Hurricane Fiona

crisis like a hurricane so difficult that presidents usually waive it for a few days to get life-saving supplies delivered.

In the aftermath of Hurricane Fiona in 2022, Puerto Ricans were in desperate need of fuel.

A BP ship full of diesel anchored right offshore was unable to deliver it without presidential approval because of this hundred-year-old, outdated and entirely pointless regulation.

Well, at least it saved the US shipbuilding industry, right? No.

Personally, my favorite way to eat it is cooked into tostones, which are these kind of twice-fried, flattened fritters that are usually made from plantain, but I prefer when they're made out of breadfruit.

I've been to Mariana before, about three years ago, to work on a story about how communities affected by the destruction caused by Hurricane Maria in 2017 and Hurricane Fiona in 2022 were designing their just recovery through bottom-up methods, like a community aqueduct to help ail the neighborhood's decades-long water issues, as well as a community census to know who is the most vulnerable in case of an emergency, and make sure they got help first.

And in a sense, I was back there to cover essentially the same thing, except that this time it was community preparedness through a breadfruit farm that they've planted at La Loma de la Niña Mariana, a kind of community park/rec space.

It's a really serene space, especially when it's empty.

Of the four people that I interviewed for this episode, all of them told me something similar.

And if a breadfruit tree gets stripped of its leaves and its fruits by a storm, it'll probably start sprouting leaves a few weeks after and will probably produce breadfruit next harvest season.

Something similar, although to a lower degree, happened when Hurricane Fiona hit in 2022.

Rosalina explained to me that in the 1920s and 1930s, the US government tried to take down breadfruit trees to grow potatoes, but they didn't take away the roots, so it just sprang back up again.

But the threat is statistically real, and the historical data shows what a hit actually looks like on the ground.

You just look back at September 2022, Hurricane Fiona came ashore on the southeast coast, and the physical damage was immense.

Like over 8,500 homes were damaged.

Exactly.

It'll cost around five to ten thousand dollars and we're gonna have all the gutters replaced too.

The reason is, a while ago, Hurricane Fiona hit and blew our gutters off.

It was terrifying.

In the morning, my husband did a walk around and he saw the gutters in their backyard.

We'll be right back.

And yeah, just before we get to our first caller there, I just wanted to mention, yes, it is the fourth anniversary of Hurricane Fiona and the devastation that caused for our province, particularly the south and southwest coast of the island.

And, uh, I know we had the, um, MHA, uh, Michael Kings on yesterday.

Of course, the MHA for the area was speaking about that reference yesterday, and certainly, uh, wanted to recognize that anniversary today.

So I wanted to take a moment, Brian, to call to chat about the agreement in the House Assembly.

But before I do that, If it's okay, I just wanted to take a moment to, you know, four years tomorrow since Hurricane Fiona hit most parts of the island and a big part of my district, of course.

Certainly four years later, we still think about that.

You know, I'm certainly thinking of the friends and family of the individual that was lost here.