Guayanilla – The residents of the El Faro community, in Guayanilla, they say that, behind the earthquake Last January 7, the sea level rose to the point where it flooded its yards and it was not until this week that the water began to recede.
It was not a sudden rise, they say. Rather, water penetrated over the days, in which several aftershocks were also reported.
This afternoon, when El Nuevo Día visited the community, water was observed in some courtyards and below residences erected on blocks or piles. Other areas were engulfed and the passage was impossible. There were not many neighbors, as most have evicted their homes.
“You can’t live here anymore. The sea is coming out every so often. I’ve never seen anything like this in life, ”says Fernando Rodríguez Padilla, 80, who is born and raised in El Faro.
His wife, Rosa Julia Maldonado, 73, agrees, and adds: “Never, never had the sea done that. I am with very bad nerves and, every time I tremble, I hide beside the bed. ”
Rodríguez Padilla, who accompanied this newspaper on a tour of the community, states that the sea “ate” a pier used by several fishermen – like him – and that a strip of sand disappeared next to some mangroves that are now flooded.
“(With the earthquake), the ground went down a little and became even with the sea. You can’t even walk here anymore. This was the most beautiful thing in Guayanilla and it was damaged. You can no longer live here. I am crazy to go, but I have nowhere, ”laments the octogenarian.
Another who is looking for a new home is Rose Vélez, 57, whose patio was flooded when water came from a nearby wetland. In addition, the structure cracked the balcony, part of the floor and several walls.
“I’ve been living here all my life and the tide had increased, but not as much as after the earthquake. That wetland, as the Department of Natural Resources (and Environmental) calls it dry during a time of the year, but it had never come here, ”says Vélez, who was in his home in passing, since he spent three weeks staying at the house of relatives.
For his part, William Pérez, 38, says that, although seawater flooded his patio and reached almost to his knees, he does not leave El Faro.
“I have no fear. I have no plan to go anywhere because this is a paradise, ”he says.
“The water rose, but it has dropped a little. As it is now (the level) is quite normal. I started to make a bridge (of dirt in the courtyard) because, every time I was going to leave (from the house), my feet were packed. I had to make the bridge to get out of the house without getting mad, ”says the man, who lives alone.
During the tour, residents identified small mounds of garbage and vegetative material that formed after the flood. “All that was brought by the sea,” says Pérez.
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