As power, water remains scarce in Puerto Rico, El Centro braces for potential refugees from Hurricane Fiona

LORAIN — While much of Puerto Rico remains without power or potable water in the wake of Hurricane Fiona, staff thousands of miles away at El Centro de Servicios Sociales are waiting to see if families will start to arrive in the International City. After Hurricane Maria struck the island territory in 2017, killing thousands and crippling Puerto Rico's power grid and other utilities, El Centro helped about 300 families relocate to Lorain. Now, it's watching news reports to see if another influx of refugees will come to the city. "I think we will get people," Executive Director Victor Leandry said. "I'm not sure how many or how fast." Hurricane Fiona made landfall along the territory's southern coast Sunday, strengthening to a Category 4 on Wednesday before moving toward the Dominican Republic. Private company Luma Energy, which distributes power in Puerto Rico, said crews faced "numerous obstacles" to restoring service to the largely blacked-out island, The Associated Press reported. The company, which took over the utility in 2021, has been publicly criticized after outages forced businesses to close and left one of the island's largest hospitals without power earlier this year. Water filtration and distribution were also affected by the storm, which dumped upwards of 30 inches of rain in a 72-hour period on the southeast part of the island. A public health emergency was declared Wednesday, following an emergency declaration declared Sept. 17 from the then-Tropical Storm Fiona. Some filtration plants are also not operating at capacity because they are not connected to generators, Puerto Rican newspaper Primera Hora reported Wednesday. Flash flooding rocked south-central parts of the island, according to the National Weather Service and The Associated Press, with flooding reaching historic levels and forcing evacuations or rescues across the territory. Mountainous terrain, coupled with the already saturated ground, created mudslides that toppled houses and bridges, Leandry said. "Even though the hurricane was not as fast as Maria, it did a lot of damage that people were not expecting," he said. Anaeli Ayala, who came to Lorain after Hurricane Maria and was eventually hired by El Centro after accessing its services, added that even before Hurricane Fiona hit, it had been raining for two weeks — much like Maria five years prior. Between Hurricane Irma making landfall, and Hurricane Maria hitting the island, Ayala was without power, she said. Hurricane season runs from June to November, with some of the strongest storms moving through in August, September and October, Ayala said. The infrastructure was also still weakened from Hurricane Maria, Leandry and Ayala said — many Puerto Ricans have learned to live with rolling blackouts even in the more than 100-degree heat. "I'm happy we have an amazing staff here, so they're always looking and trying to be prepared for what is coming our way," Leandry said. "We had an emergency meeting here at El Centro just to talk about how we're going to prepare ourselves based on what we learned from the last time." Those lessons learned include infrastructure now in place for Ukrainian refugees coming to the county — connections with health care providers and school districts, as well as regular resource fairs held in El Centro's offices based on lessons learned after the sudden influx from Hurricane Maria. In the meantime, El Centro staff watch news reports and await refugees who may or may not come, while keeping in contact with affiliate social service agencies. "People prepare now for (hurricanes) … this is an example, this was a warning," Leandry said. "They get another Category 1 in the next few days … in the next few weeks, forget it." The Associated Press contributed to this report. Contact Carissa Woytach at (440) 329-7245 or cwoytach@chroniclet.com.