Hurricane Maria And Puerto Rico

Connecticut Public Television will air “The Island Next Door,” a documentary chronicling Connecticut Public Radio’s yearlong, multiplatform reporting initiative on Puerto Rico a year after the devastation of Hurricane Maria.

The documentary will premiere on CPTV on Thursday, at 8 p.m. Directed by Connecticut Public Radio reporter Ryan Caron King with reporting by News Director Jeff Cohen, “The Island Next Door” tells the stories of disaster and recovery as Puerto Ricans rebuild from the last storm and prepare for the next.

Among the people featured is Danny Torres, who has worked for the fire department in Meriden, for decades and has family members across Puerto Rico. He was part of team of Connecticut veterans and volunteers —self-described as the Puerto Rican “water dogs” — pumping water from a river in Salinas, Puerto Rico, through a mobile filtration and purification system for residents there to drink after the hurricane.

“Each story is unique, many are deeply personal, and all of them are snapshots in time of a place and its people,” Cohen said. “This documentary is our effort to highlight the storm’s effects on the people it touched — both on the island and in Connecticut.”

To learn more, visit theislandnextdoor.wnpr.org.

RYAN CARON KING | CONNECTICUT PUBLIC RADIO DANNY TORRES, a volunteer from Connecticut, is featured in a documentary on a reporting initiative focusing on Puerto Rico a year after Hurricane Maria.