Arianna Del Valle, a Penn State sophomore from Puerto Rico, described the terror of not being able to reach her family for days.
“I called my mom, my dad, my grandma, and like, the more people I called and the more they didn’t pick up, the more I panicked,” Del Valle said.
Del Valle is part of the Penn State Puerto Rican Student Association, which is trying to raise awareness of the devastation following Hurricane Maria.
Del Valle finally heard from her mom while she was in French class.
“I looked at my French professor,” she said. “She was like, ‘You’re not supposed to use your phone,’ and I was like, ‘It’s my mom! I gotta go.’”
Sophomore Alondra Valentín didn’t reach her family until five days after the storm hit.
“My dad basically told us it was like a big lawnmower going over the island and tearing down everything with it,” Valentín said.
Her family friend still has not heard from his sister.
“It’s been really difficult for them because they can’t do anything,” she said. “They can’t find a way to get to Ponce, which is all the way on the south of the island.”
Alexis Santos, Director of the Graduate Program in Applied Demography at Penn State, said he was worried about communication even before Maria struck. “Having lived in Puerto Rico when Georges and Hortense hit the island, I still recall that we were without energy for three or four months.”
Santos said he was “blessed” to be able to communicate with his mother during and after the storm. However, he said, many on the island were not as lucky.
“The situation is much worse than what is being portrayed by the media,” he said. “Things are not under control. The majority of the island remains with challenges to communication, they do not have access to diesel or oil.”
The Penn State PRSA collected donations around campus to send to Puerto Rico. They are also raising money through a GoFundMe campaign with other universities.
