Starkville resident Daria Rodriguez spent two days viewing online images of the destruction Hurricane Maria wrought on her home commonwealth of Puerto Rico — all without hearing from her 10-year-old son, Diego Cerame, who was on the island when the storm hit Sept. 20.

So she cried Sept. 22 when Cerame called her to say he was OK — his father having driven him two hours to the capital city of San Juan, the nearest place they could find cell reception.

“When I first heard the voice of my son, I was trying not to cry, and trying to show him I was fine,” Daria said. “… I was so devastated, me here and him far away. As a mother, you want to be by him all the time.”

When Hurricane Maria made landfall on the U.S. territory, it ripped roofs off buildings, flooded towns and caused the entire island to lose power. Ever since then, communication has been a major obstacle.

The rest of Daria’s family also weathered Maria, as did the family of Daria’s friend, Beatriz Velez. Both women grew up in Puerto Rico — in different cities — but moved to Starkville in June to study veterinary medicine at Mississippi State University. They’ve been tracking news of the island from acquaintances’ social media accounts and marveling at the devastation.

Airman First Class Alberto Becerril, who grew up on Puerto Rico’s northeastern coast and has been at Columbus Air Force Base about five months, has only heard from his family once, just after the hurricane hit.

“(They said) ‘We’re OK. We’re just dealing with a little bit of flooding and we’ll message you later,'” he said. “That was about it.”

His fellow Airman First Class Kiara Rodriguez, also a Puerto Rican native, had slightly better luck when her aunt called her with news about her grandmother, who raised her. Both were safe, though Kiara’s grandmother is running out of her medicine because she can’t get to the hospital.

Kiara hasn’t heard from her paternal grandparents at all.

“They’re in a separate section (of the island),” she said. “… It’s scary, but at the same time, I’m just hoping they’re OK.”

Differing reports

When a Dispatch photographer told Velez she’d visited Puerto Rico a few years ago, Velez pursed her lips and said: “Whatever you enjoyed there is not there anymore.”

Velez has been combing social media and checking in with island newspapers constantly. Her Facebook page is filled with videos and pictures of the devastation — trees uprooted and lying across roads, entire buildings destroyed and vehicles half-submerged in muddy brown water.

“My father called it as if a bomb went (off),” she said. “Trees have no leaves. They’re barren.”

Daria, Velez, Becerril and Kiara all painted the same picture — an island where hospitals and grocery stores are running on generators — if they’re running at all — and where people stand in line for hours to get gas.

Velez’s mother told her Costco employees were only letting 20 people in the store at a time to curtail looting.

Daria’s friend told her some people are breaking into homes to steal gas out of cars. Nearly two weeks after the storm, airports are closed and boxes of supplies are sitting unused in ports, she said.

U.S. media report supplies are still in ports because of the difficulty of accessing some areas and because local truck drivers are not showing up to work — though Velez said a friend told her one truck driver who showed up was told to go back home.

That’s part of the problem, she said — her friends on social media and news sources sometimes say different things. For example, she said, she and Daria don’t know the real death toll. The latest death toll authorities report is 16, but Velez and Daria are afraid that estimate is low.

Kiara said she has faith federal and local authorities will respond appropriately and rebuild the island, but Velez and Daria are less confident. They think Washington’s response has been slow — such as President Donald Trump waiting more than a week to lift the Jones Act, which prevents international ships from delivering goods to U.S. ports.

Velez also pointed out one federal official called Puerto Rico a “good news story” because everyone was coming together to clean up and rebuild.

Velez and Daria both said there are positive things to come out of the story — communities are coming together and even children are helping clean up — but they’re afraid the official’s comments downplayed the severity of what their home is going through.

“People are trying to rebuild Puerto Rico,” Velez said. “But it’s devastating, it’s bad. I don’t understand what else we can say (to describe it). Of course we’re coming together. That’s what we do.”

Helping fellow humans

None of the four — Daria, Velez, Becerril or Kiara — know when they’ll see family in Puerto Rico again. Kiara is trying to arrange for her grandmother to join her in Mississippi so she can get access to medical care.

Daria said she’s determined to get to Puerto Rico in December at the absolute latest — and when she comes back, she plans to have her son with her.

And while none of them know of local efforts to raise money for Puerto Rico, Kiara recommended donating to the Red Cross while Velez recommended local nonprofits Siembra Vida and Hunger Corp.

She said she believes Americans, once aware of how serious the devastation of her home is, will want to find ways to help rebuild.

“It’s about helping people,” she said. “It’s about coming together. It’s about putting on a united front. It’s about helping your fellow humans.”