'We Don't Feel Safe Here': Building A Post-Hurricane Life In Puerto Rico
Hurricane season is ending but rebuilding in Puerto Rico is just starting and will take years. Residents of Cataño describe the impact Hurricane Maria had on their once peaceful and safe neighborhood.
Like many in Puerto Rico, Irma Rivera Aviles and her husband Ivan Martínez weathered Hurricane María in a shelter at the Ramón B. López vocational school in Cataño, a town several miles west of San Juan, along with nearly 200 others. Conditions quickly got bad at the shelter and she was angry when she spoke with NPR in September.
"The governor needs to come here and take a look at our critical situation" she said a few days after the storm, "the bathrooms are flooded and aren't working. The generator is broken and we are here in the dark. We desperately need water, power
