Puerto Rico, without electricity or water due to Hurricane Fiona

First modification: 09/20/2022 – 11:53

In the Mennonite Hospital of Aibonito in the center of Puerto Rico, only emergencies are being treated because a power generator is being used, since there is a general blackout on the island.

“Anxiety”

Since Sunday, the island of three million inhabitants has been in the dark after the passage of Hurricane Fiona. The electricity company reported on Monday that for now only 100,000 users have recovered the service.

Among them, small businesses that allow young university students, such as Melvin Fernández, to recharge their mobile phones. With difficulty RFI was able to communicate with him, since telephony and internet are also affected.

“Most Puerto Ricans find themselves without a signal, without communication with their relatives, afraid of leaving their homes to check that their entire family is okay. For my part, I experienced the entrance of the hurricane. It was around here, around the southwestern area where I live. An area that was already affected by some earthquakes that we experienced at the end of 2019 and the beginning of 2020. I can say that my family has experienced anxiety,” says the young man.

“Certainly we are concerned”

Vilmarie Rivera is the president of the Puerto Rico Domestic Violence Shelter Network. It currently houses 120 people and although there was no damage to the facilities, they are without electricity or drinking water.

“The tank is for drinking water. Obviously we have a reserve right now, but if that reserve goes down, we would need trucks to come again to bring us water so that we can supply ourselves, and so that our participants can consume it as well as their sons and daughters. So our main concern is how long it will last. It certainly worries us. I think everyone is preparing for a storm, but this was something with rain (…) that had never happened in the history of Puerto Rico,” Rivera laments.

“To be in a safe place”

The governor of Puerto Rico, Pedro Pierluisi, warned this Monday at a press conference that the rain will continue to hit the island for at least two more days: “This means that more risk situations may still arise, so all our residents must seek to be in a safe place”.

Several rivers overflowed in the southeast of the island, flooding roads and urban areas, and in the southwest there are several houses without roofs due to gusts of wind. The authorities opened 120 shelters in the 78 affected municipalities.