Puerto Rico marks 1 year since Maria with song and sadness
In this Sept. 13, 2018 photo, a girl helps her mother carry donated food and other staples handed out to needy residents by the MARC Ministry, a non-profit charity in Manati, Puerto Rico. Charity workers say the number of needy lining up for food has doubled since the storm, and there are days when they run out of food. (Ramon Espinosa / Associated Press)
In this Sept. 8, 2018 photo, Ramon Alicea Burgos uses a flashlight to read the time on his wall clock in a temporary wooden room he built under the structure of his partially re-built home, unfinished and without electricity due to lack of money, in the mountain town of Barranquitas, Puerto Rico. Burgos, 82, said a local doctor is collecting donations from fellow doctors and patients to help him raise money to finish his home. (Ramon Espinosa / Associated Press)
In this Sept. 9, 2018 photo, Gilberto Cosme Rodriguez takes one of his 10 a day asthma treatments to help him breathe, inside his home still covered with a tarp after FEMA assistance failed to cover the cost of fixing his roof that was torn off by last year's Hurricane Maria in Naranjito, Puerto Rico. Rodriguez, who has one working lung due to pulmonary fibrosis triggered by the use of chemicals when he worked in construction, said every morning he needs treatment to get out of bed. On a pension of $300 dollars, Rodriguez said it's barely enough to buy medicine. “I start the day like a dead person because of this lung problem,” he said. (Ramon Espinosa / Associated Press)
In this Sept. 7, 2018 photo, a woman with her child receives free diapers and shower gel, as she and others line up for food and other donated staples from the MARC Ministry, a non-profit charity in Manati, Puerto Rico. Charity workers say most of the needy who come to them are ill pensioners, seniors, students and the unemployed. (Ramon Espinosa / Associated Press)
In this Sept. 8, 2018 photo, Ramon Alicea Burgos puts his shoes on as he leaves the temporary room he built under his partially re-built home, unfinished for lack of funds, in the mountain town of Barranquitas, Puerto Rico. Burgos lives off $352 a month in welfare and food stamps. A neighbor provides him water. (Ramon Espinosa / Associated Press)
In this Sept. 8, 2018 photo, Ramon Alicea Burgos washes a plate under his partially rebuilt home, unfinished for lack of funds in the mountain town of Barranquitas, Puerto Rico. Burgos, 82, said he does not want to go to a retirement home for seniors, adding that he’s strong and his father lived to be 106. (Ramon Espinosa / Associated Press)
In this Sept. 7, 2018 photo, Elia de Jesus Acebedo waits in line for donated food and other basic goods from the MARC Ministry, a non-profit charity in Manati, Puerto Rico. Acebedo, 67, said she and her sister rented a home that was destroyed by Hurricane Maria one year go, leaving them with nothing. (Ramon Espinosa / Associated Press)
Clapping and raising their hands to the sky, hundreds of people clad in white gathered at an 18th-century fort in the Puerto Rican capital on Thursday to remember the thousands who died in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria as the U.S. territory struggles to recover one year after the Category 4 storm hit.
Clapping and raising their hands to the sky, hundreds of people clad in white gathered at an 18th-century fort in the Puerto Rican capital on Thursday to remember the thousands who died in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria as the U.S. territory struggles to recover one year after the Category 4 storm hit.