“For an island long crippled by enormous debt and anessentially bankrupt financial system, Puerto Rico’sroad to recovery has gone from long to seemingly endless.” -- NYTimes, Sept. 22, 2017

My island of Puerto Rico was seemingly hit all at once by atriumvirate of casualties: Hurricanes Irma and Maria, and the $73 billion Greek-like debtcrisis following a decade-long recession that pushed theunemployment rate over 20%. But unlike Greece, thousands ofresidents, many of them young professionals, have fled to themainland seeking career opportunities. Now there is a shortage ofskilled laborers who are needed for reconstruction.

A little history

Since the passing of the Jones Act in 1917, which gave allPuerto Ricans U.S. citizenship, its people have served in everyarmed conflict since World War I. My father served in the KoreanWar.

Puerto Ricans love music and dance; you can hear salsa musicblaring in grocery store parking lots. Its talented people havecontributed to our culture. The Tony-awardsensation Hamilton was written, directed andperformed by a Puerto Rican. The most popular YouTube video rankedat number one is the song “Despacito” by Luis Fonsi.

The country’s baseball players are legendary. I was very youngat the time, but I remember being there at Christmas when baseballHall of Famer Roberto Clemente died, his plane nose-dived into theAtlantic soon after takeoff. He was on a charity mission todeliver disaster relief to Nicaragua in the wake of the 1972earthquake that hit its capital. Sounds eerily familiar totoday.

Surveying the damage

Flash forward to San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz, whoholed up in the Roberto Clemente Coliseum to ride out Hurricane Maria along with 600 others. She saidshe felt safer being around people. Maria ripped off the stadium’s roof, leavingthe shelter without electricity and running water.

When Hurricane Irma brushed Puerto Rico milesoffshore on Sept. 6, people celebrated, believing that prayers wereanswered despite the 700,000 homes that lost power. Two weekslater, Maria — just shy of a Category 5 — made adirect hit from the southeast corner, sparing no one across theisland’s entire 100-mile length for 24 hours, and dropping a record37.9 inches of rain in my hometown of Caguas, where my grandfatherwas once mayor.

The island’s entire power grid, already crippled by austeritymeasures, debt, corruption charges and negligence, was nowobliterated with impunity, leaving 3.4 million people withoutpower. Transmission poles cracked like toothpicks and littered thestreets like a pile of kindling anxious for a bonfire.

Ricardo Ramos, the CEO of the power authority, said it willtake four to six months for full restoration. Ramos told CNN,“The system has been basically destroyed.” Governor RicardoRosselló called Maria “the most devastating storm to hit the islandthis century, if not in modern history.”

Related: 4 things to know about power surges fromhurricane-force winds

The signs say: Maria I love you. You're going to punishme. (Photo: Giancarlo Martinez Bunker)

Surviving in Maria’s wake

According to The Federal CommunicationService, more than 95% of cellsites are down on the island. Without wireless service, frustrationbuilt as relatives from the mainland had no way to reach theirloved ones.

Two days after Maria hit, my cousin, Giancarlo MartinezBunker, joined the very first wave of outbound emails to arrivefrom the battered isle. He had cleared away the debris from twofallen trees that landed within feet of his car, and managed todrive to his financial services job in San Juan, where his companywas operating on a generator. Fuel was running out.

Giancarlo writes, “The experience during the hurricanewas like nothing else I have lived through previously, includingHugo. On my street, 14 out of 15 electric poles are down. 100% ofPuerto Rico is without electric power. The trees on the mountainsthat surround our valley have been left without small branches andleaves. They are naked mountains. Water came into our house frombeneath the doors. One door we had to secure using hanger wires inorder to keep it closed. It felt like someone was pulling the dooropen from outside and at times, someone pushing it open frominside. But after the wiring we felt more safe [sic]. It was amiracle nothing happened to my car. It was our guardianangel.

“For cooking we use a propane grill. There we cook rice,beans, chicken stew; warm our morning and afternoon milk for ourcoffee. For water we have a roof-mounted cisterna (water tank) andthere is a shy stream of water that comes down the pipes (gravityfed) but it will end eventually without more water coming in. Wecollect water from the house roof drain and store it for toilet usewhen needed once the water tank empties.

“On the first days we ate too much, wanting to consume thestock in the fridge. Now we’re down to eating lots of cookies,bread, snacks and other simple things. We don’t want to get thekitchen very messy. We’re buying the kind of milk sold in boxes forthe girls. Since Irma hit, everyone is looking to buy size Dbatteries, not just for flashlights, but mostly forbattery-operated fans. All the stock is gone.

“So much work to be done in terms of bushes and trees andscrap metal, road signs, lighting posts. It is hard to figure outwhere to begin. It is mind-boggling. Because there are no streetlights, it’s dangerous to drive at night. A 6:00 pm to 6:00am curfew was called, but few obey it. Everybody wants to goout and see the damage done.”

Fighting back tears during an interview with NBC Nightly News,the 54-year old Mayor Carmen Yulín says, “The Puerto Rico and theSan Juan we once knew is no longer there. The human spirit is goingto have to rise up real high. And I’m sure we have the strength todo it, but we’ll have to find it within ourselves.”

Related: 6 things to know about making storm-relatedinsurance claims

Downed trees littered this neighborhod in Caguas,Puerto Rico. (Photo: Giancarlo MartinezBunker)

Providing help

A number of local charity groups are providing direct aid tovictims in Puerto Rico:

ConPRmetidos.

GoFundMe.

Unidos por Puerto Rico.

Resources for connecting with residents in Puerto Rico:

Safe and Well page on the American Red Cross’swebsite

Puerto Rico Maria Updates, a public Facebookgroup.

Victor A. Cruz is principalof MediaPR.net, a public relations and content marketingservices firm based in Boston, Mass. Contact him at [email protected].