4 SCHOLASTIC SCOPE • SEPTEMBER 2018

What obstacles does Puerto Rico face in its recovery? As You Read

NARRATIVE

NONFICTION

nonfiction that uses

literary techniques

Everywhere 15-year-old Salvador Gómez-

Colón looked, he saw ruin and hopelessness.

Just days before, Salvador had been

living a happy life in San Juan, the capital of

Puerto Rico, an island in the Caribbean Sea. He went

to school and swim practice. He walked through

the streets of Old San Juan, taking pictures of the

beautiful churches and bright turquoise and pink

houses that had stood for centuries. He spent hot

SorrowOne year ago, Puerto Rico was devastated by a hurricane.

This is the true story of 15-year-old Salvador Gómez-Colón, who kept hope alive. By Kristin Lewis

Island of

Nonfiction

SCOPE.SCHOLASTIC.COM • SEPTEMBER 2018 5

Denn

is M

. Riv

era

Pich

ardo

for

The

Was

hing

ton

Post

via

Get

ty Im

ages

(Lo

íza)

; Ri

card

o Ar

duen

go/A

P Im

ages

for

Sch

olas

tic,

Inc

(Sal

vado

r Gó

mez

-Col

ón)

afternoons in the park near his home.

But now, that life was gone.

The day before—September 20, 2017—Hurricane

Maria had hit the island. To Salvador, it looked like

an atomic bomb had been dropped. The streets

were filled with fallen power lines, wrecked cars, and

collapsed buildings. Homes were flooded with dirty

water. Trees had been snapped in half or ripped

from the ground.

Puerto Rico was in ruins. There was no electricity,

no lights, no cell phone service, no internet—no way

to contact loved ones and find out if they were OK.

That evening, as the sun set, Salvador watched

the island go dark. A feeling of hopelessness crept

over him. He imagined people in the pitch-black

night stumbling around the broken shells of their

homes. What if they fell? With hospitals

barely operating and no way to call for help,

Sorrow Loíza, one of the

towns hardest hit by Hurricane Maria

Island of

6 SCHOLASTIC SCOPE • SEPTEMBER 2018

John

and

Tin

a Re

id/G

etty

Imag

es (

San

Juan

); Ji

m M

cMah

on/M

apm

an®

(map

)

Caribbean Sea is

prone to stormy

weather. But in the

days leading up to

Hurricane Maria,

many people sensed

that this storm would

be different. Salvador

listened to news reports

about the storm as it came

closer. Meteorologists

predicted that Maria was

going to be worse than

anything the island had seen in 80

years.

They were right.

The Hurricane’s WrathAs the weather predictions

grew worse, thousands rushed

to the airport, buying seats on

any flight off the island they

could get. Some 4,000 others

went to shelters. But like most of

Puerto Rico’s 3.5 million people,

Salvador and his family chose to

stay home. They lived in a sturdy

building, where they thought

they’d be safe.

Still, they made preparations.

They stocked up on water, food,

and gas for their car.

But nothing could have

prepared them for Maria’s wrath.

Hurricane Maria struck Puerto

Rico at just past 6 a.m. The

storm stretched nearly 60 miles

across—four times the length of

Manhattan. It moved at a snail’s

pace—10 miles per hour. That

meant it hung over the island for

12 terrible hours.

The winds blew across the

island at more than 150 miles

per hour. They snapped trees

and telephone poles. Roofs were

torn away. Windows shattered.

Tree trunks flew through the air.

The storm dropped more rain

than Puerto Rico usually gets in

six months. The deluge swelled

rivers and canals, sending water

gushing into neighborhoods

and bursting a dam. Seawater

from the Caribbean churned

what would happen to them?

“To me, that sun setting was

hope leaving,” Salvador says.

But what could he do?

A Unique PlacePuerto Rico is about 1,000

miles southeast of Florida. The

island is famous for its beauty.

It’s part of the U.S. but is not a

state. It is what is known as a

“territory.” Puerto Ricans are U.S.

citizens. They follow U.S. laws

and elect members of their own

government, but they cannot

vote in presidential elections.

In Congress, they have one

representative, who cannot vote

on laws.

One of the island’s main

industries is tourism. Millions

of people visit Puerto Rico every

year to enjoy the sandy beaches,

sweeping mountains, and lush

rainforests. You’ll hear Spanish

spoken in every part of the

island—it’s the primary language.

San Juan, where Salvador lives, is

the largest city. It’s a place where

you can eat delicious tostones and

empanadas and watch the locals

dance in the streets to live music.

Hurricanes have always been

a problem for Puerto Rico; the

VIRGINISLANDS(U.S.)

CUBA

FLORIDA

GEORGIA

SOUTHCAROLINA

NORTHCAROLINA

TENNESSEE

KENTUCKY

MISSISSIPPI

VIRGINIAWESTVIRGINIA

INDIANAOHIOILLINOIS

ALABAMA

JAMAICA

BAHAMAS

HAITI DOMINICANREPUBLIC

C a r i b b e a n S e a

Gulf of Mexico

San Juan

ATLANTICOCEAN

0 200 MI

300 KM0

PUERTO RICO(U.S.)

San Juan, the capital of Puerto Rico, is famous for its beautiful beaches and

colorful buildings.

into coastal cities and villages.

According to one survivor,

houses looked like islands in a

muddy lake.

Meanwhile, hillsides became

waterlogged. Large chunks

of mud careened down from

the mountains, burying cars

and smashing homes. Dozens

of people died in the storm.

Thousands more died in the

following weeks and months.

Salvador and his mother,

grandparents, and two step-

sisters tried to wait out the storm

in their eighth-floor apartment.

But when rainwater began to

flow into their apartment and the

wind seemed like it would shatter

the windows, they knew they

needed to get out.

They found shelter in a tiny

room on the ground floor, along

with some neighbors.

They were trapped there for

hours. The wind was deafening.

It sounded as though the city was

being bombed.

And then, at last, the skies

cleared.

State of CrisisCleaning up after a hurricane

of Maria’s magnitude would

have been daunting for any

community. But there were

special challenges in Puerto

Rico. The island has high levels

of poverty. At the time of the

hurricane, Puerto Rico was

bankrupt. Much of the island’s

infrastructure was extremely old

and didn’t work well. The power

grid (the network of power plants

that produce electricity and all

the power lines that carry that

electricity to people) had not

been upgraded in decades.

The island had stood little

chance against the storm.

After the storm, there was

virtually no power on the island.

Refrigerators and freezers

stopped humming, and the food

inside rotted. Gas pumps didn’t

work, so cars and trucks couldn’t

be refueled. ATMs became

useless, so no one could get cash.

Without electricity, hospitals had

to run on generators, but many

generators had been ruined by

the storm. Many patients died

because the machines keeping

them alive no longer

worked.

Then there was the

problem of water. Without

power, water could not

be pumped to people’s

faucets. Toilets could

not be flushed. Sewers

stopped working. Human

waste flowed through

waterways.

In the days after the

storm, Salvador had

many questions. When

would school reopen?

When would

power be restored?

SCOPE.SCHOLASTIC.COM • SEPTEMBER 2018 7

This photograph was taken a day

after the hurricane in Cataño, about 8 miles

from San Juan.

Meg

an V

azqu

ez/E

yeEm

/Get

ty Im

ages

(str

eet)

; Hec

tor

Reta

mal

/AF

P/Ge

tty

Imag

es (C

atañ

o)

Cour

tesy

of S

alva

dor

Góm

ez-C

olón

(all

imag

es)

When would phones work?

With no food in grocery stores,

how would his family eat after

their food ran out? What would

happen if he were to have an

asthma attack? With hospitals

barely operating and no open

pharmacies, what would he do?

Still, Salvador felt lucky.

He and his family were alive,

and their apartment, though

damaged, was safe to live in. He

began listening to reports on the

radio about what was going on

across the rest of the island. He

heard stories of destroyed villages

and of families losing all their

belongings. There were stories of

people who had no food to eat

and no water to drink. Hundreds

were dying because they could

not get the help they needed.

“We were in a state of crisis,”

Salvador says. “I thought, at least

I am safe here, but just imagine

people who live in wooden

homes or have zinc [a light metal]

roofs—which would be the first

to blow off. It was scary thinking

about what other people were

going through.”

Salvador could only wonder:

With so much destruction, how

long would it take Puerto Rico to

recover? Would it recover at all?

Every time the sun set, that

same creeping hopelessness

returned to him. But then one

night, Salvador had had enough.

He would not let himself feel

helpless.

He would do something.

A Bold IdeaSalvador thought about two

of the biggest problems facing

people in the most devastated

areas: living without lights and

having no way to keep their

clothes clean. He realized that

two items could restore some

hope and dignity to them.

First, a solar lamp. Solar lamps

don’t run on electricity. Instead,

they are charged by sunlight.

With solar lamps, people without

power could have some light at

night.

Second, a hand-operated

washing machine. Like solar

lamps, these washing machines

don’t require electricity. Many

people had nothing to wear but

the clothes on their backs, which

had become contaminated by

the floodwaters. Salvador knew

that with no way to wash clothes,

diseases would spread.

Salvador wanted to find a way

to get these lamps and washing

machines to those who

needed them most. When

he told his mom what he

wanted to do, her response

was simple: You must do it.

But you can’t give up. You

must finish what you start.

Salvador decided to

create a crowdsourcing

webpage to raise money.

Before long, donations

were pouring in from all

over the world.

But the logistics of

buying and shipping lamps and

washing machines were a big

challenge. Puerto Rico’s ports

were backed up with ships. Roads

were littered with debris. Still,

Salvador did not give up. Even

after his school reopened a few

weeks after the hurricane, he kept

Salvador delivers solar lamps to a community without power. Salvador

named his initiative C+Feel=Hope, meaning “See the light, feel clean, have hope.”

8 SCHOLASTIC SCOPE • SEPTEMBER 2018

SCOPE.SCHOLASTIC.COM • SEPTEMBER 2018 9

Mar

io T

ama/

Gett

y Im

ages

working. He sent texts and made

calls.

“I was like, ‘Wait a second,

I’m doing algebra and there are

people dying a few miles from

me,’” he says.

A Painfully Slow RecoveryIn the following weeks and

months, many people continued

to live without electricity. And

Salvador continued to help

those people. He raised more

than $140,000. He delivered

4,100 solar lamps and 1,100

washing machines to 15 towns

around the island. These

items were life changing

for communities that were

receiving little aid and were

starting to lose hope.

The rebuilding of Puerto

Rico has been painfully

slow. Restoring power has

been among the biggest

challenges, especially to remote

communities in the mountains.

Power lines had to be strung for

miles across narrow mountain

roads and through thick forests.

Some areas are so remote that

materials couldn’t be hauled by

trucks; they had to be carried in

by helicopter.

Three months after the storm,

half the island was still without

power. At press time in early

June, about 11,000 people still

didn’t have electricity. Even in

San Juan, where Salvador lives,

the power was still going out

intermittently. Cell and internet

service were too.

“We’ve grown used to living

in a state of uncertainty,” says

Salvador.

“It’s the Hope”As this article went to the

printer, Puerto Rico was heading

into another hurricane season.

The government has taken steps

to prepare. But thousands of

Puerto Ricans are still homeless

or living in homes that don’t

have roofs—only tarps. For these

people, even a minor storm

carries serious risks.

About 250,000 Puerto Ricans

have left the island for mainland

America - mostly Florida.

Will they return?

That’s a question no one can

answer for sure.

But Salvador does not dwell

on Puerto Rico’s problems. There

is too much work to be done. He

keeps his mind on the future.

“It’s the hope,” he says,

thinking about what is helping

him and others face the island’s

challenges. “Hope that things

will get better, hope that helping

each other will get us through.

Hope that we will persevere.” •

How does this story show that one person can make a difference, even in the face of overwhelming obstacles? Answer this question in a well-organized essay. Use text evidence. Send your essay to Puerto Rico Contest. Five winners will get Eye of the Storm by Amy Cherrix. Get this

activity online.�

Writing Contest

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is one of the main U.S. government relief organizations. After a disaster, FEMA provides food, water, shelter, and medical care. After Hurricane Maria, FEMA was criticized for what many saw as an inadequate response. They pointed to FEMA’s swift response in Houston, Texas, which had been devastated by a hurricane just three weeks earlier, and wondered why Puerto Rico didn’t get the same level of support. For example, in some cases it took FEMA months to deliver tarps—which can be placed over damaged roofs to protect homes until repairs can be made. As a result, many houses that could have been saved were lost.

After a Disaster: The Government’s Response