Imagine being without power for days.Thats what happened to my grandmother, Nadgy Collado, who lives in Lajas Puerto Rico when Hurricane Fiona made landfall on September 18 2022.
“It was scary she said it was dark and hot because we had no electricity and couldn’t turn on the fans.The winds were so loud.The stores that did open were running out of food.Everyone panicked just like they did with hurricane Maria”. Abuelo and I tried to stay as calm as we could because getting upset didn’t help anything.The temperatures were sometimes close to 110-100 degrees with humidity.A Lot of people were stuck just eating canned foods. Almost all of the food in the fridge went bad.
Five years after Hurricane Maria Puerto Rico still wasn’t 100% recovered but they were hit with another hurricane.This one hit more close to home in Lajas.“We have 10 times the food, 10 times the water that we had when Maria struck and made landfall in Puerto Rico,” Bink says. “And, we also have triple the generation support, the temporary power support.” Even with people thinking they were more prepared there still wasn’t enough.
Even today there are issues with the electrical system,everytime we visit power goes out.They even schedule when they want to cut power to certain parts of the island to try and not overload the system.
Puerto Rico cant take anymore hurricanes.They need a proper company to come in and fix the electrical grid.My grandmother said that Puerto Rico needs a energy company that cares like they used to have years ago.