, Columnist
Despite Trump’s ‘Great’ Cleanup, Puerto Rico Is Still Reeling
The president boasts of his response to Hurricane Maria, but people continue to struggle.
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — A year ago, shortly after Hurricane Maria tore its way across Puerto Rico and upended Ana Rodriguez’s small mountain town, all she wanted was reliable electricity and safe drinking water in her home. She still doesn’t have either.
Her water is bottled and her electricity — which flutters off and on and can’t even power her vacuum cleaner — is something her neighbors in Cidra jerry-rigged after getting tutorials from YouTube videos. (They also snatched abandoned transformers from other towns for their setup.) Rodriguez isn’t expecting the Puerto Rican government or the Federal Emergency Management Agency to come to the rescue.