Mar 18
13
Hurricane Maria
Tuesday, September 19, 2017
The clouds looked a little ominous. But otherwise September 19 was a pretty nice day. We even went and played in the tidepools one last time.
5pm The Hammonds call to tell us they got approval for us to come on the Coast Guard base to stay in their home during the storm. Electricity will be shut to the entire Island that night in order to limit deaths by electrocution. We have to be at the front gate by 8pm before they close the base. Military cars and air transport have been placed in bunkers – there will be no military response until an all clear is given two days later.
11pm power goes out
2am cell connection goes out
8am water stops being supplied to the area
Wednesday, September 20 2017
Hurricane Maria
We are closed inside a cement-bunker-style military house from the 1940s. They do not have shutters but the windows are rated for 120 mph winds. We had a front-row seat to watch the hurricane. We were sealed inside the house with 5 children, 4 adults, 3 dogs, and 2 cats. Our new friends — we had just met all of three weeks before — turned to us and said, “Well, nothing like a hurricane to decide whether we are going to be lifelong friends!”
The windows were closed tight, the temperature inside the house was about 84 degrees. The air was stale on the inside — no air-conditioning or fans — even as it raged at top speed past the thin glass window panes. The toilets stopped flushing before breakfast, and there was no way to let the dogs outside to relieve themselves. It wasn’t even noon yet, and it was becoming rapidly apparent that we were too many mammals crammed into a small sealed space.
(Speaking of sad mammals, poor Alvin. When I woke up at 4 am, I tied Alvin to a rope and pushed him outside the door long enough to lift his leg and then reel him back in. Also, because he is not friendly with other dogs/animals he spent most of the hurricane inside his carry-on luggage case.)
The winds really picked up as the early afternoon wore on. The house started creaking and the windows started rattling against the wind. Water seeped in around the closed windows; much the same way ants can find the smallest crevice to start marching their battalions to the feast.
We had thousands of battalions made of rivulets of water. Bubbling, seeping, oozing down the walls, around the windows, through the aluminum slatted front door. The children were placed under the stairs where the actual bomb shelter is in the house and all 4 adults jump into action. Wringing out towels placed around windows, on floors, and down the staircase that had become a waterfall. Duct tape was being pressed over all seeping surfaces. Jesse spent over an hour manually holding two french doors from being sucked out. Sweat is pouring and everyone is moving together to bail out what is starting to feel like a sinking ship. Mickey’s – Sorcerer’s Apprentice is flashing before my eyes – buckets of water being thrown on the floor around us and we are maniacally trying to stop the deluge. And then…. as they say. It slowed down. It became peaceful.
It never opened up to a sunny clear day but it began to slow down to a drizzle and a breeze. We stood there wondering, looking out windows, and then we changed our actions in another direction but with the same intensity. Every parent knows this drill – “QUICK! We need PB&J quick, feed the kids, get out snacks, put that one on the toilet. Wipe this mess up. Get the dogs outside!” We didn’t know how long this reprieve was going to last and we had to make the most of every moment.
We waited and waited and we watched the clock. Almost 2 hours of calm. We saw a truck come by – a man walk across a street thigh deep in a river of water running down the street. Pet owners standing outside confused.
It came back again. Built up over 30 minutes and then the other side of the house was getting thrashed by winds and water. It never had the same level of insanity as it had when coming towards us but still it came. Or maybe we were just tired and over the intensity. We wiped and cleaned and bailed, but only one window cracked. It never broke completely through.
The quiet after the storm. The trees were stripped bare of their green frocks. Standing stripped and exposed. Light posts and stop signs swayed back and forth by the winds like wiggly teeth until they hit the ground with a thud. Power lines strewn about like ribbon on the floor after Christmas morning.
This was the after of Hurricane Maria. The new normal. Although we stood there taking this awe inspiring strength of the sure force of nature. We looked at each other as a new band of survivors. We saw the winds, we heard the strain, we bailed the waters, we parented the children, we shared what we had and we now have a new Puerto Rico.
There was the Puerto Rico we had just been visiting only a short day before. We were lucky enough to witness it. There was now a “Before Maria” demarcation of time. And now suddenly we were in the middle of a completely different story for this adventure. And walking outside that afternoon was “After Maria”, the beginning of beginnings, the ground zero.
Upon returning to California I got so sick of telling this story over and over. How can you tell it without reliving everything – over and over? How do you explain that this short 48 hours of the “hurricane” was never the truly scary part of our story. The aftermath of this event was the real hurdle to overcome. The survival story that followed this story was what will have forever changed me. I started joking with Jesse that if I told the hurricane story to another friend/family/stranger they should be obligated to donate money to one of my preferred charities that help the island. So, if after you read this account of the hurricane and feel inclined to donate to some small charities that I believe are helping actual people on the island; I have listed their web-links.
Escuela Micael
https://www.gofundme.com/shym9p-escuela-micael-hurricane-maria
Pirate Surf Club Hurricane Relief Inc
https://www.facebook.com/piratesurfclubhurricanereliefinc/
Arf of Rincon Puerto Rico
https://www.facebook.com/arfrincon/
Waves to Water
http://www.wavesforwater.org/project/hurricaneirmareliefinitiative