Survival is still the rule in Puerto Rico
Seven weeks after storm, islanders struggle day to day: ‘I have no choice’
TOA ALTA, Puerto Rico – In the early days after Hurricane Maria, Michelle Rebollo would wake up each day at
6 a.m., spend all day gathering food and fresh water for her family and return home after 8 p.m., exhausted.
Today, seven weeks after the storm, Rebollo, 45, still wakes up each day at
6 a.m., drives more than an hour each way to Caguas to spend the day boxing and loading office supplies, and returns home after 8 p.m., exhausted.
Power and water recently returned to her house, though sporadically. But in many ways, Rebollo is still in survival mode. Her biggest obstacle: not enough cash to pay mounting bills and buy food, batteries and other supplies. Lacking clients, Rebollo was forced to shutter her travel agency and take odd jobs to make ends meet while struggling through food and power shortages.
She applied for federal disaster aid more than a month ago but is still waiting for a reply, said Rebollo, who lives with her son, daughter and three grandchildren.
“I’m so tired,” she said outside her home in the highlands of Toa Alta,
18 miles southwest of San Juan. “But I’m responsible for six people. I have to work these jobs. I have no choice.”
Like thousands of others on the island, Rebollo has realized that life doesn’t normalize as soon as water is restored or the lights come back on. There are bills to pay, and the island’s economy was in deep malaise even before the storm. Before Maria, Puerto Rico’s unemployment hovered at nearly
10%, more than double that of the U.S. mainland.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency has distributed more than
$125 million in individual assistance, but many Puerto Ricans don’t know to apply for disaster aid or lack the power or connectivity to do so. The Small Busi- ness Administration has awarded just 165 low-interest disaster loans totaling about $9 million in Puerto Rico after Maria, compared with 24,708 loans for more than $2 billion in Texas after Hurricane Harvey.
Groups such as the non-profit Foundation for Puerto Rico are trying to fill some of the gaps with programs for small-business owners. The San Juanbased foundation has raised more than
$2 million for disaster relief, provided
180 businesses and NGOs with modern office facilities and launched an initiative aimed at providing business owners with cash infusions and energy restoration, among other assistance.
The investment in small-business owners is a fraction of what the federal government now spends on disaster recovery overall, said Jon Borschow, the foundation’s chairman.
“The amount of money it’s going to take to get these businesses back on their feet doesn’t even amount to a day of what’s being spent on federal government disaster efforts in Puerto Rico,” he said.
For now, however, many of those business owners are on their own.
Shortly after the storm, Rebollo would gather water from a PVC pipe jabbed into a mountain stream in nearby Naranjito to use for washing clothes and dishes. About a week ago, running water returned to her house, but for only a few hours a day. Today, three large tubs sit on her concrete patio, collecting rainwater she uses for washing and flushing toilets.
Rebollo and her family were excited this month when the lights came back on. But the celebration was short-lived: The power blinked back off a few days later. Stacks of branches and rotten plantain tree trunks sit on the curb outside her home — leftovers from Hurricane Irma, which skirted Puerto Rico two weeks before Maria and a constant reminder of the slow pace of recovery.
“I’m still waiting for FEMA to come to my house,” she said.
One of the toughest losses for Rebollo has been her travel business. She just started Aventura Total last year, taking clients on kayak and hiking trips around Puerto Rico. Since the storm, she has had to return $6,000 in deposits and lost an estimated $12,000 in revenue for October, she said. To make ends meet, Rebollo first took a $7.25-an-hour job at a nearby supermarket. Later, she found a job with UNICEF, which deploys her on cleanup missions to businesses damaged by the hurricane.
On a recent day, UNICEF sent her to the Office Max in Caguas to pack salvageable office supplies. After working all day in a building thick with humidity and mold, her back stiff and achy, Rebollo received another text from the global agency sending her to Home Depot to pile pallets and box more goods. It was 7:30 p.m.
Despite the hardships, Rebollo said she’s optimistic about the future. “I’m happy because I’m doing something and earning money. Slowly, it’s going to get better. It’s going to be OK.”