![]() Before Maria, people had to travel an hour or more for health care, even for minor issues. The clinic serves seven rural communities, where many elderly people live who need lots of medical care. It is completely powered by solar panels, so as not to be reliant on the island's energy infrastructure in the event of another major storm. Since the storm, residents have opened a health clinic with help from foundations and charities. ![]() Volunteers at a retirement center in Rio Piedras take part in training to help them recognize and cope with stress and depression that's still a problem two years after Hurricane Maria.Ībout an hour's drive southwest of Toa Baja, up narrow winding roads, there is Mameyes, a small mountain community. "But we are not waiting for the government here. "It would be good to get help from the government," she says. She has organized her community to rebuild and prepare for the next hurricane. Because she and her husband have a mortgage to pay, she says they have no choice but to stay. Before Maria, she made her money as a seamstress, but the studio on the first floor of her house was destroyed. There are two abandoned homes across the street from my house, and I don't feel safe," she says.Ĭolón's house lost its roof. "I worry about that because they bring in vandalism. She says about a third of the homes in her neighborhood are abandoned. Yarilin Colón is the president of Toaville, a neighborhood in Toa Baja. After torrential rains during Maria, the government opened the gates of a nearby dam, causing extensive flooding in the area. "That challenge is very big."įew communities were hit harder during the storm than Toa Baja, a town just west of San Juan, the island's capital city. "Now we have more than a half-million people affected, and we have to build at a minimum 75,000 homes," says Astrid Díaz, an architect who was part of a FEMA team that assessed the island's infrastructure. All of the island's 78 municipalities now have satellite phones and radios to ensure they won't lose contact with the outside world as they did during Hurricane Maria.Īrchitect Astrid Díaz (left) talks with Toaville community leader Yarilin Colón about damaged homes in the community. Another major improvement is communication. There's a plan for delivering fuel and agreements with utility companies on the mainland to respond quickly to restore power after a disaster. We have much more information, much better logistics."Īcevedo says his agency has placed warehouses around the island stocked with emergency provisions. ![]() "I trust that the government response in Puerto Rico to a hurricane would be very different this season from Maria's. "I feel proud of what we've done in Puerto Rico," Acevedo says. The island now has a detailed disaster response plan - something it didn't have when Maria hit. ![]() But Acevedo says Puerto Rico is much better prepared than it was two years ago. "What happened in Maria can happen again," says the director of Puerto Rico's Bureau of Emergency Management, Carlos Acevedo. So many residents and communities across the island are getting ready by repairing buildings and homes, converting to solar energy, banding together and doing most of that without a lot of government help. In the event of another big storm, those residents can be helped first.Īnd it is hurricane season again. Since Hurricane Maria, social workers in Utuado have gone house-to-house, mapping their communities in order to know where the most vulnerable populations live. "We'll have the same level of destruction, and next time the problems will be even worse because many things have not been addressed yet." "We will have even more washed out roads, less access," he says. If a hurricane hits Puerto Rico this season, it would be a huge setback, Cruz says. Many residents have not rebuilt their homes, and many roofs are still covered with blue tarps. Cruz is the director of emergency management in Utuado, a community in the highlands of central Puerto Rico.Īfter the storm, massive landslides and downed trees blocked mountain roads, cutting the town off from the rest of the island for weeks. "This is the main road in and out of town," Héctor Cruz says, as a crew uses a crane and other heavy equipment to construct the new bridge. Nearly two years after Hurricane Maria, the town of Utuado is finally getting a new bridge over the Viví River to replace the old concrete and steel one that was heavily damaged during the storm and has been closed ever since. In Utuado, Puerto Rico, construction work is still going on to replace a bridge destroyed in Hurricane Maria.
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