EFE Videos

The mountainous area of ​​Puerto Rico, once again hard hit by a hurricane

Naranjito (Puerto Rico), September 21 (EFE).- Towns in Puerto Rico’s central mountain range are once again among the hardest hit by a hurricane, including Naranjito, where nine families lost their homes and began neighborhood food distribution programs. Five years ago, with Hurricane Maria, the mountainous areas were devastated, and now they are not spared either. They suffered badly from the onslaught of Fiona, which made landfall in southwestern Puerto Rico last Sunday. “The house exploded. At the back there was a wall and with so much water, so strong, it exploded,” said Glorimar Rodríguez, a resident of the town of Naranjito, who witnessed the collapse, to Efe with visible anguish. This house was that of Rodríguez’s nephews and neighbors, Luis Yadriel and Darimar, aged 19 and 23 respectively, who lived together and lost all their belongings. “Thank God, there was no one in the house”, since the two young people had taken refuge in another building during the heavy rains, says their aunt. Among the visible devastation left by the Category 1 hurricane in Naranjito are muddy roads and paths, damaged and destroyed homes, and downed power lines and trees. “QUICK AND STRONG” EMERGENCY José A. Figueroa, director of emergency management in Naranjito, explains to Efe that in the city “nine houses were affected, some of them destroyed and others damaged”. Now is the time to assess the damage in order to receive help with its repair, according to Figueroa, who described the emergency in the city during Fiona’s passage between Sunday and Monday as “quite strong”. Together with his team, he works to clean up the remnants of mud, control landslides on the slopes and treat the victims of the city. The damage caused in Naranjito after the passage of María and Fiona is different: the first affected the mountainous municipality with strong winds and, the second, impacted by intense rains. The rains, which exceeded 20 inches (50 centimeters) in many parts of the island, caused the La Plata and Guadiana rivers to overflow in Naranjito. Much of the city was temporarily flooded, including the downtown area and several houses buried in mud. Electricity and water have also been cut since the hurricane. FOOD FOR NEIGHBORS Amid the widespread tragedy, Thais M. Reyes, director of Puerto Rico’s Office for Socio-Economic and Community Development (ODSEC), says the agency is still stepping up in the face of such of natural disaster. “We immediately took to the streets to help our communities, giving them supplies, giving them personal hygiene items,” Reyes said. After distributing food in Naranjito, the team was on its way to distribute food in Comerío, a neighboring municipality also in the mountainous area and badly affected by the hurricane. One of the recipients of a food and water box is Esther Robles, 82, who is very worried because the lack of water and electricity at her age and being a diabetic is dangerous. “As the light hasn’t come yet, the water hasn’t come for us to wash and bathe and that, and it also affects me for insulins, that I don’t have ice or where to put them”, laments the octogenarian. He also relives how, as the hurricane passed, the streets were flooded and landslides occurred, which inevitably reminded him of the tragedy five years ago with María. In Naranjito, after Hurricane María, residents who had no generators, solar panels or other energy sources were without electricity for seven months. Now they are hoping and praying that service will be restored sooner. Esther Alaejos (c) EFE Agency