Surviving Hurricane Fiona & Its Aftermath in Puerto Rico | This is what it was REALLY like!
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On Sunday, September 18th, almost 5 years to the day from the passing of Hurricane MarÃa in 2017, Hurricane Fiona made landfall on the southern shore of Puerto Rico as a category 1 hurricane. Although its winds were not as powerful as those of Hurricane MarÃa, Fiona brought with it copious amounts of rain that caused extreme flooding and landslides which destroyed roads, bridges, and people’s homes.
Floods caused by Hurricane Fiona in Puerto Rico
Puerto Ricans are accustomed to getting prepared for hurricane season each year by stocking up on gas for their power generators, buying canned food, and protecting their windows with tormenteras. But sometimes no amount of preparation can help you counteract what a storm brings. By the afternoon on the day that Fiona hit, 100% of Puerto Rico was without electricity, and later a large portion of residents slowly lost water as well, a problem that wasn’t as prevalent during Hurricane MarÃa. Luckily, even though some communication towers did fail, for the most part people were able to communicate and connect to their family members to make sure they were safe. Many used social media to share photos and videos of the damages being done in their neighborhoods, but other people who were stuck inside of their quickly flooding homes frantically begged to be rescued.
Home damaged by Hurricane Fiona in Puerto Rico
Municipalities such as Salinas, Cayey, Naranjito, Toa Baja, Ponce, Lajas and many more, were some of the most affected by the direct impact of the wind and rain of Hurricane Fiona, but the aftereffects perpetuated across the whole island. Hospitals without electricity had to operate using power generators which consume vast amounts of costly diesel fuel. Businessowners also had this problem which increased their costs of operating even further during a time in which inflation has considerably increased the cost of goods and services. Farmers lost most if not all of their crops due to the strong winds. Homes were burned to ashes and people lost their lives due to fires provoked by either failing or mismanaged power generators. Several days after Hurricane Fiona and still most people did not have either electricity, water or both. Refrigerators had to be emptied because the groceries started going bad due to a lack of electricity, and some even had to throw out their appliances all together because the power outages had damaged them. And even when electricity did come back, people were afraid to buy groceries, fearing that the frail electrical system would fail again at any moment.
Bridge destroyed by Hurricane Fiona in Puerto Rico
It’s been about 3 weeks after the passing of Hurricane Fiona, and although most areas have regained electricity and water, there are still several areas which have not. Some of these communities are located on the south side of Puerto Rico, an area which not only received a direct impact from Hurricane Fiona, but that was also hit by several powerful earthquakes in the beginning of 2020, right before and during the pandemic. For example, I personally visited a community in Yauco which were forced to evacuate their homes because they suffered structural damage after the 2020 earthquakes and are now living in temporary structures made with donated wood. They told me that they were forced to pass Hurricane Fiona inside of their unsafe earthquake damaged homes because they did not believe that their temporary wooden homes could weather the storm. I also visited another community in Lajas which saw its streets flooded and filled with debris and mud because of a creek that passes right through it. And I can assure you that like these communities, there are many more around the island that, to this day, suffer from the aftermath of these natural disasters.
Collapsed road caused by rain from Hurricane Fiona in Puerto Rico
If you want to support organizations that have been helping out with the recovery effort of Hurricane Fiona, check out Donation for Puerto Rico. There you will see several organizations that have been helping different communities in different ways so I encourage you to check them all out and choose whichever you feel identified with based on their values, mission and actions.
I’m aiming to keep releasing travel guides to Puerto Rico this year, but I felt that it wasn’t appropriate to do so without first making this post to create awareness of the situation that we are going through and hopefully encourage you guys to help out in any way you can. If you want to see some photos of the aftermath of Hurricane Fiona, check out my Instagram where I also shared how some of the attractions that I’ve featured on my travel guides looked before and after Hurricane Fiona.
So that’s it for now. Finally, subscribe to my channel, Brik’s Travel Guides, if you'd like to see more videos that'll help you explore the common and uncommon parts of Puerto Rico.
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