Man living on former Air Force base: ‘No place is going to be spared’
Mario Torres lives in the former Air Force base of Aguadilla, Puerto Rico, and runs a nonprofit dedicated to cleaning up the beach and recreation areas of the town. Torres told the Herald’s Dan Atkinson about the preparations he was making yesterday for Hurricane Maria, which is expected to batter Puerto Rico with winds of up to 175 mph and tear right through the middle of the island.
Before any storms hit, the infrastructure is in severe to critical condition — on just a regular rainy day, the lights go out for four to six hours. We’re preparing for the worst, this is projected to be the worst . ... I bought Rubbermaid trash cans from Home Depot and have been filling them with water, filling any container with water. Four or five days ago the grocery stores ran out of water, it’s a little bit ridiculous . ...
I did as much as I could to prepare the house, taping up windows and doors ... I have sandbags around my doors. This used to be an Air Force base — the houses are like bomb shelters, very well built, but water still comes through the house, and that’s in a Category 1 or 2, this is going to be much stronger than that. They’re telling people that depending on how hard it strikes, they should screw their doors shut . ... If you have a wooden house you need to evacuate; if you’re in a flood area you need to evacuate, no question . ...
The storm will come diagonally across the island, it’s the worst-case scenario, no place is going to be spared . ... I was without light for three days (after Hurricane Irma) and we barely even got a couple of gusts. This is going to be a direct hit . ...
This is going to take us back to the old days, I’m going to do a pre-emptive (social media) post telling friends and families that if I don’t respond to them by telephone or email, I have no way to do so. Cellphone towers are going to be ripped out and a cellphone is useless without a cellphone tower. We’ll have no electricity for months . ...
The last time a hurricane like this hit was in 1928. Back in the day people had wells in their backyard or knew how to kill a chicken, they knew what to do. Now there’s no wells, they’ve got nothing. ... We’re going to be totally relying on the government, which is extremely unreliable. One of his big fears, Torres said, is for the coastline.
That’s really what has my heart broken . ... Yesterday for possibly the last time I went through the trails with my dogs, seeing trees that are hundreds of years old and knowing they’re going to be affected if not completely decimated.