After Maria, locals struggle to reach family in Puerto Rico

September 20, 2017 11:46 pm

By John Krinjak

Email: jkrinjak@abc6.com

Twitter: @johnkrinjakABC6

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WLNE) — Tanya Guilfoile spent 24 years living in Puerto Rico before attending grad school at Boston College. She currently lives in Dallas but was traveling back to Providence Wednesday night.

Speaking with us on a layover, Guilfoile says seeing the images from the place where she grew up has her on edge.

"Those places that were very familiar to me, I’ve seen images and I don’t recognize them anymore. it has been really tough for me to even pinpoint what part of the island is what because everything is unrecognizable," said Guilfoile.

Guilfoile thankfully has been in contact with her mother near San Juan.

"She said we don’t even have access to the news. I started crying because it was like how am I going to tell my mom that the rivers have come out of their banks and they have flooded towns and thousands of people have lost their home," said Guilfoile.

But most are still without power or phone service, because of toppled cell towers.

"There are still some family members we haven’t heard from, my grandmother and some of my aunts and uncles, we haven’t heard from them almost in 24 hours, and that has been the worst part," said Guilfoile.

Guilfoile says given that Irma didn’t pack a huge punch, many failed to heed the warnings about Maria.

"A lot of people in Puerto Rico were just like we prepared so much for nothing, now we were preparing for the real deal and I bet a lot of people didn’t take it as seriously," said Guilfoile.

Now it’s a waiting game as she hopes to hear from loved ones soon.

"My heart is there, my family is there and it’s been a pretty hard time," said Guilfoile.