How San Antonians from Puerto Rico cope with blackouts and destruction from Hurricane Fiona

SAN ANTONIO — The impact of Hurricane Fiona is being felt here in San Antonio by loved ones trying to contact family in Puerto Rico, but many of them draw strength and hope from what they’ve been through before.

According to the governor of Puerto Rico, it could be days before they restore power.

“You feel powerless here, you want to do so much for your people,” Migdalia Aponte said, recounting her own feelings during Hurricane Maria.

“At that moment we didn’t even know what we needed to do,” she said. “We didn’t even know the family were okay.”

Aponte is the former president and current secretary of the Association of Puerto Ricans in San Antonio. She compared the feelings she had during hurricane Maria to the events of the last few days.

“At least we were having news from the island,” she said. “So we were, I was a little more patient un waiting for the call or for me trying back to contact them.”

Dali Vazquez, sitting on the outdoor patio in front of Cocina El Jibarazo (1790 Austin Hwy), the bright yellow Puerto Rican restaurant she co-owns with her husband, described the stress of not knowing how her family is doing.

“You don’t know exactly how long it will before you can actually get to talk to them and see what they need,” she said.

Vazquez’s father and aunts live on the island. She and her husband helped raise money and aid after Hurricane Maria.

“The experience we had with Maria; it actually puts us all like in a big alert,” she said. “Like, when these storms start forming, you have to get ready, be prepared, because you really don’t know at the end how long it’s going to turn out to be.”

There are no plans to start raising money or aid just yet. They still need to see what the need is going to look like, but Vazquez is confident that when the time comes, San Antonio will step up, just like they did for Maria.

“Not just Puerto Rican people got together, it was actually the whole city started coming together and donating,” said Vazquez. “It was a very big support here in the city of San Antonio for Puerto Rico for Hurricane Maria.”