Finally, getting word from Puerto Rico
Destroyed communities are seen in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria in Toa Alta, Puerto Rico, Thursday, Sept. 28, 2017. Credit: AP / Gerald Herbert
You wouldn’t know it from looking at her, but she is the last in a long line of driven women. She is 91, barely 5 feet tall, and frail from decades of fighting diabetes.
And for the 12 days since Hurricane Maria ransacked Puerto Rico, Olga Rosa Marquez has survived without running water, gas, power or phone service (and little insulin). So, my family was relieved on Saturday when we heard from a childhood friend in Humacao, the eastern coast town ransacked by Maria and where great-aunt Olga Rosa has lived for more than half a century.
“She is fine,” we were told. “Her house was hit, not too badly. But she is fine. She’s tough,” said an old family friend who was able to visit Olga Rosa, the last of my maternal grandmother’s six siblings.
We have not been able to speak with her directly, but we now know her son who is my second-cousin, Marcos Delkis, has cared for her since the first outer bands of Maria smacked the east coast of Puerto Rico, downing trees, bending utility poles in half and releasing a fury of floodwater — disconnecting both from the outside world.
Olga Rosa is resilient, unlike what President Donald Trump described in a series of tweets this weekend on Puerto Rico and the federal response to Maria. For our family, this was a “good news story,” but for other Puerto Ricans still without gas, power and, in many cases, food it’s anything but.
When he visits San Juan on Tuesday, Trump will have a hard time persuading Olga Rosa and millions who share her situation that the federal response has been adequate.
Eli Reyes is the deputy editorial editor for Newsday Opinion.
This originally appeared in The Point, the editorial board’s newsletter for insiders. To subscribe, click here.
