurricane season?
After 12 years of inactivity and not being of a local that has the potential every year . . .
But then again, we have bus loads of people coming to the Magic Kingdom during their summer vacations too.
FYI Ping.
Hope you are well. You’ve asked how have I been faring after María. Brief summary, as I only have 6 hours of internet access daily at work (because we’re still running on a backup generator and we need to save fuel for the long haul).
- My home sustained only outside damage in the form of felled trees, destroyed awnings, tool shack gone, etc. the interior is intact.
- For two weeks we made do with stored ice to keep food refrigerated. We stocked some before the storm, and then a niece who has a generator made ice for us on a daily basis.
- We are cooking all our meals in our gas BBQ. We’ve learned to do all kinds of things. Rice, pizza, coffee, oatmeal, eggs...everything.
- I had an old generator which didn’t work for lack of maintenance and lack of use over 10 years. We got it running and now that gasoline service is normalized, we are able to keep it running for 12 - 15 hours a day to power our refrigerator. We are now making our own ice, and are even distributing some of it among family and neighbors. We are able to buy groceries almost normally.
- On days that we don’t feel like cooking, there are plenty of restaurants with full service that we can go to.
- We sent our daughter and grandson to my sister in law’s home in Florida. The kid is homeschooling so no big deal there.
- My office is fully running, with phones and internet, which is a miracle because one of the posts that carry our fiber optic lines is destroyed and its remains are literaly hanging from the lines itself.
- We’re struggling to keep the corporate conventions and cruise lines that we handle from cancelling on us. So far Carnival, Royal Caribbean, NCL and Viking Ocean have stated their commitment to Puerto Rico. The conventions and leisure markets are dead mostly because all available hotels are overrun with FEMA types.
- We’ve had a few setbacks in our recovery due to heavy rains due to a tropical wave that came through over the last couple of days. When it rain, it pours!
- Thankfully, days and nights are beginning to cool a little so sleeping without a/c is not as miserable as during the first couple of weeks.
- I got so many things to be thankful for, in light of what others in our island have gone through and are still going through. My home is intact. My job is still there. Most of my family’s homes are okay. We have good running water. My office and home generators are holding up well. I never wanted for food or fuel. I really have nothing to complain for. No word on when we will have electrical service again, but it is slowly returning around our area.
- The only ones who have let us down during these trying times, ironically, is our local U.S. Army base. I am a retired Army Officer, but access to the base, the PX and the Commissary, where we could get a huge relief in supplies and groceries costs, is restricted now to only active duty military and civilian relief workers. Really, by this point I wish they would just go away.
- That’s life in the Tropics!
There are TOO MANY FEMA workers here! We can’t get our tourism industry going because the have overrun all hotels!
Why live on half the planet during hurricane season? The Caribbean is not alone in the threat. The entire east and Gulf coasts of the U.S. are as well!
Good to get an actual on the ground report! We sure can’t gat any actual news from the MSM.
Why live on half the planet during hurricane season? ..................... Living in paradise comes with a cost. You adapt eventually. We literally “bunker” down with reinforced concrete block homes with A/C and generators. Every year we await our annual Untergangen, they are expected, but we prepare, we don’t wait till the last moment. Why people sign up for cruises in the Caribbean for August and not expect to be re routed is beyond me. I don’t miss the wind chills, the powdered snow blowing in my face as I push the snow blower down the long driveway, after every 10+” snowstorm that just piles up the snow because the weather remains cold. Up north we took our precautions, we knew what winter brought, we prepared for it. That goes for everyone, you live in the Plains, you know what tornadoes do, you prepare for them. You live in the Valleys, you expect floods, you live in the hills, you expect fires. No mater what region you are in, there are always people there to help people. (Not so sure about Beverly Hills and areas like it, they don’t strike me to be interested in anyone but themselves. But there are exceptions I’m sure.)
Very well put.
If there is something, anything this Floridian can do to assist you and your family, please send me a pm.
I’ve spent many vacations in the Caribbean during hurricane season but I keep watch on the forecast and will evacuate if a hurricane is coming just as I do at home in the US.
Great post.
If you don’t mind my asking, what town or city are you located at in P.R.
I was born in Vega Baja, but what’s left of my distant family members, are scattered throughout the island.
I live in the Hato Rey section of San Juan.
Just returned from Puerto Rico where I helped restore network functionality for a national hardware supply retailer. FEMA “owns” every hotel room on the island so forget trying to book one as a civilian until at least the end of December.
I’ve got to get to know P.R. again. Been away for too long.
I have cousins and half-brother and half-sister living in Catano, and Bayamon, and San Juan, and Vega Baja, and Aguadilla, and Ponce, and Arecibo and other towns.
I’ll have to make plans to get there as soon as the roads are cleared and me and my family can get around. I currently live in Tampa, but P.R. has always called to me, even if I left there as a kid.
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