Trying to communicate after the hurricane: 'It's as if Puerto Rico doesn't exist'

The morning after Hurricane Maria tore through Puerto Rico, Sofia Maldonado tried

to call her parents, who were still on the island. “You call them, call them, and no answer,” she says. She switched to texts. Still nothing. “Not having communications with your parents or your friends or anyone, it’s very hard because you don’t know how they’re doing.” Maldonado, an artist based in San Juan, Puerto Rico, was traveling when the hurricane hit. She watched the destruction unfold on television from her friend’s apartment in New York. The Category 4 storm splintered wooden homes, destroyed most of the power lines, and killed dozens of people. Satellite photos show only darkness where there was once a web of lights. “It’s as if Puerto Rico doesn’t exist,” Maldonado says.                                                                                                                                       https://www.theverge.com/2017/9/29/16372048/puerto-rico-hurricane-maria-2017-electricity-water-food-communications-phone-internet-recovery