The Aftermath of Maria - Day 6

It’s Tuesday, September 26th. We have running water. There’s no power and no cell signal.

The generator ran from 9am to 11am. The water stain on the ceiling keeps growing. Lucy is more nervous than usual, so we keep her with us all the time. The stairs are brutal in the heat, and even more so when you’re lugging a wiener dog up and down. The current occupied condo count is two in B, two in C, and seven in A. That’s 11 of 90. We have a few families who come to shower and fill water containers once every day or two. Anytime you walk by doors in the stairwell where no one has come to clean the smell is awful. These condos are full of water and now the mold and mildew are taking over. We have tons of boring, hot, down time. We don’t walk down on the beach because it’s hot, filthy, smelly, and we are conserving our energy since we only consume about 500 calories a day and we have a limited supply of drinking water. We sit wherever we can find any kind of a breeze and listen to music on our old iPhones. I have a Sudoku book that passes the time when there’s daylight.

Last night at the circle Nick told us he went to Burger King for breakfast and got scrambled eggs, sausage, French fries, and ICED tea. He asked to buy six, but they said, “solo tres”. There’s a three per person limit because people would go sell them. That’s so Puerto Rico. Just after the storm cleared some guys stole copper out of the downed power lines just past Villa Pesquera thinking the power would get to them and then who cares about further down the lines. Um, the water plant is down here. They cut the lines to their own water supply. Frank knows the guys. Sigh.

We went into town to DXC but it is still closed. Lucy is out of thyroid medication and there’s a new bottle locked in our PO box, so we are anxiously waiting for the post office to reopen. It’s still closed. We see ridiculously long gas lines, and any place that’s open is still cash only. We grab cheeseburgers and fries at Burger King, and they taste amazing.

Back at our condo it’s raining which means an awesome cool breeze blowing through our back bedroom. Later we head down to the parking lot and Nick turns on CNN in Luis’ Jeep. We listen to twenty minutes of Trump saying he’s doing an awesome job in Puerto Rico. Shit. We went an entire week without thinking about Trump, and all the nonsense just comes roaring back to us. So Trump says things are great, and then they cut to a reporter in San Juan, “THIS IS TERRIBLE.” Hospitals are out of diesel and can’t run generators. People are dying as a result. There’s been no action in congress to fund FEMA. FEMA was here in Puerto Rico, surveyed, agreed this really sucks, and then they left. CNN does not have any good news for us. David says he heard Claro, a local mobile carrier, is loaning cell sites to AT&T, so we might get a cell signal soon. He will check for a signal tomorrow morning on the gas run.

Nick bought pizza for all three buildings tonight at the circle. It was breezy and cool. David offered us a ride to San Juan airport early Friday morning. We said maybe. We need to book a flight, and to do that we need a cell signal! We are leaving our car parked tomorrow to save gas. Gas is supposed to be back on Thursday. No way are we getting in those gas lines. Chris didn’t leave today because she didn’t have enough gas to get across the island. She’s getting up at 4am to get in a gas line.

My impatience has found me today. If Arecibo and towns east have cell service, and Claro works here, my AT&T phone should work anytime now. A new family moved into A3. They had been coming for water but just couldn’t live without it anymore. The only FEMA site we’ve seen is at the Isabela coliseum for property damage claims. There is no food, water, or communications there. When do Trump and Melania and Pence show up to hand me a sandwich, a banana, and bottle of fucking water!? I ate canned corn and canned green beans for dinner. Jason had ravioli and then got a slice of pizza in the circle.

In the margin of my notepad, I wrote:

water

food

cleared roads

generator

>fuel

cell signal

wifi

full power

Yep, that pretty much sums up our existence. #Goals