Awe-ma versus Trau-ma

AI Images by 3t Vakil

In September of 2022, Hurricane Fiona crashed onto the shores of southern Puerto Rico, unleashing a deluge of water that left the land ravaged and transformed. The rains were a relentless assault, causing giant landslides, and ripping a vital bridge from its banks, severing our access to the forest. The river’s blood-red boundaries stretched out like a painter’s canvas, waiting to be filled with new colors, mesmerizing and ever evolving, as the storm wreaked havoc on the land.

The aftermath of the hurricane was a scene of red-clay chaos and destruction, with rivers of clay running down the mountains. Landslides of gargantuan proportions blocked the main roads, and devastated our forest road that led to the broken bridge. The rains poured down for weeks, then months, after the hurricane. The view of the coast from the mountain showed us the enormity of the ripped clay from the mountains. The experience was incredibly traumatic.

Many of us struggled to make sense of what had happened, and the emotional toll of the disaster was palpable in every conversation and interaction, at least on the south side of the island. Despite being a category 1 hurricane, Fiona caused more permanent physical damage to the land than category 4/5 Hurricane Maria did five years ago.