Six months after Hurricane Maria, a growing number of areas of Puerto Rico are doing better.
- Guayama was near Hurricane Maria's Puerto Rico landfall
- People in city, nearby towns still live without reliable electricity
- Guayama Convention Center serves as a busy FEMA center
But in the southeast part of the island, just a couple of towns over from Hurricane Maria's entry point, the story is much different.
In Guayama, near where Maria began its destructive path across Puerto Rico, power insulators lay on the ground as horses run free nearby. A helicopter hoists metal as it helps with line repairs.
Nearby, the Guayama Convention Center, still with blown-out windows, has been turned into a busy Federal Emergency Management Agency center.
No FEMA representatives wanted to speak on camera. But Eduardo Cintron, the mayor of Guayama, tells us that more needs to be done.
“Este es el area norte de Guayama," he says. "So no power here, and no power here..." we confirm with him.
On a multicolored map, Cintron shows us three of the worst affected areas, still without electricity more than six months after the hurricane.
The mayor continues to look at a map and call out the names of towns still without power, "Machete, Interamericana..."It was hot inside the FEMA center. Cintron says he has begged for cooler conditions inside, only to be denied.
In Spanish, he says that "there is no A/C. I have asked FEMA, so their staff could be comfortable, the people coming here to seek help would be comfortable, poor people coming here, fanning themselves," he said. "I don't know how FEMA works."
The mayor's staff and city personnel are also here because city hall suffered roof damage.
Traffic lights, like those in many other parts of the island, are still out.
Cintron said he doesn't know when they'll be fixed.