In Ponce, one of Puerto Rico’s largest cities along its southern coast, the lines of residents waiting to buy gas and withdraw cash from local banks are growing longer by the day.
Twisted tree limbs and downed power lines continue to pile up. In the outlying mountains, the remote communities of La Yuca and Montes Llanos have been cut off from resources.
“It is worse than Katrina. It’s worse,” Ponce Mayor María “Mayita” Meléndez told CNN on Thursday. “In Katrina, they lose everything. We are losing everything.”
Meléndez estimates damage in her city alone has reached $1 billion.
It’s been more than a week since Hurricane Maria pummeled the island, leaving millions of Puerto Ricans without power and little food and fuel. Nearly half of the country remains without water. With 90% of cell sites out of service, many residents still can’t communicate with loved ones.
Aid from the US mainland has been trickling in, but Meléndez said it’s not fast enough.
“It has to move faster. It has to move fast,” she said. She pleaded to FEMA: “Please hurry. We need water. We need food.”
Liz Irizarry Guzman, whose home in La Yuca was crushed by a downed tree, said she and others need help from the Federal Emergency Management Agency so they can start rebuilding.
“I hope that with the help that they give, I can start rebuilding little by little,” she said. “I need the home to be able to live.”
Guzman, who has an 11-year-old son, said her community needs food, water, clothes and power.
“There are a lot of homes that were left without anything,” Guzman said. “There are a lot of children that are suffering a lot.”
Meanwhile, the American Red Cross has begun to respond to Ponce, a city with at least 145,000 people.
Residents on Thursday received medical care from a Red Cross mobile medical center. Volunteers also set up a WiFi connection for those who want to send messages to their families.
Although the city’s airport is not open for commercial flights, the mayor said, relief aid has been coming in there.
Meléndez said that while the situation in Ponce is dire, she vowed to keep fighting for its residents.
“I will prepare my city, and I will reconstruct my city, and you can be sure of that,” she said.