Early November, 2018
Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico during the evening and night of September 20, 2017. I arrived on November 15 and documented some of my observations in earlier posts. It is now early November of 2018. Here are some observations from 14 months post-Maria.
There has been obvious progress, at least here in San Juan. The traffic lights have all been restored. Most, but certainly not all, of the streetlights are working. Tourism is up. There were four cruise ships in port last Wednesday- I don’t remember seeing more than three on any day last winter, at least to the end of March. The mass transit system – such as it is – is working at least as well as it was pre-Maria. There are still escalator outages at some urban train stations – but all the stations are open.
I’ve tried to revisit places I saw after I returned last November. Here are a few last year to this year comparisons.
Parc Luis Munoz Rivera
This park, across the street from our building, has beautiful tree-lined walkways. Many of the trees suffered damage, with stripped vegetation and broken limbs. The banyan trees were particularly hard hit (see my earlier post about these amazing trees). There had been some cleanup before I arrived but there was still much to do,
Escambron
Playa Escambron, a city beach and park, was closed through December of last year. It opened on a diminished scale last January. It is completely open now.
Condado
Condado is an area of large and small hotels, bars and restaurants, condominiums and apartment buildings. It is the main tourist area in San Juan outside of Old San Juan. Many of the buildings suffered damage – windows blown out, signs blown away. One of the large hotels (the Condado Plaza) was closed for several months. It is open now but still undergoing repairs.
Pinones
I took a bus ride to Pinones, a beach area just east of San Juan with several small bars and restaurants. Maria tossed tons of sand up onto the beach, enough to close the road parallel to the coast. Some places reopened in October 2017; many are stilled closed.
Politics
The political fallout from Maria is ongoing. Perhaps that will be the subject of my next post.