The Aftermath of Maria - Day 12
It’s Monday, October 2nd. There’s no power and our water comes and goes. We can’t get a cell signal this morning. We’ll try again when we go into town today.
DXC is still closed. The gas lines look shorter. We see chiropractors working on street corners. There is a sign on the post office door that says ‘open tomorrow 9am’. Lucy will have her meds! We grabbed cheeseburgers from Burger King. Still no cell signal anywhere in town.
We get back to our condo and the cell tower is working. I call Dad and he tells me he’s got us on a flight from Miami to Dallas! He was not able to get an answer regarding Lucy’s health certificate. Maria tells me not to worry about Lucy as there is no way airlines will be enforcing health certs in these circumstances. All I can think of is finally arriving at the airport with our hard earned tickets only to be turned away because Lucy’s health cert expired three days ago. Oh HELL no. I refuse to let that happen. We will get a new one. We will also need $125 pay her pet fee. Normally we’d just hand over our credit card, but no one can tell us if the ticket counter in San Juan is currently able to process credit cards. We will need more cash.
I call my mom while the cell signal is working. Pierre returns and was able to get gas but can’t find cash anywhere. Pierre tells us he found Wi-Fi at the Aguadilla Arena next to FEMA. He actually got on Facebook! Both Maria and a DXC employee tell us that the Banco Popular at the Aguadilla Mall has a very well organized, well managed line (no fights, no standing there for hours and then leaving without cash). Jason and Pierre decide they will get up at 4:30am and get in the bank line. Pierre also agrees to drive Jason by our vet in Aguadilla to see if they are open for Lucy’s health certificate.
This is the view from the stairwell where we make calls. Notice the cell tower on the left. We still stand in crazy awkward positions with our phones dangling out trying to find a signal.
Eric’s wife shares some news with us down in the circle. A Navy hospital ship will be just offshore to handle medical emergencies. The Army Corp of Engineers will stay long term to help rebuild the power grid. The news also reported that supplies have come in from all over the world and are being held in port until Trump arrives tomorrow, then he can claim he saved everyone. We don’t believe this – clearly Puerto Rico is pissed off at Trump. It is also reported that hurricane Maria is the worst in history, and that it broke all kinds of records, and we were in the eye of it. We all agree that we need T-shirts to commemorate how bad ass we are for surviving such a thing.
Our missions are clear. We need cash, Lucy’s thyroid meds, and a new health certificate from a vet. Challenge accepted.