MARICAO, PUERTO RICO - It has been 14 months, and the scars of Maria are still everywhere. From generators in St. Juan, to road reconstruction in Ponce, to water, where a beach once was in Rincon. There are heavily damaged homes and buildings across this Caribbean island.
Gilberto Perez Valentin has been mayor in Maricao for 28 years, and says Maria was the worst hurricane his town has ever seen. Right after the storm, all the roads to his town, in the mountains of western Puerto Rico, were impassable. He had to work hard to make sure his people were not isolated. “We had to have helicopters from the coast guard and national guard to take food and water and all the other things to the people because they were so completely cut off.”
Work continues even today clearing debris and fallen earth to get the mountain roads wide enough for two lanes of traffic to pass. While the island is officially 100 percent restored, the power grid is still very fragile. Power lines are still tangled and mangled with some individual homes are still waiting.
But the generosity of WNY has made a difference. Hispanic leaders began meeting on the very first day of the storm to coordinate relief efforts. They formed the Puerto Rico Hurricane Maria Relief Fund. There was plenty of concern across Latino Western New York because so many have family and/or property in Puerto Rico. Concern turned into generosity and in addition to the tons of food and water that was shipped with the help of the state and the national guard, cash donations came in to the tune of more than $227,000, $179,000 of which was sent over to the island. The rest of the money helped Puerto Ricans who came to WNY to escape the devastation Maria caused.