Hurricane Fiona, and the scars of Maria
Post Reports
The Washington Post
4.4 • 5.1K Ratings
🗓️ 20 September 2022
⏱️ 23 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico five years ago. Recovery in many ways had just begun when Fiona hit the island. Today on “Post Reports,” we talk to Arelis R. Hernández about why the recovery has been stymied, and how another storm could complicate it further.
Read more:
Hurricane Maria cleaved Puerto Rican memory. There was one kind of life before the storm, and an entirely different life that emerged in its wake.
Before the storm, the Caribbean island archipelago was teetering economically and unraveling politically. In the five years since, there have been ongoing blackouts, protests, earthquakes and a global pandemic. Puerto Ricans have moved from powerlessness to precarity.
As the anniversary approached, The Washington Post went back to visit those who opened up their homes then, to show us their lives now. Hurricane Fiona — which hit Puerto Rico on Sunday, destroying homes, roads and bridges — was still days away. But even before that, much of the post-Maria recovery work had just begun. Arelis R. Hernández reports.
Read the latest live updates on Hurricane Fiona here.
You can also listen to an Opinion piece from Lin-Manuel Miranda and his father about how to get Puerto Rico help now. Miranda is the creator of “Hamilton” and “In The Heights,” and his father, Luis A. Miranda Jr., is a philanthropist and political strategist.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is the sound of a metal bridge being washed away by floodwater and Utuato por Rico. |
| 0:21.4 | This bridge was new. |
| 0:23.1 | It was a replacement for another bridge that was destroyed five years earlier in Hurricane |
| 0:28.8 | Maria. |
| 0:38.5 | Since Sunday, Hurricane Fiona has already killed at least two people and caused catastrophic |
| 0:44.4 | destruction. |
| 0:45.1 | Millions of people are still without power. |
| 0:48.6 | Many parts of the island are inaccessible because of flash flooding and it's still raining. |
| 0:55.1 | With the governor of Puerto Rico Pedro, Piroisi, has said as that he estimates there'll |
| 0:59.1 | be billions of dollars in damages, but the extent of the damage at this point is unknown. |
| 1:08.0 | Our release Hernandez is a reporter for the post. |
| 1:10.9 | She was there in Puerto Rico right before Fiona made landfall as a category one storm. |
| 1:17.0 | In speed wise, Fiona was not a big deal. |
| 1:20.9 | The issue is the rain. |
| 1:22.7 | I think there are some estimates that by the end of its pass through Puerto Rico, Fiona |
| 1:28.1 | will have dropped up to 37-35 inches of rain in Puerto Rico and if you were to compare that |
| 1:34.6 | to Hurricane Maria, Hurricane Maria dropped 40 inches. |
| 1:40.3 | For people in Puerto Rico, the aftermath of this hurricane feels like deja vu. |
| 1:45.3 | That's also how it felt for Aralise. |
| 1:48.2 | Last week, she was there in Puerto Rico to report on the anniversary of Hurricane Maria, |
| 1:53.2 | which made landfall five years ago today. |
| 1:56.6 | That storm knocked out power on the island for months. |
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