Weeks after storm, battered island of Vieques gets medical attention
Source: San Antonio Express-News
By Lisa KrantzOctober 8, 2017 Updated: October 9, 2017 9:02am
Miriam Sobá Peterson arrived by ferry on the island of Vieques with a red rubber clown nose around her neck — every time she became emotional thinking about the devastation she might find, she would slip it over her own nose to entertain passengers and colleagues, using laughter to hold back tears.
It had taken almost two weeks from the time Hurricane Maria struck on Sept. 20 to finally confirm that her family on Vieques had survived. Sobá Peterson, who had lived there 44 of her 48 years, knows hurricanes. She lost her home to surging seawater vacuumed up by Hurricane Hugo in 1989, a storm now referenced by Puerto Ricans when they talk about Maria being the worst they have ever seen.
Sobá Peterson now lives in San Juan, working as a counselor in private practice, and early Friday was with 27 other area medical professionals journeying to Vieques, hard hit and still cut off from most communication. Soon she would see her family.
The group brought two trucks packed with medical supplies on the eight-mile, 75-minute ride from the port of Fajardo, not sure what they would find. Shaykarie Tirado, a nursing student, put her arm around Sobá Peterson to comfort her as they neared the docks of Isabel II. The past two weeks together made them “feel like a family,” she said.
Read more: http://www.expressnews.com/news/local/article/Weeks-after-storm-battered-island-of-Vieques-12262314.php
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