Merrill Lipowsky is a former member of Congregation Beth El Binah in Dallas who now lives in San Juan. Here’s her account of living through Hurricane Maria as she posted it on Facebook. We haven’t heard from her since Friday, Sept. 22.
Sept. 20, 4:10 a.m.
It is not yet 4 a.m. Maria is close on our heels. The brand new hurricane impact windows are leaking like jet sprays. The ocean facing windows especially, have towels beneath them, that need to be changed every 15 to 20 minutes, put through the spin cycle of the washing machine, before they can be put in the dryer. I’m talking about those oversized beach towels that several can lie on at a time.
But despite the towels there is at least an inch or more of standing water that needs to be mopped every few minutes. And Maria is still miles away. Currently winds are blowing at 165 mph. I hope that everyone has said their prayers for us and everyone else here. We lost power hours ago, fortunately the generator kicked in a few minutes later. More to follow…
Sept. 20, 6:30 a.m.
Almost 6:30 a.m. Water is coming through the windows faster than they can be towel dried or mopped. John has done more than humanly possible, until now, and needs some rest. More than an inch of standing water in several rooms and Maria has yet to land. Wind gusts are approximately 80 mph.
The bed which is several feet from the windows is moving like quarters have been used to vibrate it. It is now getting light and the winds are slowing slightly which can only mean Maria is soon to rear her ugly face. Stay tuned for more…
Sept. 20, 2:35 p.m.
It is approximately 2 p.m. and Maria has left the house. She knocked out TV service in the early morning hours, leaving us without knowledge of life outside of our apartment. When daylight broke, you could only then bear witness to the cause of the endless sounds of damage that was heard throughout the night.
Water intruded through almost every window and wall, leaving inches of rain through the apartment. First only the ocean facing side was affected, but once the eye came, the wind shifted and nothing was off limits to Maria. My husband put a valiant effort trying to keep the rain from our bedroom, and in the end he just gave in to his exhaustion.
While Maria may have left the island, the leftover winds are still breaking things and the sounds are so ominous.
We have generator power but no TV so we rely on people in the states to let us know what is going on.
To all of you that have called us or posted to ask about us, we thank you so very much for your love and concern. It has kept us going in the scariest, darkest hours of the never to be forgotten storm, Maria…
Sept. 22, 6:03 a.m.
Hi everyone. It is the morning of day number 3 since Maria. We are lucky to have generator power, but for how long is anyone’s guess. There are six other people here using the power and other residents are slowly returning home because we are the lucky few with a generator still operable. We are cut off from the rest of the island. Only AT&T has a tower so again, we are lucky.
Also, we live five minutes from the capital so we might get services before the outlying towns that were flooded and had mud slides. That is were most of the workers live so the island is crippled. There is no telling when normalcy will begin. There are no standing trees as far as we can see.
But we are together and safe for now. There is a mandatory 6 p.m. curfew as there are no street lamps or traffic lights or anywhere to go as nothing is open and running yet as we learned from our neighbors.
We are grateful to all of you for your concern, love and support.