While many Puerto Ricans have reportedly yet to see a U.S. soldier or an aid truck, residents are beginning to rebuild after Hurricane Maria.
That’s according to Burnaby resident Miguel Rivero who has just returned from the devastated island.
Rivero, who originally hails from the U.S. island territory, had been called back by his family to attend his father’s funeral.
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Just two days after burying his father, Rivero found himself with an unintended front-row seat to what he calls the worst storm he’s ever seen.
“I’ve never seen anything like it. Hurricanes usually last for four or five hours tops, and you get some wind… but this hurricane was literally the whole day, 24 hours.”
Rivero said the winds were so strong they knocked over a nearly 2,300 litre water cistern on his family’s property in the southern city of Ponce.
Those winds also badly damaged the airport, and it wasn’t until Sunday, more than a week after his scheduled flight, that he was able to get home.
In his unplanned extra week on the island, Rivero said he got a first hand look at the cleanup effort — which he said has involved mayors and government officials hitting the streets themselves to try and get things up and running.
“We’re talking about people that are normally assigned office work, they’re working with the brigades, literally pulling branches, clearing obstacles, because the quicker they can open those byways, the quicker help can get in.”
WATCH: Burnaby man gets firsthand look at Puerto Rico storm damage
He said the basics of water, food and shelter are generally available, but infrastructure remains in many cases inoperable.
That includes key functions of hospitals, Rivero said, and crucially, communication – with just a quarter of the island getting cell phone reception.
But among the devastation, Rivero said he watched the aftermath bring out the best in his neighbours too.
“Somebody made a lot of chicken and gave it away to the neighbours, and then another one made a big pot of rice so basically everyone feeds each other,” he said.
“So it’s pretty beautiful how in the middle of a chaos we help each other out, that was quite a sight actually.”
But he said focusing too much on the president’s comments would only serve as a distraction from the real work of responding to the current emergency.
The death toll from Hurricane Maria was revised upward on Tuesday to 34.