Abstract
When infrastructure and government service collapse in a technologically advanced society, people are first stunted but soon react to assure survival. After María, the importance of individual and community action at a time of need became a lesson that was obvious to all Puerto Ricans. This lesson was made more relevant in light of another lesson, that of the failure of governance. The conditions after María underscored the importance of governance to a society. Puerto Ricans understood and witnessed how corruption was affecting them directly by turning governance against their interests. A third lesson was that after passing through the consequences of María, which are still in progress, business as usual is not the path to a healthy, resilient, and just society.
The first surging waves announce my arrival to all I threaten.
But they do not reveal my true powers. I am just toying.
You don’t know me until you meet my heart.
I consume everything in my path: a harvester.
Reaping.
You can’t imagine me, or what I am capable of.
I wreathe through a realm of possibility far beyond yours. I destroy without sentiment.
I would be a monster if it wasn’t for the miracle of my greater purpose.
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- 1.
One thousand unemployment requests per day post María vs. one to two thousand per month pre hurricane.
- 2.
Demand for bottled water tripled from 20% to 60% of the soft drink market.
- 3.
In contrast, providers of other services suffered such as taxi drivers, ice cream vendors, and TV anchors.
- 4.
One thousand and two hundred traffic lights were affected by the hurricane, 22.58% were functioning a month later and 27% 100 days after María. Lack of electricity affected 220 fixed traffic lights. At 200 days after María, the situation had not changed because as many “fixed” intersections failed when energized as were energized successfully.
- 5.
In the state of public confusion and isolation following María, private telecommunication companies would not communicate their situation, opting only to disclose that they were working on restoration.
- 6.
A notable example is the case of Edison Rivera de Jesús, a farmer from the municipality of Maricao, who has been without electricity since hurricane Georges, 19 years ago. The reason is that he does not have money to pay for the eight poles required to connect his home, however, only one pole was lost during the hurricane.
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Lugo, A.E. (2019). Fundamental Lessons of Hurricane María. In: Social-Ecological-Technological Effects of Hurricane María on Puerto Rico. SpringerBriefs in Energy(). Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-02387-4_6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-02387-4_6
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