Fiona's floods devastated their homes. These residents are ready to start over

SALINAS, Puerto Rico — In Puerto Rico, perhaps no community saw more devastation from Hurricane Fiona than Salinas, a small city on the island's southern coast. More than 30 inches of rain inundated the area, causing a river to flood, and all but wiping out an entire neighborhood, Villa Esperanza. It's a quiet community nestled between the beach and a river, Rio Nigua.

When Hurricane Fiona hit Sunday, Diana Diaz says, things changed dramatically. "The water just kept rising and rising and rising," she says. "It went up about four feet." Only about an inch of water got into her home, mostly leaving her with a mess. But she says she was blessed. Many other homes were totally flooded, some destroyed.

Days after the storm, local residents aren't waiting for help from the authorities. They're using bulldozers and backhoes to clear debris and rubble left in Fiona's wake.

Roberto Perez was home when the storm hit. He says a foot of water ruined everything. A muddy truck with a broken windshield blocks one of the streets. In Spanish, Perez says, "All these trucks were moved by the river. They weren't here. You can see all the destruction how they were picked up."

Throughout the neighborhood, the level of destruction is stunning. There are tree limbs, whole trees, aluminum siding, boats, even parts of houses that have been picked up by the river and deposited.

At the end of the street, a house that had been overlooking the Nigua River has now collapsed. Perez says the ground under it was washed away by the floodwaters. "The soil here is sand, it's topsoil," he says. "So the water just came in and it gave way pretty easily."

Residents say there's been minor flooding before, but nothing like this. Perez says the problem is a bridge that acted as a dam, trapping debris, forcing the river out of its banks. "The river was blocked," he says. "It just kind of exploded and that's why we saw the destruction here."

There's finger-pointing now about who's to blame for the level of destruction in Villa Esperanza. Some officials say residents shouldn't have built in an area so close to the river.

Diana Diaz says most residents have permits to build here. She says many officials knew there was a problem. She believes the river needs to be converted into a canal that can be easily maintained. "It's something we've been after the mayor about for years," Diaz says. "It just doesn't happen."

Villa Esperanza wasn't the only neighborhood that flooded in Salinas. Residents from several other neighborhoods had to evacuate because of flooding caused by Fiona's extreme rainfall. Many are staying at a local high school that's now serving as a shelter.

In the days since the storm, bingo has become a popular pastime at the shelter. Many of the residents are elderly and unsure when they'll be able to return to their waterlogged homes. Pedro Rivera, one of those at the shelter takes out his phone to show me an aerial photo of his house in the La Playa neighborhood during the flood. Every home on his block is surrounded by floodwaters.

Rivera says, for he and his wife, going back to their home after the flood was tough. "We lost the car, we lost clothes, we lost everything, everything," he says. "And my wife, when we got to the house, she was crying."

But Rivera says he and his wife are ready to start over again. With help from the local government, they'll be moving into a temporary apartment that they're hoping may become permanent. [Copyright 2022 NPR]