In the mountainside community of Adjuntas, about an hour and a half from San Juan, the energy grid is still down. Like many other parts of Puerto Rico, residents have been coping in the dark since Hurricane Maria hit the island on Sept. 20.
On Friday, City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito led a City Council delegation to Adjuntas where they delivered boxes of solar lanterns to the Casa Pueblo community center.
The group, which included the speaker and members Donovan Richards, Helen Rosenthal, Jimmy Van Bramer and Brad Lander, heard from Casa Pueblo's associate director, Arturo Massol Deyá, about the challenges facing local residents. The solar lanterns help, he said, but the need was still severe.
"Especially thinking of the elderly, because they are the most vulnerable and health services are not good nearby. We're facing isolated communities, so if we can reduce or minimize the risk of someone falling at night, that's a big deal," Massol Deyá told the delegation. He said Casa Pueblo has been running on solar power for over 20 years; they are working on creating a solar-powered refrigeration unit for households.
Marisel Santiago, who received a solar lantern from the center, told WNYC that the days and nights were "monotonous" and "tedious" and that she doesn't expect her home will have electricity until February, or later.
One resident of Adjuntas, Puerto Rico, told @AlanaLlama what her days are like without power. pic.twitter.com/BQke4oSmlJ
— WNYC 🎙 (@WNYC) November 13, 2017
Santiago's two sons study for college classes using candles; the family mostly has been eating rice and canned food since the hurricane, she said.
The City Council members saw the damage in Adjuntas a day after a power failure affected parts of San Juan, leaving millions more Puerto Ricans without electricity. Mark-Viverito lambasted the Puerto Rican government's response to Maria, calling out Gov. Ricardo Rosello in particular.
“There’s been no thinking or putting together a plan,” she said. “If you’re not being accountable and transparent about the need that exists, and being real about the need and the challenges that exist, then you cannot in any way be effective in demanding an adequate response by the federal government.”
Donovan Richards, who represents the Rockaways, said the trip reminded him how much his community has in common with other areas devastated by major storms.
"I feel like I'm reliving the actual experience, seeing what people are going through here and how government has not shown up especially for under-served communities," he said. "So the real challenge for this particular island is going to be how do they deal with those who are dealing with poverty, who are dealing with underlying issues that were never addressed in the first place. And when storms like this happen, what happens is it tears the sheet off all of those issues."
The delegation’s itinerary also included the towns of Salinas, Humacao, Loiza, Guayanilla.
