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Hurricane Maria blew into Puerto Rico on September 20, causing great destruction. Just 3 days later on Saturday, September 23 power went  out, leaving 3 million people crawling to recovery. Imagine living without the essentials of television, food, cell phone, air conditioning, fuel, fresh water, ATMS, and destruction at every corner…that’s Puerto Rico today, with four to six months to a change. Eighty percent of transmission lines leading to main generators are destroyed, causing one hundred percent of lines following residents and businesses down. This amount of damage is putting Puerto Rico in a tough place already 9 million dollars in debt, having to pay billions more to recover.

Mayors from different cities along the island have met with Governor, Ricardo Rosello, presenting a long list of  items needed.

” The north coastal town of Mantai had run out of fuel and fresh water,” Motor Jose Sanchez Gonzalez said. “Hysteria is starting to spread” He said crying out, “Hospitals are about to collapse. Its at capacity. We need someone to help us immediately.”

Hospitals are first priority to give medical attention to injured people. “Governments main focus is on the health and safety of the citizens.”  Ken Buell says, director of Emergency Response and Recovery with the US Department of Energy. With limited communication between citizens its become harder to move forward to recovery. In Vega Alta there is a neighborhood, called Fatima unreachable in presence of a nursing home. ” I need to get there today! Not tomorrow, today!”  Mayor Oscar Santiago said. There has been blockages from cargo of supplies to get from mainland to Puerto Rico from a significant amount of plane delays. The airport is running on generators but radars are still down, flights cant take action until there is a guaranteed spot at the San Juan airport which has caused delays up to eleven hours.

On top of the outage still waiting as panic rises, the Guajataca dam in the island’s northwest corner is releasing water after suffering damage. Part of the dam has fallen apart and if, or when the water breaks through 70,000 peoples lives are threatened. With limited communication its hard for safety teams to take a handle on this situation. People all around are trying to help Puerto Rico out in the terrible situation. Martha Mota, a Puerto Rican mom is Eastvale, California said,” If have family and history in Puerto Rico, I will do as much as I can to help and keep the people there safe.”

” This is without a dought the biggest catastrophe in modern history for Puerto Rico.” Rosello said ” I don’t know of any U.S state going without power for that long after a disaster.” David Merrick , director of emergency management and homeland security program Florida state university said.