I have a friend who moved to Puerto Rico between the hurricanes.
He went with his girlfriend, to manage a coffee plantation.
I last heard from him two days before Maria hit. He said that the media had exaggerated the hurricane, as usual. I said, no, as usual I disagree, it didn't hit Puerto Rico as hard and it was lucky.
Then Maria blew up into a category five in 24 hours. Because of the warm water they say. My friend does not believe that the earth is warming. But the ocean there is unseasonably warm.
His last text to me was that he was putting up shutters. Mine to him was that my grandparents' house was destroyed by a hurricane. In the early 1990s, North Carolina outer banks.
I then didn't hear anything for a week.
I contacted a mutual friend who added me to a group. He says that they are alive and cheerful.
3.4 million US citizens, half or more without electricity, shelter, clean water, working plumbing. And 80% of the cell phone towers out or more. After Katrina, the mosquito borne illnesses rose, such as encephalitis. Viral brain inflammation. And Puerto Rico is way worse off.
He taught a survival group to men here weekly, saying that we need skills for the coming collapse.
Perhaps he is very useful there.
I said I'd send Unitarian prayers. He wrote back "oxymoron". I said I am a smart ox, thank you, not a stupid one. At least, I don't always do stupid things.
All prayers welcome. Hugs.