National Geographic

TOP RIGHTTwo days after Hur-ricane Maria struckPuerto Rico in Sep-tember 2017, floodingcontinued in thenortheastern townof Loíza, where LizMaries Bultron (at left)and her neighborAlana Bepizarro live.CAROL GUZY, ZUMA PRESSBOTTOM RIGHTPower lines and palmtrees lean ominouslyover the road lead-ing north from PuntaSantiago, Humacao,five months after thestorm. Punishing windsand a massive stormsurge crippled thecoastal area.PREVIOUS PHOTOYasmin Morales Torres,41, washes laundry byhand in her yard inPlaya El Negro, a beachcommunity in Yabucoa.As of March the areastill had no power,six months after thedevastating storm.18°01'34" N, 65°49'58" W``````“THE FISHERMEN HERE are sufering,”says Yamary Morales Torres, 41,standing in her yard overlookingthe pounding surf on Puerto Rico’ssoutheastern coast. Setting out beforedaybreak, Yamary and 14 other fish-ermen in her neighborhood have toprepare their boats and fishing gear inthe dark. “There’s no place to refrig-erate the fish we catch,” she adds. “Sowe need to sell them immediately.”On September 20, 2017, HurricaneMaria struck land not far from Playa ElNegro in Yabucoa, where Yamary andher extended family live. The stormknocked out power to the entire island,a United States territory that is hometo 3.3 million citizens. Five monthslater this neighborhood of only 14homes—all damaged and flooded bythe storm—still had no electricity andno sense of when it would be restored.A third-generation fisherman,Ya mary lives with her elderly parentsin their dilapidated concrete home.The house next door was all but leveledin the storm. Her twin sister, Yasmin,lives two houses down, next door to abrother and his family. They all hadto evacuate before the storm, but withno other options the family returnedto their homes. “Life is very sad now,”Yamary says. “But I’m not leaving. I’mstaying right here.”That spirit of resilience is helpingPuerto Rico rebuild from the massivedestruction left in the storm’s path.Power and water were restored withinweeks to the island’s major urbanareas, but with spring approaching,more than 100,000 residents—all inrural, poor areas much like Playa ElNegro—remained in the dark. It’sgoing to take more than determina-tion by the island’s population to fullyrecover, if that’s even possible.The strongest storm to hit PuertoRico in 89 years, Hurricane Maria bat-tered the island with tornado- forcewinds. Massive rains brought cata-strophic flooding, washing out bridgesand inundating neighborhoods. Theisland’s infrastructure, already shakyafter years of neglect, was devastated.Running water was cut of for much``````of the population. Communicationsto and from Puerto Rico were nearlyimpossible for days. Airports wereshut down, delaying recovery eforts,since supplies had to be airlifted orshipped in. And the Federal EmergencyManage ment Agency, charged withdisaster relief, was stretched thin aftertwo other major hurricanes had recentlyhit the U.S. in less than a month.The result was the longest majorpower outage in U.S. history, and manycommunities on the island were leftwithout running water for months. Toi-lets couldn’t flush; there was no waterfor showers, baths, or washing clothes.People had to rely on bottled water, butsupplies were limited. Useless electricstoves had to be replaced with propaneones. Without refrigeration, food rottedand vital medicines spoiled. Only thosewith generators for their homes couldward of darkness after dusk—for a fewbrief hours. Forget about air condition-ers to relieve the sweltering heat. Allthe modern conveniences we take forgranted were left behind.``````ON FEBRUARY 19 the power finallycame back on for a neighborhood onthe outskirts of Morovis, a small townin the island’s north-central highlands.When the lights turned on in her house,Marysol Rivera Rivas, 51, jumped upand down, hugged her neighbors, andhoisted a can of beer. “There’s the lastclothes I have to wash by hand,” sheexclaimed, pointing to a line of laundryflapping in the wind in her yard. “Thisis the first time in five months we’reable to celebrate. We’re alive now!”Even after power and water arerestored across the island, people willstill be dealing with the aftermath. “Thestorm takes away the foundations ofsociety. Everything you thought gaveyou certainty is gone,” says psycholo-gist Domingo Marqués, 39, an associateprofessor at Albizu University inSan Juan. “You see people anxious,depressed, scared.” Marqués estimatesthat 30 to 50 percent of the populationis experiencing post-traumatic stressdisorder, depression, or anxiety.Still, Marqués is guardedly optimis-tic. “We saw a lot of resiliency. We’renot going anywhere. We’re rebuilding,”he says. “We’ll be OK. But we shouldn’ttry to get back to normal, becausethings will never be normal again.” j106106 NATIONAL GEOGRAPHICNATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC