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Mobile student from Puerto Rico reacts to Hurricane Fiona

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MOBILE, Ala. (WALA) – It’s been three days since Hurricane Fiona ravaged Puerto Rico… leaving most people on the island without power or water.

FOX10 News spoke with Lisa Rosado Rivera, a student at the University of Mobile. Her parents are at home in San Juan, Puerto Rico. They, along with many others, have been forced to look for places with sufficient power and water.

Relentless rains and winds nearing 115 miles per hour devastated Puerto Rico this past weekend.

“For me, I’m a big family person and so my whole family is over there, so I know that I am safe here, my brother is safe here too and my family is probably not. So in that sense, expanding prayers and thoughts and donations,” said Rivera.

It’s been a mere five years since Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico, killing more than 3,000 people.

“It was very heartbreaking for me to know that my family had to experience that 5 years ago and now again without having fully recovered from Maria and Irma- because we had like two like- you know, one after the other. Fiona was a surprise and also we just weren’t prepared,” added Rivera.

FOX10 News gave Rivera’s mother a phone call to see how things were fairing in San Juan

“Hurricane Fiona just passed through our island this past weekend and we’ve been having a lot of rain, flooding, people that have lost their houses, their roofs,” said Liza Rivera.

“All this week, everything is paused. We can’t go to work, people can’t go to school or to college because those are basic things we need to work and to study- so it means that it’s like a little break,” she added.

Rivera says the most pressing need is fixing homes and buildings.

“We don’t really need food right now. We have plenty of food in our supermarkets, in our stores. What we really need is- if you want to work with a nonprofit organization that helps with building houses- that would be great, like Habitat for Humanity,” explained Rivera.

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