Cnn puerto rico: Puerto Rico in the aftermath of Hurricane Fiona relives Maria’s destruction
Puerto Rico in the aftermath of Hurricane Fiona relives Maria’s destruction
Guayama, Puerto Rico
CNN
—
At the end of Valencia Street in this southeastern coastal town, Carmen Baez was proud that neighbors were using her washing machine valves to collect fresh water.
The valves, sprouting like flowers from the ground, were all that was left of her small house near the edge of the Guamaní River, which overflowed and swallowed her yellow, cabin-like home, other houses on the block, her stepfather’s vintage Toyota and four of her eight beloved cats. A friend hid her house keys after Baez evacuated to her mother’s home on higher ground, she said, preventing her from returning to fetch the cats during the storm.
“People are coming from different places,” said Baez, 50, standing under a sweltering sun. “We let them know so they can come and get water.”
That she could help others provided some comfort days after Hurricane Fiona hit Puerto Rico as a Category 1 storm on Sunday, dropping record rainfall, unleashing landslides and mudslides, flooding neighborhoods and leaving most of the island without power or water.
Fiona arrived almost exactly five years after Hurricane Maria, a Category 4 storm, delivered a blow from which the island has never fully recovered.
It has left many Puerto Ricans marveling anew at the kindness of neighbors, revisiting the age-old debate about leaving the US territory for the mainland and questioning their confidence in the island’s political leadership.
“I’m debating what to do,” said Baez, who has previously lived in New York and Connecticut. “I had a home. It wasn’t a mansion but it was my home. Now I have nothing. Am I going to get help?”
Carmen Baez becomes emotional while standing in front of where her home used to be. The boy to her right uses her washing machine valves to collect fresh water in Guayama.
Elijah Nouvelage for CNN
Fiona made landfall in southwestern Puerto Rico last Sunday afternoon.
It was the first hurricane to touch down here since September 20, 2017, when Maria left thousands dead and triggered a blackout that lasted months for many of the island’s more than 3 million residents.
Puerto Rico’s government, after initially saying only 64 people died as a result of Maria, later placed the death toll at nearly 3,000 – making it one of the deadliest hurricanes in US history. At least two deaths have so far been attributed to Fiona.
Hurricane Fiona pelted all of Puerto Rico with heavy rain – more than 30 inches in some areas in the south and the central mountain region – and caused flooding that was more widespread than the historic 2017 storm.
Parts of the island had more rain than during Maria, which devastated Puerto Rico with winds topping 160 mph.
The day after Fiona made landfall, there were more than 2,000 people staying in shelters across the island, according to Gov. Pedro Pierluisi. Many have since returned home or are temporarily staying with relatives.
At least 1,000 Puerto Ricans were rescued by emergency crews, the National Guard reported.
Fiona’s unrelenting rain and widespread flash flooding that turned streets into muddy streams washed away bridges and tore open roads that had been repaired after Maria.
It overflowed rivers and streams, and caused pumps to fail after the power went out, leaving thousands of homes without water and functioning sewer systems.
On Saturday, 847,447 customers – about 53% of all households and businesses – of the island’s power company, LUMA Energy, still had no power. Some 1,062,192 customers, or 80% of all users, now have running water. There were still 265,548 customers – about 20% of all households and businesses – of the Puerto Rico Aqueduct and Sewer Authority without water on Saturday, according to the government’s emergency portal system website.
Power lines are seen at dusk in Guayama. Fiona knocked out power across the island, leaving half of its homes and businesses without lights five days after the storm.
Elijah Nouvelage for CNN
cms.cnn.com/_components/paragraph/instances/paragraph_849BA872-9796-B593-309B-6FBCE67F56E1@published” data-editable=”text” data-component-name=”paragraph”>On Thursday afternoon in the southern coastal town of Salinas, Jacqueline Rivera and husband Luis Vasquez cleaned out the small, one-bedroom beach house where they have lived since the pandemic. Their clothing and other belongings were strewn about the muddy ground outside the wood-paneled home, about 11 miles west of Guayama.
“This was the quietest, most peaceful place,” she said, “until Sunday.”
Their neighborhood, Villa Esperanza, which sits between the beach and the Nigua River, is dotted with fallen trees, pieces of aluminum siding and boats washed away from their trailers.
The blue-and-white house next door collapsed into a crater in the cracked, mud-filled ground in a community of cabins and trailers used mostly on weekends.
On Sunday evening, after Fiona made landfall, Rivera and Vasquez were forced to leave their elevated house when flood waters started to pour over the concrete wall surrounding the property. They moved, with their three Chihuahuas, to their 20-foot boat, which was raised, hitched to a trailer and tethered by rope to a concrete wall in the rear yard. It was about 7:30 p.m.
“Then we see a boat floating down the street like someone was driving it,” said Rivera, a 54-year-old nurse.
“Right down the middle of the road,” said Vasquez, 60, who works as a plumber.
“Then a trailer with a small porch floated down as if someone was lifting it up with their arms,” she said. “That was followed by a neighbor’s new boat, then a jet ski floated down. That’s when I heard an explosion and the house across the street sank into the ground.”
Jacqueline Rivera leans on the boat she and her husband used for shelter during Hurricane Fiona in Salinas, Puerto Rico.
Elijah Nouvelage for CNN
They prayed as the water started rising around their boat.
Rivera said somehow her cellphone still worked. She called friends and coworkers.
“Please call 911. Please call the National Guard,” she implored. “Put this on Facebook. We need prayers. We are in danger. If the rope connecting the boat to the wall broke, we would not be here. This was not the river anymore. It was like a raging brown sea with waves that surrounded us.”
Their prayers were answered about 2 a.m. Monday. A National Guard truck came down an adjoining street after the flood waters had receded. They managed to get to the truck safely.
In the immediate aftermath of Maria, an estimated 130,000 people – almost 4% of the population – left the island, according to US Census Bureau data from 2018.
The data reflected a population change between July 1, 2017, before the storm, and the same date the following year.
The population of the US territory has long been falling. Amid a debt crisis and other problems, more than 530,000 people have left Puerto Rico since 2010, the agency said in 2018. It remains to be seen how Fiona’s aftermath, along with mounting economic and political upheaval, will affect migration to the mainland. Puerto Ricans are American citizens who can move freely to US states.
Rivera and Vazquez have grown children who live in Florida and North Carolina. She said she is more open to migrating than her husband but admitted it would be hard to leave.
“We have to fight for what little we have,” Rivera said.
Luis Vasquez cleans out the yard of his one-bedroom beach house in Salinas.
Elijah Nouvelage for CNN
In an impoverished neighborhood in the northern coastal town of Loiza, about 18 miles west of the capital of San Juan, Ramona Jimenez, 73, looked out from her front porch with her three grandchildren – ages 3, 8 and 12. The neighborhood flooded after Fiona and since Monday, waste water from the sewage system bubbled out of underground pipes onto the dirt street, forming smelly pools of dark water. She said she keeps the windows closed, even on the scorching days that followed Sunday’s storm.
“Puerto Rico is stuck in the past,” she said. “Nothing changes.”
Jimenez got a new roof installed by a nonprofit in February but around her home several houses were still covered with blue tarps made of waterproof material that were intended to stay up until permanent repairs could be made to rooftops. Five years after Maria, more than 3,000 homes still have blue tarps, according to local press reports.
“This is a marginalized community, like so many across the island, and no one cares what happens to us,” said activist Sonia Martinez, who had been distributing donated food to families in Loiza.
Another community activist, Modesta Irizarry, 53, on Friday distributed bags of food and water to the mostly elderly residents of her community. Two other women, sisters Tatiana and Maria Pacheco, drove from the town of Trujillo Alto with a pickup truck full of donations and food items they had raised money to buy.
“Since Hurricane Maria, people have been losing faith in the government,” said Maria Pacheco, 31, who owns a gym. “So we want to deliver these donations straight to the people who need them.”
From left, Tatiana Pacheco, Maria Pacheco and Modesta Irizarry pack bags of food for Irizarry’s elderly neighbors.
Elijah Nouvelage for CNN
Maria Pacheco said she doesn’t want to leave the island, though many friends have headed to the mainland in recent years.
“I could make more money elsewhere but I’m from here,” she said. “You may be better off economically but not emotionally because you’re always going to miss Puerto Rico.”
She added, “We can’t change … geographically but we can change politically. It’s sad but I don’t see a short-term solution.
I’ll stay as long as I can. I want my children to be born here.”
Irizarry teared up at one point as she was preparing the bags to be distributed to about 50 families.
“We want to send a message that our people are important and that we matter,” she said. “We will not be forgotten.”
Their first stop with the bags of food was the home of Ana Luz Pica, 77, who had cooked meals for volunteers after Hurricane Maria. Pica thanked them.
“This is a blessing,” Pica said.
On a nearby beach in Loiza, fisherman Jorge Calderon, 54, was giving away bags of fresh fish, shrimp and crabs that he had netted in the days after the storm. In exchange, residents have brought him breakfast and lunch.
Jorje Calderon, a fisherman who has given away his catch, poses for a portrait in Loiza, Puerto Rico.
Elijah Nouvelage for CNN
“Some people speak badly about Loiza but there are many good people here,” said Calderon, whose brother Ivan, a former Major League Baseball outfielder, was fatally shot in Puerto Rico in 2003.
Neisha Caraquillo, 29, sat on the beach with her two young children, ages 4 and 7, and an empty plastic bag in her hand, waiting for Calderon’s next catch.
“There’s enough here for all of us,” he said.
Back in Guayama, on the southern coast, Baez, whose home was swept away in floodwaters on Sunday, has returned to her block every day to feed and play with the three kittens who managed to escape and reach an adjoining house during the storm.
The mother of the kittens had also survived but Baez hasn’t seen her since Monday.
Baez called out the names of the kittens – Jacob, Jeffrey and Batman – and they emerged from the bushes of a neighbor’s house that remained standing.
She said she plays with the kittens and reminisces about the days she sold clothing and food out of her home. She had recently saved up enough money to purchase a new stove and washing machine that were swept away with her home.
Baez has a daughter who lives in Hartford, Connecticut.
Her daughter plans to visit next month, and Baez said she will make a decision about whether to leave the island.
“I was getting my things, little by little, and now I have to start over,” she said. “That is life here.”
Jacob and Jeffrey, two of Baez’s four cats that survived Fiona, look over the edge of the street where their home used to be.
Elijah Nouvelage for CNN
Hurricane Maria pummels Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico has been devastated by Hurricane Maria, a powerful Category 4 storm that also impacted several islands in the Caribbean.
It was the strongest storm to make landfall in Puerto Rico in 85 years. It came ashore on September 20 with sustained winds of 155 mph, knocking out power to the entire island. Trees were uprooted, homes were destroyed, and there was also widespread flooding.
“This is total devastation,” said Carlos Mercader, a spokesman for Puerto Rico’s governor. “Puerto Rico, in terms of the infrastructure, will not be the same. … This is something of historic proportions.”
Members of the Army Reserve assist residents of Toa Baja, Puerto Rico, on September 21. Jose Rodrigo Madera for CNN
Toa Baja was evacuated because of flooding. Jose Rodrigo Madera for CNN
Gas cans are piled up in Toa Baja, where gasoline was tough to come by. Jose Rodrigo Madera for CNN
People walk by a collapsed building in Old San Juan, Puerto Rico, on September 21. Erika P. Rodriguez/The New York Times/Redux
A shack is destroyed in San Juan on September 21. Hector Retamal/AFP/Getty Images
A bed is exposed to the elements in a storm-damaged home in Humacao, Puerto Rico. Jose Rodrigo Madera for CNN
Power lines are scattered across a road in Humacao on September 20. Carlos Giusti/AP
Rescue workers drive through a flooded road in Humacao on September 20.
Carlos Giusti/AP
A San Juan resident stands outside a wrecked home on September 20. Hector Retamal/AFP/Getty Images
A man rescues a rooster from his flooded garage in Fajardo, Puerto Rico, on September 20. Ricardo Arduengo/AFP/Getty Images
A San Juan resident dumps buckets of water out of a flooded home on September 20. Alex Wroblewski/Getty Images
A woman pulls a trash can past a destroyed home in Fajardo on September 20. Ricardo Arduengo/AFP/Getty Images
Rescue personnel make preparations before going out to help 19 police officers who were stranded at their flooded station in Humacao on September 20. Carlos Giusti/AP
People walk by a damaged sailboat that had washed ashore in Fajardo on September 20. Ricardo Arduengo/AFP/Getty Images
Trees are toppled outside the Roberto Clemente Coliseum in San Juan on September 20. Hector Retamal/AFP/Getty Images
People pray in Humacao before the hurricane made landfall.
Jose Rodrigo Madera for CNN
Waves crash in San Juan as the hurricane neared the island on September 19. Jose Rodrigo Madera for CNN
Evacuees rest at an emergency shelter in Humacao on September 19. Carlos Giusti/AP
More than 500 residents of San Juan take shelter at the Roberto Clemente Coliseum on September 19. Dennis M. Rivera Pichardo for the Washington Post/Getty Images
The calm before the storm: Humacao resident David Cruz watches the waves on September 19. Jose Rodrigo Madera for CNN
Produced by Lyric Lewin, Brett Roegiers, Bernadette Tuazon and Kyle Almond
Top photo: Alex Wroblewski/Getty Images
CNN reported Trump’s reluctance to go to the G7 summit – RBC
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The US President considers the annual meetings of the G7 heads of state a waste of time
Photo: Patrick Semansky / AP
US President Donald Trump has been telling people around him over the past few weeks that he does not want to go to the G7 summit in Biarritz, France , according to CNN.
The head of the United States pointed out that after two similar meetings in 2017 and 2018, he came to the conclusion that the G7 summits were a waste of time.
The channel indicates that Trump made similar statements in conversations with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and French President Emmanuel Macron, who in turn tried to convince the American leader.
Trump believes that a summit with leaders of several countries is less useful than bilateral negotiations, in which, according to the American president, one can talk about specific things, and not about problems, for example, global warming, which he is not very interested in.
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CNN points out that because of Trump’s doubts, his entourage has prepared for him private talks with individual leaders. In particular, the American president will meet with the new British Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
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The idea of the G7 summits arose in 1973, when, at the initiative of the United States, the finance ministers of five countries (USA, Great Britain, France, Germany and Japan) agreed to meet to discuss the global energy crisis.
The format of the meetings changed several times, and the full-fledged “Seven” was formed in 1976, when the leaders of Italy and Canada came to Puerto Rico, among others.
Since 1997, the G7 has been transformed into the G8, when Russian President Boris Yeltsin first came to Denver, USA. The return to the G7 format occurred in 2014, when, after the annexation of Crimea to Russia, world leaders refused to come to Sochi and gathered in Brussels without Vladimir Putin.
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CNN recalled Trump’s “nuclear briefcase” – Gazeta.Ru
CNN recalled Trump’s “nuclear briefcase” – Gazeta.Ru | News
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US President Donald Trump in October 2017 announced the possibility of using a “nuclear briefcase” against North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, the American TV channel 9 reported.
0119 CNN citing sources.
The incident occurred during Trump’s visit to Puerto Rico in connection with Hurricane Maria that hit the region.
CNN notes that Trump pointed to the “nuclear briefcase” – a briefcase that is always in close proximity to the US president and which can be used to authorize a nuclear attack against North Korea.
“This is what I have for Kim [DPRK leader Kim Jong Un. “Gazeta.Ru”],” Trump was quoted by three sources.
Puerto Rico Governor Ricardo Rosello did not confirm Trump’s words.
According to the TV channel, the episode with the “nuclear suitcase” occurred at the moment when a “war of words” broke out between Trump and the leader of the DPRK. Then the US President bragged about the size of his “nuclear button” on Twitter and promised to bring down “fire and fury” on the DPRK, the material says.
According to some officials, Trump’s talk about North Korea during his visit to Puerto Rico showed his little interest in the problems of the region after the hurricane.
Since then, Trump and Kim Jong-un have held two denuclearization summits and built warm bilateral relations, the channel adds.
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