The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Families wait for word of loved ones in hurricane path
The silence was frightening for people in Lorain County after Hurricane Maria slammed Puerto Rico and earthquakes crumbled Mexico City.
As truckloads of disaster relief supplies pull out of Lorain on the way to New York City to be shipped to the island, some people still await
word from loved ones.
Carmen Rivera, 67, of Lorain, who volunteered last week at Sacred Heart Chapel at 4301 Pearl Ave. in Lorain, said finally she heard from her youngest sister who lives in Puerto Rico.
“She’s doing OK,” Rivera said. “My sister charged her phone in her car for awhile to let us know she’s OK.”
Rivera was born on Puerto Rico. She moved at the age of 5 to Ohio.
“My parents have since passed,” Rivera said. “In a way, it’s a blessing since they did not have to live through this.”
Life on Puerto Rico is a struggle, she said.
“They’re having their difficulties,” Rivera said. “There’s no water, no electricity. But she stocked up on things prior to (Hurricane) Irma, and that was not as bad as they thought, so they were ready.”
One of the families she knows lost an aunt because she was on a breathing machine and she did not have enough electricity, Rivera said.
Collections of disaster relief supplies have been good, she said.
“People have been so generous,” Rivera said. “People have been calling from other cities and states. Volunteers are sorting, packaging and taping boxes together.”
As people filed into Sacred Heart Chapel for a prayer vigil Sept. 27 for hurricane and earthquake victims and survivors, Yadieliz Maldonado, 15, a sophomore at Early College High School in Elyria, handed a pink or red carnation to each one.
Yadieliz moved to Ohio from San Juan, Puerto Rico, when she was 4 years old.
“The collection really hits home with me because I have a lot of family in Puerto Rico,” she said. “They lost their homes. My uncle reached out to us.
“They ran out of water.
My grandmother’s house was destroyed. The whole top of the house was ripped off. She’s OK.
“It’s very sad. It’s sad that this is happening, too. So many people and a lot of them have been in the same house since they were born, and it’s gone.”
Yadieliz said many of her family members need to move to Lorain County.
“We have three houses that have spare rooms until they have a place to stay,” she said. “Some of them might be moving here permanently. They have visited here before.”
During the prayer vigil, Sister Cathy McConnell, pastoral associate at Sacred Heart Chapel, said the flowers represented people’s petitions to God on behalf of the disaster victims.
“Something so simple, yet so beautiful,” said Yadieliz, who plans a nursing career and service in a U.S. Air Force medical corp.
After the vigil, Joann Gonzales said she and her husband, Fred Gonzales, who is of Mexican descent but American born, have attended for 25 years the church which conducts worship in Spanish and English.
Joann Gonzales offered hugs to many people at the vigil.
“A lot of the people who go to our church have family there (in Mexico and Puerto Rico),” she said. “I don’t know them personally.”
Mary Lou AndujarHough said many of her family members remain in Puerto Rico.
“My mom is the oldest of 12, and they’re all on the island except her and her brother,” Andujar-Hough said. “Right now, we have an aunt missing, and her son, Utuado.
“It’s like a jungle over there. The dam broke. There is flooding. The road broke as there’s flooding. They can’t get to the people.
“So we haven’t heard from any of them out there. I have another uncle, and we haven’t heard from him.
Andujar-Hough said her mother is in the United States.
“She has been here since she was 27,” AndujarHough said. “Her and my dad were one of the first 50 Puerto Ricans to come to Lorain. My father worked at Brookpark Ford.
“I have many friends out there (Puerto Rico) that are from here, from Lorain. Going to Puerto Rico is like being here. If you live here and you knew the people, going there you see them. It’s like being here.”