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Hurricane Maria: What I Saw on Puerto Rico
American Thinker.com ^ | October 5, 2017 | Mike Landry

Posted on 10/05/2017 7:30:30 AM PDT by Kaslin

I was in Ponce, on the south coast of Puerto Rico, when Hurricane Maria struck.

We had thought of everything – strong house, food, stored water, generator. But we hadn't considered overall infrastructure, especially communications. Besides there being no electricity, the municipal water system was out in our neighborhood; gas stations were closed or wrecked; and among perhaps the most critical things, radio stations were off the air, there was no internet, and there was no cell phone service.

Outside knowing we had been in a terrible storm, post-Maria life in Ponce might as well have been the aftermath of an EMP attack.

Twenty-four hours earlier, we had been in a world of the internet and powerful computers in our pockets, both able to accomplish things almost beyond imagination. Indeed, a few hours before the hurricane was expected to arrive, my son, Nathan, and I watched the computer model that predicted that the bulk of the storm would be to the north of us, that we would have winds no more than perhaps 60 to 85 miles per hour. No picnic, to be sure, but certainly not the Category 5 storm we experienced.

After the storm, we were in the pre-telegraph early nineteenth century. Our flashy modern communications system was a house of cards that fell down all over the island.

We had no idea of what was going on. Where had Maria gone after leaving Puerto Rico? There was talk of a Hurricane Jose – was it coming this way? And people were anxious to get word to friends and family mainly back in the States. But how?

(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...


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KEYWORDS: hurricanemaria; puertorico
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To: polymuser
No simple lopo AM, CB or FRS there?

Almost useless. Very short range. Useful only in a very local tactical situation.

Forget communicating with folks on the mainland with them.

You need Satellite phone, inReach or Ham radio.

21 posted on 10/05/2017 9:22:05 AM PDT by Mogger
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To: Kaslin

It seems like putting utilities underground would be a wise idea on the island.

Electricity wouldn’t necessarily be a problem in that case.

Just make sure to build in flood prevention.


22 posted on 10/05/2017 9:29:29 AM PDT by DoughtyOne (John McBane is the turd in the national punch-bowl.)
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To: Kaslin

That’s what happens to infrastructure when liberals run the show...


23 posted on 10/05/2017 9:42:56 AM PDT by trebb (Where in the the hell has my country gone?)
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To: smokingfrog

There was one AM radio station that continued to broadcast regularly throughout and after the storm. WAPA 680 AM.


24 posted on 10/06/2017 8:59:48 AM PDT by cll (Serviam!)
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To: Lou L; Kaslin; cll; CharlesWayneCT; All

The evening before the storm hit I phoned my son in Guaynabo to make sure he was prepared. First floor of a 3 story concrete building and facing away from the south—check. Plenty of bottled water and food—check. Bottle of regular not fancy bleach—check. [Note: 1/8th teaspoon of bleach in one gallon of clear water, let it sit for several hours. If cloudy or muddy, filter through a fine cloth or coffee filter. Double the dose if still cloudy. Don’t use fancy scented or other “special” bleach.] Nearby stream to get water—check. I texted him after the storm and a day or two later he texted, “We are OK.” Text needs less power/bandwidth or whatever. He has phoned my US living son twice, and 3 days ago reported municipal water restored. When my husband was dying of Alzheimer’s at home, I built up a 3 month supply of food in case it was hard to go out in the last months. Fortunately, he was only non-mobile for 1 month at the end. I have read 2 novels on EMP type situations in the US. Really scary stuff.


25 posted on 10/06/2017 10:28:48 PM PDT by gleeaikin
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To: DoughtyOne; Kaslin; SunkenCiv; SilvieWaldorfMD; NautiNurse; cll; kburi; hoosiermama; sofaman; ...

I made the post below at another site based on surviving in San Juan. It also has a number of comments.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/3592336/posts

Each day I Google PR Latest Recovery Updates. [How do you say that in Spanish?] The article below was written by a reporter who managed to get to the central PR town of Orocovis, and gives some sense of what is happening with aid to small towns in the interior. This link also has links to 3 other PR stories written in Oct. and several from late Sept. My son who lives with his family in the southern San Juan suburb of Guaynabo had texted early on that the family was OK. A few days ago he phoned my son in Baltimore that he now had city water. I had phoned the day before Maria hit and he said he had plenty of water, chlorox, and lived in a strong cement building with storm shutters. He also said they had no significant interior damage except for water blowing under the front door. With electric and generator skills I imagine he is working very hard on the recovery.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/oct/05/we-pray-for-dawn-puerto-rico-still-devastated-despite-trumps-boasts-of-recovery


26 posted on 10/06/2017 10:41:01 PM PDT by gleeaikin
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To: gleeaikin

I bought a set of 3 water filter systems, really cheap but will take water from a puddle and with a simple pump give you drinking water. With a pack of filters, would last a person a month.

You could also buy water purification tablets, we used them back in the day in boy scouts, a little easier than hauling bleach around, and about as effective. bleach though is good as a last-resort cleaning solution for cuts and scrapes, if you didn’t stock up on some tubes of antibiotic ointment.


27 posted on 10/10/2017 3:38:35 PM PDT by CharlesWayneCT
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To: Tax-chick

Ditto that..............


28 posted on 10/10/2017 3:40:46 PM PDT by Osage Orange (Watch your six.)
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To: Osage Orange

Some of my friends own property in Puerto Rico, but nobody has mentioned how that went. They were all trying to sell anyway!


29 posted on 10/10/2017 4:14:29 PM PDT by Tax-chick (Truth.)
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To: CharlesWayneCT; cll; NautiNurse; All

Many years ago when I was traveling in Central America, I ran into a former Peace Corp volunteer who had worked in Bolivia. He said to put 3 drops of Iodine in a glass of water and let it sit for 1/2 hour. I had suffered from Montezuma’s revenge after passing through Mexico, and was worried about the water served in cafes and restaurants. We did the Iodine thing for the rest of the trip and never had any problems. Put the drops in at the start of the meal and drank it at the end 1/2 hour later. So the Iodine is also good for cuts and scrapes. You can also carry a little bleach in a small bottle, and add 1/8th teaspoon to a gallon of clear water and let sit for a few hours. If dirty filter through clean cloth or coffee filter. If still cloudy, use 1/4 teaspoon.


30 posted on 10/10/2017 10:28:20 PM PDT by gleeaikin
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To: CharlesWayneCT; cll; NautiNurse; All

I decided to check the rising death toll and found this article which has several additional links.

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2017/10/puerto-rico-death-toll-rises-to-45.html


31 posted on 10/10/2017 11:10:03 PM PDT by gleeaikin
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To: gleeaikin

OK, so the number of people who have died in PR is 45.

During that same period, 41 people have been murdered in Chicago.


32 posted on 10/11/2017 9:17:57 AM PDT by CharlesWayneCT
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To: Osage Orange

I saw one of my friends today, and she said they haven’t heard anything about their house in PR yet.


33 posted on 10/11/2017 11:06:14 AM PDT by Tax-chick (Truth.)
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To: CharlesWayneCT; cll; All

Actually the figure will probably go much higher. According to the last FEMA report less than 400 of over 5,000 miles of road had been cleared. Even if the figure is now 1,000, that would still mean that 4/5ths of the island has not been visited, probably especially in the hardest hit SE and NW areas. We will not have an accurate body count for weeks.


34 posted on 10/11/2017 10:09:15 PM PDT by gleeaikin
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