By Linda Bloom and Michelle Maldonado
Sept. 21, 2017 | UMNS
“We do not know yet the damage that our churches suffered,” the bishop wrote. “I live in a sector that is isolated and blocked right now. I am working together with my neighbors in removing debris from the blocked roads and I trust some time it will be open.
“But we are alive and we are standing in the fight. With the strength of God’s hope, we will rebuild Puerto Rico again.”
Reached on Sept. 20 through a Facebook message, Paloma Rodriguez Rivera, a youth leader in the Methodist Church of Puerto Rico, said she believed there were many homes that had been flooded or “completely destroyed” by the hurricane-force winds but didn’t know what areas had been affected most by Maria.
“It is a miracle that I have internet because most people don’t,” wrote the San Juan resident. “I see that a lot of people don’t know anything about their family and they are desperate in the diaspora.”
This is the second of a tropical storm one-two punch for Puerto Rico. Hurricane Irma brushed by Puerto Rico on Sept. 6, leaving more than a million people without power but not the widespread damage that has resulted from Hurricane Maria.
