PV
Nilda J Davila-Marcano
September 16, the beginning of Hurricane Maria
—Hello Mama, I am here, tell me the grocery list.
—Oh!! My daughter!
—What’s happening Mama?
—She is growing and getting stronger!!!
—Maria?
—Yes, Maria!! Maria!!
—Keep calm, Mama, keep calm!!
—Your brother called and told me that the Children’s Hospital has quartered his personnel, and he is already there.
—Perfect, he will be very near our apartment.
The repetition of Maria! Maria! never sounded to me like the song from West Side Story. Maria! Maria! will never sound to me like a memory of love. Maria! Maria! was my wake-up call for the coming long, humid, hard weeks of 2017.
Tuesday, September 19, 2017 3:30 pm
—Nildy, Nildy, power is gone, no power…
—Keep calm, Mama, keep calm!
Darkest nights around Mama and my KanChildren (my two dogs), with the sound of the fiercely powerful winds brought to my mind Wuthering Heights. Heathcliff, hearing the name Catherine in the wind.
Wednesday, September 20, 2017 6:15 am
Powerful CAT 5 Hurricane Maria made its Hollywood Star entrance. “Maria! Maria!” caused widespread destruction and disorganization unparalleled by any other hurricane in the Caribbean or the Americas.
According to the statement released by the National Hurricane Center, and speaking from a meteorological standpoint, “Maria! Maria!” was nearly the worst-case scenario for Puerto Rico. “Maria! Maria!” made a direct hit on Puerto Rico, “Lashing the island for longer than 30 hours.” Yes, 30 hours. Meteorologists at the National Center for Atmosphere Research said: “It was as if a 50-60-mile-wide tornado raged across Puerto Rico like a buzz saw.”
This was a very stylish dinner. First course: The powerful winds (all kinds of debris flying over Puerto Rico). Second course: Floods and mudslides. The dimensions of my little island are 110 miles west to east and 35 miles north to south. Destruction all over. Third course, a tart dessert: Total destruction of the electrical grid of the island.
Yes, Magic was destroyed. Along with it, the communications systems went down. Another part of the Magic—no internet. The Perfect Storm. Not the movie; I would have preferred to die in Mr. Clooney’s arms!
All my neighbors at the condo were in the same “boat”—windows blown away, a lot of water inside the apartments and no electricity. We received news through the radio waves, but not good news. The radio was our new Renovated Magic. Mama and I got information about the conditions of the hospitals, in particular, the Children’s Hospital where my brother works. Not good!
Thursday, September 28, 2017: Just after Hurricane Maria
Seventy-two hours after Maria left the island totally desolated and destroyed, my beloved one, Jose Luis, my brother, my sister, and her husband reached my apartment. Jose Luis came by bicycle, no car—impossible to use it in the streets or avenues due to the debris. My brother walked, the hospital not far from my apartment. My sister and her husband took three hours to reach my apartment, they came in a pickup truck. It was more than a week and a half when I finally saw my loved ones.
My brother told us that PV man deployed to Puerto Rico special PV systems for the Children’s Hospital.
Questions–onboard!
––Ezequiel, what you are talking about?
––Who…what…PV man, PV system?
––My dear sisters, Mr. Elon Musk.
––Oh! And PV systems?
––Photovoltaics—rooftop solar panel systems with batteries for warehousing energy.
––Excellent for the children and parents at the hospital!
––That is what we need here in this condo, please I need to meet the crew! Ja, ja, ja!
––I will be with the PV crew helping them with translation services and training.
––Great!
––More good news, Poblado Casa Pueblo’s power is back, and it is helping in the mountain area.
––Really great! Casa Pueblo, they have been a totally solar powered microgrid community since 1999.
Thursday, October 5, 2019: One week after Hurricane Maria
A week later, before the curfew call, my brother called and asked me to pick him up at the hospital. Borealis and Polaris were here in Puerto Rico—the tropics, all over the place! The Children’s Hospital turned on the Magic, glowing through the darkness. It is time to change the way we see magic: PVs.
Returning to my apartment, my thoughts were only for Casa Pueblo: how much this little community helped get independence from oil and gas using PVs. I thought about how PV man helped the Children’s Hospital with PVs and pondered how different our lives could have been if we had PVs lighting our homes.
At my home, the sight was the same—deep darkness, a profound shade of dusk, only interrupted with little sparkling and a dull noise from emergency power generators. Seeing my two KanChildren dying of pneumonia, my painful loss and moments of rage—seeing part of my life going away with my beloved pets.
Thursday, October 19, 2019: Two weeks after Hurricane Maria
Two weeks later, I found an opportunity to work with the USPS and that was my turning point. After eight months without modern magic, “Maria! Maria!” had taken a good deal from me; it took a good chunk out of all of us.
Tuesday, March 30, 2020
New York Central Park is providing hospital beds for COVID-19 patients; their electricity is
coming from PVs. Will they be used for more in the months to come? How different will our lives be in the aftermath? Your turn to answer.