In hurricane-hit Puerto Rico, a stunning silence
It was quiet. No military air traffic control units on the tarmac directing planeloads of aid supplies, no bustling command center sending convoys of trucks to hard-hit areas. No mountains of relief goods stacked and ready to be deployed where needed.
There were a couple of airport employees mopping the still-damp floors of the terminal, the only sign of life in the vast space.
A
He told me they had spent the night moving from room to room as the ferocious winds tore chunks off the building. They ended up in the stairwell, which he said "was like a waterfall, the water gushing down the stairs like class 5 rapids."
"Where," I asked, "is the cavalry?" ''This is it," he replied, pointing to several dozen
I covered Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and the
Disasters on the scale of Hurricane Maria are usually marked by the inspiring sight of thousands of military and federal emergency personnel flooding into the affected area.
The only traffic on the still flooded highways that Friday consisted of civilians looking for gas, food, water or loved ones in the wake of the storm.
Twenty-thousand troops were sent into
In
In outlying areas, residents were left to fend for themselves, clearing roads, helping neighbors, sifting through the debris of their homes.
On a trip to the
She was pregnant and due to give birth in two days, but said she wasn't leaving because there "was nowhere to go." Her husband said they were better off in their damaged home, than relying on government help. "There is no government," he said, "here I have my family and neighbors to help me."
The bottlenecks appeared to be easing by this weekend, with thousands of Puerto Ricans finally getting water and food rations, even if help was yet to reach many on the island of 3.4 million people.
Military trucks carrying water bottles and other supplies began to reach even some remote parts of
The
Gov.
As I departed on Wednesday, lines of desperate people trying to leave the island clogged the sweltering airport terminal. But at least the long-awaited aid flights appeared to be landing, a sign of hope things might start getting a little better for those left behind.
This story has been corrected to reflect that the
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