By Evelyn Milagros Rodriguez, University of Puerto Rico—Humacao I’ve always been fascinated by storms, particularly Puerto Rico‘s own history of them. I think it’s because I was born in September 1960 during Hurricane Donna. In its wake, that storm left more than 100 dead in Humacao, the city where I am now a special collections […]
By Cathy Mazak I’m so happy to be able to communicate with you again. As many of you know, I live in western Puerto Rico. In this post I want to tell you a little about my family’s experience with Maria, and how you can help Puerto Rico. On Thursday Sept. 21, when the sun […]
Reporting by Saulo Araujo Houses without roofs and trees without leaves is all the eyes could see in the week following the devastation that Hurricane Maria wrought. The Category 5 storm with 150+ miles per hour winds was the strongest to hit the island in over a century, leaving the entire population without water and […]
Update, 10/20/17: Since this piece was posted, we became aware of the Puerto Rico Aqueduct and Sewer Authority’s (PRASA) boil water notice for all people who have access to running water. So, while roughly 70 percent of the island has access to tap water, it appears it is not safe to drink untreated. However, FEMA […]
President Trump‘s approval rating for overseeing the federal government’s response to hurricanes fell by 20 points after Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico, a CNN poll conducted by SSRS revealed. Trump’s approval rating for responding to hurricanes Harvey and Irma stood at 64 percent in mid-September. Just a month later, the rating dropped to 44 percent. […]
The ranking Democrat on the House Homeland Security Committee called for an investigation into the availability of potable water in Puerto Rico following reports Friday that residents are scrounging for water from hazardous waste sites. After the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) confirmed residents were trying to access water from three Superfund sites, and following […]
On Wednesday, roughly two weeks after Hurricane Maria struck, just 50 percent of Puerto Rico had access to drinking water and only 5.4 percent had electricity. That information was clearly displayed on Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) website on disaster relief efforts in the U.S. territory. But the next day, as first noticed by the […]
Puerto Rican Gov. Ricardo Rosselló responded positively to Tesla CEO Elon Musk‘s offer to help restore the island’s hurricane-wrecked power grid with the company’s batteries and solar panels. “Let’s talk,” the governor tweeted to Musk Thursday evening. “Do you want to show the world the power and scalability of your #TeslaTechnologies? PR could be that […]
By Whitney Webb Since Hurricane Maria devastated the island of Puerto Rico, the U.S. territory—which rarely garners much attention from the national media—has received widespread coverage which has focused on the Trump administration’s slow response to the disaster. The situation in Puerto Rico is undoubtedly dire, as many struggle without power and access to basic […]