![]() Puerto Rico’s school system is both uniquely vulnerable to natural disasters that are becoming more common across the US because of climate change, and unusually ill-equipped to help children recover from the learning setbacks that come with them. That repeated trauma, what one resident called “collective island PTSD”, has been compounded by widespread poverty and bureaucratic challenges. Since 2017, natural disasters have pounded the island – decimating homes, crippling the power grid and gutting infrastructure. The troubles Deishangelxa has faced are mirrored across Puerto Rico. Deishangelxa was 10 when schools shut again in September 2022 – this time for two weeks. Just a year later, Hurricane Fiona unleashed a furious attack on the island, causing widespread flooding and infrastructure damage. In August 2021, in-person schooling finally resumed for students on the island, but not for long. Deishangelxa struggled with virtual learning and fell far behind. She was eight in January 2020, when earthquakes rocked the island, closing her school for three months.Ī few weeks after her school reopened, it closed again because of Covid-19. Deishangelxa transferred to El Coquí, but the island would not get a break from natural disasters. Like more than 260 other schools across Puerto Rico with low enrollment, it was closed permanently as part of wider cost-cutting measures. I want to become a nurse Fifth-grader Deishangelxa Nuez GalarzaĪna Hernández Usera never reopened. School is very important to me because I want to keep studying. Schools across Puerto Rico were closed for an average of four months. Deishangelxa started kindergarten at the Ana Hernández Usera elementary school in 2017, the year Hurricane Maria struck the island. It was just the latest interruption in schooling that’s been characterized by near-constant disruption. “School is very important to me because I want to keep studying,” she said. Deishangelxa missed two weeks of classes, which upset her. © 2023 NYP Holdings, Inc.The flooding last fall that devastated the home of Deishangelxa Nuez Galarza, a fifth-grader in this coastal area of southern Puerto Rico, also closed her elementary school, El Coquí, for three days while staff cleaned out a foot of muddy water from every first-floor room. Videos posted to social media showed high winds lashing the resort location of Punta Cana. Hurricane Fiona was slightly stronger when it slammed into the Dominican Republic but was still a Category 1 hurricane with winds of 90 mph. The Dominican Republic received a direct hit from the deadly storm hours after it made its first landfall along the southwestern coast of Puerto Rico. Photo by MAXAR TECHNOLOGIES HANDOUT/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock Arecibo before the hurricane on January 18, 2022. ![]() Puerto Rico wasn’t the only Caribbean island to feel the effects of Hurricane Fiona. ![]() “People that have saved up water or maybe have water tanks, that’s only set to last them for about the next few days.” “Resources are slowly going to start to wear thin,” Valdes said. On top of the power outages, Valdes reported about 600,000 customers were without running water as of Wednesday. The lack of electricity is making it difficult for residents to find working gas pumps to purchase fuel for their generators, according to Valdes. In addition, Hurricane Fiona overwhelmed Puerto Rico’s power grid and plunged the island’s more than 1.4 million power customers into darkness.Īs of Thursday, most of Puerto Rico remained without power.įOX Weather correspondent Nicole Valdes, who has been in Puerto Rico since Tuesday, said about 80% of the island – more than 1 million customers – is still without power as of Thursday as heat bakes the region. Prescription drug disruptions may arise in Puerto Rico amid Fiona’s damageĭramatic before-and-after photos taken in Puerto Rico show the devastation left behind after deadly Hurricane Fiona lashed the island with high winds and torrential rain this week.Īt least eight people have reportedly been killed across the Caribbean after Hurricane Fiona tore through the region, making two landfalls in Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic and then moving near the Turks and Caicos Islands on a path toward Bermuda. Bermuda braces for impacts from Hurricane FionaįOX Forecast Center tracking 3 tropical disturbances in the Atlantic for possible development
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