Throngs in Puerto Rico honor dead 1 year after Maria’s fury
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — Clapping and raising their hands to the sky, hundreds of people clad in white gathered at an 18thcentury fort in the Puerto Rican capital Thursday to remember the thousands who died in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria as the U.S. territory struggles to recover one year after the Category 4 storm hit.
Religious leaders and government officials recalled how Puerto Rico was ravaged by the storm that killed an estimated 2,975 people and caused more than $100 billion in damage.
“We’re still trying to comprehend the magnitude of the devastation,” said Jenniffer Gonzalez, Puerto Rico’s representative in Congress.
She said the U.S. government has pledged $44 billion for the island’s recovery, but that it won’t be enough. “We’re going to need a lot more to get back on our feet.”
Across the island, people marked the one-year anniversary with gatherings large and small, solemn and anger-tinged — and, at times, hopeful.
In the coastal fishing and farming village of Yabucoa, the strains of one of Puerto Rico’s most beloved songs filled the air at 6:15 a.m., the moment the storm made landfall there one year ago.
Tarps still covered many homes that have yet to be rebuilt in the town of 37,000, even as the nostalgic strains of “Amanecer Borincano” — “Puerto Rican Dawn” — resonated at the spot where Maria first unleashed its fury. “I am the light of the morning that illuminates new paths,” a choir sang as dozens of local officials and residents gathered there. “I am the son of palm trees, of fields and rivers.”
In San Juan, the crowd of worshippers gathered at the 230-year- old San Cristobal fort sang and prayed along with pastors and musicians on stage, with music echoing through the fort’s heavy walls as the sun slowly sank into the sea behind them.
While the federal government has invested billions of dollars to help clean up and repair the U.S. territory, much work remains. Major power outages are still being reported, tens of thousands of insurance claims are pending and nearly 60,000 homes still have temporary roofs unable to withstand a Category 1 hurricane.
“I think it’s inexplicable,” Kumi Naidoo, Amnesty International’s secretary-general, said during a visit to the island Thursday. “There’s no justifiable reason I can see for this gross level of negligence.”
Government officials argue that many changes have been made to better prepare Puerto Rico for future storms, but they acknowledge that significant obstacles remain.
“We still have a lot to learn from the challenge of future catastrophic events,” Gov. Ricardo Rossello said.
Jose Ortiz, director of Puerto Rico’s Electric Power Authority, told reporters that 20 percent of repairs made to the power grid need to be redone. He said crews didn’t have access to the best materials at the time or were forced to rely on temporary fixes, such as using trees as makeshift power polls after Maria destroyed up to 75 percent of transmission lines.
In addition, municipal officials have complained that reconstruction efforts are too slow. Ariel Soto, assistant to the mayor of the mountain town of Morovis, said that 220 families there remain without a proper roof.
“We’re still waiting for help,” he said. “This hit us hard.”