Since then, everyone in her hometown has lived without electricity. Only a quarter of its 80,000 residents have running water. About half of gas stations in town are open, with long queues stretching blocks. Most supermarkets are open but rationing food.
The destruction in Toa Baja is the rule, not the exception, in Puerto Rico, where the recovery has moved at a glacial pace, according to over a dozen interviews with residents, local relief workers and small-town mayors across the island.
Federal officials and Puerto Rican government leaders stress the recovery efforts are “united.” But things took a divisive twist Saturday when President Donald Trump lambasted the mayor of San Juan, Carmen Yulin Cruz, for “poor leadership.”
Trump visits Puerto Rico on Tuesday, and he may get a sense of why the recovery has been a nightmare for many of the island’s 3.4 million US citizens.
“My people are suffering. This is a disaster,” says Carlos Mendez, the mayor of Aguadilla in western Puerto Rico.
Overwhelming destruction
The Port of San Juan, where much of the humanitarian aid is arriving, doesn’t have enough truck drivers. Even if it did, many trucks don’t have enough diesel fuel to deliver food, water and other essentials. There’s little cell service for those with the aid to communicate with towns, drivers and locals. Banks can’t get enough armored trucks to deliver cash too.
On top of all that, roads are marred with fallen trees – or the road just doesn’t exist anymore. In one town, residents strung a cable across a river to ford it in knee-deep water because the bridge connecting the two sides had been washed a football field’s length downriver.
An apartment building is missing a wall in San Juan, Puerto Rico, on Monday, September 25, nearly a week after Hurricane Maria devastated the US commonwealth. Power is still out in most places, and communications remain almost nonexistent on the island of 3.4 million people.
Photos: Hurricane Maria slams the Caribbean
Joe Raedle/Getty Images
Yancy Leon rests at the Luis Muñoz Marin International Airport near San Juan on September 25. She's been waiting in line for two days to get a flight out.
Photos: Hurricane Maria slams the Caribbean
Carolyn Cole/Los Angeles Times/Getty Images
An aerial view shows the flooding in San Juan on September 25.
Photos: Hurricane Maria slams the Caribbean
Ricardo Arduengo/AFP/Getty Images
People collect water from a natural spring created by landslides in Corozal, Puerto Rico, on Sunday, September 24. Puerto Rican Gov. Ricardo Rosselló said the island faces a humanitarian crisis.
Photos: Hurricane Maria slams the Caribbean
RICARDO ARDUENGO/AFP/Getty Images
An aerial view shows a flooded neighborhood in Catano, Puerto Rico, on Friday, September 22.
Photos: Hurricane Maria slams the Caribbean
HECTOR RETAMAL/AFP/Getty Images
A man cleans a muddy street in Toa Baja, Puerto Rico, on September 22.
Photos: Hurricane Maria slams the Caribbean
RICARDO ARDUENGO/AFP/Getty Images
A man walks on a highway divider while carrying his bicycle through San Juan, Puerto Rico, on Thursday, September 21.
Photos: Hurricane Maria slams the Caribbean
HECTOR RETAMAL/AFP/Getty Images
A shack is destroyed in San Juan on September 21.
Photos: Hurricane Maria slams the Caribbean
ERIKA SANTELICES/AFP/Getty Images
A gas station's sign is damaged in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, as the hurricane passed just north of the country on September 21.
Photos: Hurricane Maria slams the Caribbean
Carlos Giusti/AP
Rescue workers drive through a flooded road in Humacao, Puerto Rico, on Wednesday, September 20.
Photos: Hurricane Maria slams the Caribbean
The Washington Post/Getty Images
A mattress that fell from the third floor is surrounded by debris outside a San Juan apartment complex on September 20.
Photos: Hurricane Maria slams the Caribbean
STR/AFP/Getty Images
Damage is seen in Roseau, Dominica, on September 20.
Photos: Hurricane Maria slams the Caribbean
STR/AFP/Getty Images
People walk through the destruction in Roseau on September 20.
Photos: Hurricane Maria slams the Caribbean
Alex Wroblewski/Getty Images
San Juan is shrouded in darkness after the hurricane knocked out power to the entire island of Puerto Rico.
Photos: Hurricane Maria slams the Caribbean
Carlos Giusti/AP
Power lines are scattered across a road in Humacao, Puerto Rico, on September 20.
Photos: Hurricane Maria slams the Caribbean
Carlos Giusti/AP
Residents move aluminum panels from an intersection in Humacao on September 20.
Photos: Hurricane Maria slams the Caribbean
Carlos Giusti/AP
Rescue vehicles are trapped under an awning in Humacao on September 20.
Photos: Hurricane Maria slams the Caribbean
HECTOR RETAMAL/AFP/Getty Images
Trees are toppled outside the Roberto Clemente Coliseum in San Juan on September 20.
Photos: Hurricane Maria slams the Caribbean
Carlos Giusti/AP
Members of a rescue team embrace as they wait to help in Humacao on September 20.
Photos: Hurricane Maria slams the Caribbean
RICARDO ARDUENGO/AFP/Getty Images
A tree is damaged in Fajardo, Puerto Rico, on September 20.
Photos: Hurricane Maria slams the Caribbean
RICARDO ARDUENGO/AFP/Getty Images
Debris is strewn across a Fajardo street on September 20.
Photos: Hurricane Maria slams the Caribbean
Carlos Giusti/AP
A woman closes her property in Naguabo, Puerto Rico, hours before Maria's arrival.
Photos: Hurricane Maria slams the Caribbean
Carlos Giusti/AP
People take shelter at Puerto Rico's Humacao Arena on Tuesday, September 19.
Photos: Hurricane Maria slams the Caribbean
Carlos Giusti/AP
Two girls play on cots at the Humacao Arena.
Photos: Hurricane Maria slams the Caribbean
Jose Rodrigo Madera for CNN
Waves crash in San Juan as the hurricane neared Puerto Rico on September 19.
Photos: Hurricane Maria slams the Caribbean
Jose Rodrigo Madera for CNN
People pray in Humacao on September 19.
Photos: Hurricane Maria slams the Caribbean
Sipa/AP
A street is flooded in Pointe-a-Pitre, on the French Caribbean island of Guadeloupe, on September 19.
Photos: Hurricane Maria slams the Caribbean
LIONEL CHAMOISEAU/AFP/Getty Images
People stand near debris at a restaurant in Le Carbet, Martinique, on September 19.
Photos: Hurricane Maria slams the Caribbean
RICARDO ARDUENGO/AFP/Getty Images
People in Luquillo, Puerto Rico, board up windows of a business on September 19.
Photos: Hurricane Maria slams the Caribbean
Dominique Chomereau-Lamotte/AP
A boat is overturned off the shore of Sainte-Anne, Guadeloupe, on September 19.
Photos: Hurricane Maria slams the Caribbean
Jose Rodrigo Madera for CNN
Cars line up at a gas station in San Juan on September 19.
Photos: Hurricane Maria slams the Caribbean
LIONEL CHAMOISEAU/AFP/Getty Images
A motorist drives on the flooded waterfront in Fort-de-France, Martinique, on September 19.
Photos: Hurricane Maria slams the Caribbean
Sipa/AP
Floodwaters surround cars in Pointe-a-Pitre on September 19.
Photos: Hurricane Maria slams the Caribbean
HELENE VALENZUELA/AFP/Getty Images
Soldiers patrol a street in Marigot, St. Martin, as preparations were made for Maria on September 19.
Photos: Hurricane Maria slams the Caribbean
CEDRICK ISHAM CALVADOS/AFP/Getty Images
People buy provisions in Petit-Bourg, Guadeloupe, as the hurricane approached on Monday, September 18.
Photos: Hurricane Maria slams the Caribbean
RICARDO ARDUENGO/AFP/Getty Images
Customers wait in line for power generators at a store in San Juan on September 18.
Federal officials have acknowledged the recovery hasn’t been ideal.
“It’s not nearly as fast as any of us want,” John Rabin, acting regional administrator for the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, said at a press conference.
Puerto Ricans spend much of their time now waiting in line. On Sunday, one ATM line had several dozen people waiting two hours to withdraw a maximum of $40.
It’s worse at gas stations: Hundreds of people camp out in their cars overnight, risking their safety so they don’t lose their place in line. About 65% of gas stations were open on the island by Sunday, according to Puerto Rico’s government.
The cash crunch is exacerbated because many businesses’ credit card machines are still down, so they can only take hard currency.
“I’m overwhelmed,” said Ana Ramos, tears streaming down her face as she waited in line for gas with only $20 in her hand. “I have to wait in line at the ATM because I don’t have any more money.”
Incomplete response
The federal government, initially led by FEMA, has tried to respond to the island’s damage, which Rabin, the regional administrator, describes as “catastrophic.” Three-star Lt. Gen. Jeffrey Buchanan was tapped by Trump earlier this week to spearhead recovery efforts.
There are over 10,000 federal workers on the island from dozens of federal departments and agencies. FEMA says it has reached all of Puerto Rico’s 78 municipalities and delivered a million meals, along with 2 million liters of water, to 11 distribution centers on the island.
But herein lies the rub: A breakdown of communication still leaves some towns empty handed.
Betito Marquez, the mayor of Toa Baja, an impoverished town near San Juan, went to a FEMA distribution center at 5 p.m. on Friday. It was closed and he couldn’t pick up supplies.
Mendez, the mayor of Aguadilla, told CNN he’s been driving across the island, two hours each way, every morning to pick up FEMA aid in San Juan.
“They’re not coming here, I’m going there,” Mendez said.
The island’s slow recovery may exacerbate another problem Trump isn’t talking about: An exodus of people off Puerto Rico and to places like Texas and Florida.
Over 400,000 Puerto Ricans have moved to the mainland United States since 2004, according to the Pew Research Center. Puerto Rico now has 3.4 million residents.
Many left because Puerto Rico suffers from high unemployment, rising taxes and few job opportunities outside of tourism.
Eyleen Gonzalez, the young woman who said she doesn’t want to live on the only island she’s ever called home, said she had been on the fence about applying for college in the mainland.
Maria made up Gonzalez’s decision.
“I want to leave for the rest of my life,” said Gonzalez. “I don’t want to know anything about Puerto Rico.”
CNN’s Maria Santana, Ivan Watson, Jo Shelley, Matthew J. Friedman and Leyla Santiago contributed to this report.
