One year ago, Alfredo Ortiz crowded into a windowless closet with his parents, sister and dog while Hurricane Maria pounded against their home in Cayey, Puerto Rico.
Water seeped in through cracks in the roof and cascaded down their staircase like a waterfall, he said. The wind lifted up the 600-gallon water tank connected to his home and banged it against the roof above their closet.
If the roof gave out, the tank would have landed on his family.
Ortiz and his family waded through knee-high water to get food from the kitchen. That was when the front door blew in.
A year later, Ortiz, an 18-year-old UF philosophy freshman, stood in a circle with about 15 other students Thursday afternoon in the middle of dozens of Puerto Rican flags planted on Plaza of the Americas.
The Hare Krishnas stopped playing music while the students stood for a minute of silence, Marrero said. The students continued to hold hands while they spoke about how the hurricane affected them and their families.
Unión de Estudiantes Puertorriqueños Activos, the Puerto Rican UF student group, held a book drive to commemorate the one-year anniversary of when the hurricane made landfall in Puerto Rico.
The books will be donated to help Christian Gonzalez, a 17-year-old Puerto Rican high school student, open a new library in Arecibo, Puerto Rico, said Jesse Cosme, a 30-year-old UF sustainable development practice graduate student.
“I always wish that we could do more, but this is a very positive drop in the bucket,” Cosme said.
The group set up a tent to collect the books from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m., said Leyda Marrero, an 18-year-old UF biomedical engineering sophomore and the group’s vice president.
Spanish-language books are preferred, but the group is accepting books in all languages, Marrero said. The goal is to collect about 200 books to send to Arecibo by December.
“Hopefully that’ll be our Christmas gift to Puerto Rico.” Marrero said.
Collection boxes are available in La Salita in the Reitz Union, which is in the Multicultural and Diversity Affairs suite, the UF Law School and the UF Center for Latin American Studies, Marrero said. Students can continue to donate until Tuesday according to the group’s Facebook page.
The group has collected over 75 books since Monday, Marrero said.
Marrero remembered when she finally heard back from her family after two weeks of silence.
While studying in Newell Hall, she got a text saying her family was safe. She burst into tears of relief.
Marrero said it does not feel like a year has passed.
“There are lives that will never come back,” she said. “The feeling is still there.”
Contact Amanda Rosa at arosa@alligator.org and follow her on Twitter at @AmandaNicRosa
Puerto Rican flags planted on the Plaza of the Americas in the shape of “PR” honored the victims of Hurricane Maria who died on the island on the anniversary of the hurricane. Unión de Estudiantes Puertorriqueños Activos, the Puerto Rican UF student group under the umbrella of Hispanic Student Association, collected books to send to a library and signed a poster offering words of hope to those still affected.
