They were still rebuilding 5 years after Hurricane Maria. Then Fiona hit.

Puerto Ricans have learned to fend for themselves while waiting for roads, bridges and buildings to be repaired.

By
September 20, 2022 at 3:00 a.m. EDT
View of the southeastern coast of the island, where Hurricane Maria made landfall, as seen on Sept. 14, 2022. (Erika P. Rodriguez for The Washington Post)

Hurricane Maria cleaved Puerto Rican memory. There was one kind of life before the tempest. And an entirely different life that emerged in its wake. Un antes y un después.

Before the storm, the Caribbean island archipelago was teetering economically and unraveling politically. In the five years since, there have been ongoing blackouts, protests, earthquakes and a global pandemic. Puerto Ricans have moved from powerlessness to precarity.