Puerto Rico plunged into darkness

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Most of Puerto Rico is without electricity and water in the days following a devastating hurricane, with the few open supermarkets now out of bottled water.

“It’s getting a little dystopian,” Joanne Namerow of San Juan wrote in a Facebook message. And she was one of the lucky ones, able to send messages on her phone charged at a Sheraton hotel lobby. Other people lost everything. “There are lines to get cash at the banks and ATMs. There are lines to get to into supermarkets to get basics. I couldn’t get bread today.”

Drinking water is unavailable and so is electricity, with even hospitals having difficulty staying open. “The main issue is the lack of power,” she said. “The electric system in PR was already old, obsolete and neglected. Hurricane Irma barely touched us and lots of people didn’t get power back until a few days before Maria hit. I spent 10 days without electricity and my brother and sister never got theirs back. The wait now could be months as the damage is a lot more severe.”