A pregnant woman shares the horror as Hurricane Fiona destroys her home in Puerto Rico

The first thing Clean Gosino thought of when the water crept into her house on Sunday night was her unborn daughter.

In her seventh month of pregnancy, the 29-year-old, who lives with her husband in Salinas, on Puerto Rico’s southern coast, was used to preparing for hurricane season — especially since the island had not yet fully recovered from the devastating Hurricane Maria five years ago. But Gosino told the Daily Beast that she finally got everything ready before her due date in November and was overwhelmed by the prospect of losing their home and property to Fiona.

“My husband and I were inside the house when it happened. It started as soon as the water got into the house, and my husband was trying to empty it with a bucket to try to stop him from grabbing it,” Gosino told the Daily Beast on Wednesday via text message, noting that she still couldn’t that. Making calls due to intermittent cellular service and minimal power on the island. “Then he went outside to try to stop him from getting in. And when he came inside, the mudslide happened – where he was standing before.”

Gosino said that as the then Category 1 storm continued to ravage the small island, hitting her home with torrential rain and wind, her 28-year-old husband was “trying to run around the house clutching whatever he could to put him on higher ground in an attempt to to save some of them.” In the end, they were forced to leave their home in the middle of the night “with only the clothes on our backs and our ID cards, not knowing what we’re going back to.”

When they finally came back, they found their house had partially collapsed and was completely covered in mud. Many rooms were flooded with inches of water and large pieces of dirt piled up on the side of their house from the mudslide.

Images courtesy of Kelene Jusino

The expectant mother is one of thousands of Puerto Ricans struggling to rebuild their lives after Hurricane Fiona devastated the archipelago last week, bringing up to 32 inches of rain, winds of more than 100 mph, and mudslides that have so far left four dead. least, the FEMA said. The Category 4 storm is now heading north toward Bermuda and parallel to the United States.

Paying constant devastation in Puerto Rico US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on Wednesday To declare a public health emergency on the island. The announcement comes after Biden authorized the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the Department of Homeland Security to coordinate relief efforts.

HHS has dispatched a 15-man “Health and Medicine” task force to Puerto Rico, along with 10 “Incident Management Team” personnel, Agency announced. They will work alongside other emergency responders to “identify additional federal public health and medical resources, if any, that can be made available to assist the Territory in responding to the hurricane.”

Images courtesy of Kelene Jusino

Biden is expected to be briefed Thursday afternoon by Puerto Rican Governor Pedro Pierluisi on the restoration status of the island. Pierluisy chirp That 78 municipalities have already received assistance through Biden’s major disaster declaration and his office is working with mayors to ensure residents receive assistance as recovery efforts continue.

“I have approved the expedited declaration of major disasters in Puerto Rico in the wake of the devastation caused by Hurricane Fiona,” Biden Tweet on Thursday. “I will continue to ensure that the full strength of the federal government is mobilized to support the people of Puerto Rico.”

So far, at least four people in Puerto Rico have died from Fiona, including a A 70-year-old man was burned to death When gasoline was poured into a generator while it was running, according to the Associated Press. In a second horrific incident, a A 58-year-old man died after being swept away by a river Swelled by torrential rain.

For Giuseno, knowing that she and her husband survived the devastating storm is enough to help her through the process of trying to rebuild their lives before she is expected to give birth in November. Rebecca Aponte, Jusino’s childhood friend who launched a GoFundMe campaign on her behalf, She told the Daily Beast that she was “optimistic about the future even though they lost a lot of their holdings.

“The community has really come through with personal support and at a distance,” added Aponte, who also has a family in Puerto Rico.

Images courtesy of Kelene Jusino

The expectant mother indicated that most of their focus now was trying to save the remains of their destroyed home from the mudslide. She and her husband have been staying for two years with relatives nearby and neighbors help them “clean the mud from inside our house and clean the inside”.

“We are fortunate that despite all this, it has not been a more catastrophic event, we have our health, and we are still eagerly awaiting our baby girl in November,” she added. We know that some tough days lie ahead so that we can fully recover from this. However, we are at peace as we know we will get through it. We’ll do it for our baby.”



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