Caribbean hurricanes hit close to home for sophomore
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Downed trees are just a small part of the damage inflicted on Puerto Rico by Hurricane Maria.
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Blowing walls and roofs off countless buildings, damage from Hurricane Maria is expected to take a minimum of months to clean up.
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Hurricane Irma passed to the north of Puerto Rico but Maria hit the island with its full force leaving the island with substantial damage.
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A playground sits intact, while all around it, fallen trees lay on the ground after Hurricane Maria swept across Puerto Rico.
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Downed power lines are about as common as fallen trees across Puerto Rico as more than 90 percent of the island is still without power as of Oct. 4, 2017.
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Few structures were left without damage as Hurricane Maria is estimated to have cost nearly $100 billion.
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A garage door sits crumbled after Hurricane Maria devastated much of Puerto Rico.
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Laying across the sand, this palm tree was left uprooted by Hurricane Maria.
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Nearly two weeks after category four Hurricane Maria ravaged Puerto Rico, the island has been plunged into a humanitarian crisis, with widespread flooding and virtually no electrical power, as Maria came two weeks after category five Hurricane Irma, destroying what Irma didn’t.
For sophomore Vicky Otrhalek, the hurricanes hit much closer to home than it did for most Frisco residents as she has relatives that live there.
“When I heard that my family was going to be hit again, I felt very scared and anxious for them knowing that it would be worse than Irma,” Otrhalek said. “I was really devastated by the news.”
The Gandias, Otrhalek’s family in Puerto Rico, did not evacuate their house in Guaynabo and saw the full extent of Maria’s fury.
“Desolation, trees on the floor,” uncle Lucho Gandia said via text. “Cement post broken in half, garage doors broken. Long lines to buy gasoline, more than four hours to reach the gas station.”
Satellite images from before and after show the majority of the island in darkness.
“It looks like a winter day in summer, the trees have no leaves,” cousin Vivianna Gandia said via text. “The roads are blocked by trees and electric cables, and zinc roofs.”
Military personnel has been sent to the island to help with distribution of supplies like food and water.
“Relief efforts are slow, communication towers are down, so drivers can’t be told where to go,” Lucho said via text. “Supermarkets are empty.”
In Barranquitas, cousin Giovanna Gandia secured everything her family owned and waited out the hurricane.
“My city looks really devastated that it breaks my heart, the trees are all gone where I live,” Giovanna Gandia said via text. “We are surrounded with mountains and they are a lot of landslides and the houses are destroyed. It was more scarier because the wind, you could hear it talk and see the trees falling and everything flying.”
Estimates of the storm’s cost are up to $95 billion, a devastating blow to an already struggling Puerto Rican economy.
“It was unreal, I was like ‘No, it couldn’t happen,’” Vivianna said via text. “But it did and it destroyed the island.”
Megan is a junior who joined Wingspan her freshman year. In her free time, she likes to eat and sleep (not at the same time) and cry at the amount of work...
