Table 3 Most commonly applied qualitative codes during Hurricane María with examples, by geographic area

Fear and Anxiety

(Biotic factors)

No. of mentions (%): 78 (2.2%)

“Después cuando el viento empezó había que apagamos el televisor, entonces se fue la luz. Entonces pasamos un susto bien grande porque se cayó un palo que estaba al lado de quenepa y rompió la reja de la casa y pasamos un susto bien grande. La casa se conmovió muchas veces como temblor de tierra. Yo pensaba que la casa se iba a caer del techo y entonces yo decía “¿Dios mío que yo hago aquí?”, entonces pensaba meterme al baño por si acaso pasaba algo, pero ¿y si en el baño se cierra la ventana? ¿Se tranca? Me voy a ahogar. Me va a pasar algo pensaba yo y eso.” [“Later when the wind started, we had to turn off the TV, then the power went out. Then we had a very big scare because a stick that was next to quenepa fell and broke the fence of the house and we had a very big scare. The house shook many times like an earthquake. I thought the house was going to fall off the roof and then I said “My God, what am I doing here?” So I thought I would go to the bathroom just in case something happened, but what if the window is closed in the bathroom? Does it lock up? I’m going to drown. Something is going to happen to me I thought and that”]

No. of mentions (%): 48 (3.4%)

“Si seguía lloviendo. Había muchas teorías de ¿Por qué fue que ocurrió la inundación? La más fuerte que ha sonado es que supuestamente abrieron las puertas del Lago La Plata, las abrieron porque estaba ya en su límite y que no avisaron a nadie, ellos dicen que sí, que prendieron las alarmas de tsunami, pero nadie las escuchó y pues toda esa agua bajó; al haber tantos escombros pues se desbordó el agua y se inundaron todas estas comunidades”.

[“If it kept raining. There were many theories of Why the flood happened. The loudest that has sounded is that they supposedly opened the gates of Lake La Plata, they opened them because it was already at its limit and that they did not warn anyone, they say yes, that they turned on the tsunami alarms, but no one heard them and then all that water went down; As there is so much rubble, the water overflowed and all these communities were flooded.”]

Santurce

No. of mentions (%) 9 (3.3%)

“Sí, cuando, ese momento cuando el árbol le da al carro, que ahí empezamos a escuchar, no sabíamos lo que se escuchaba, verdad? lo que era, pero se escuchaba tan fuerte. Eche yo estaba bien asustada… Yo literal me metí una Benadryl a ver si me dormía, pero los nervios eran tantos que no pude dormir. Fue bien fuerte.”

[“Yes, when, that moment when the tree hits the car, which we started to listen to, we didn’t know what was being heard, right? what it was, but it sounded so loud. Eche I was very scared ... I literally put a Benadryl to see if I fell asleep, but the nerves were so much that I could not sleep. It was very strong.”]

Vieques

No. of mentions (%): 1(0.4%)

“Yo sentí miedo, cuando sentí que la casa se movía.” [“I felt fear, when I felt that the house was moving”]

Isabela

No. of mentions (%): 18 (1.8%)

“Y, cuando pasó el huracán yo estaba refugiada en una iglesia. Resulta que la iglesia es de dos niveles, y la parte de abajo tiene un colegio. Había treinta familias allí. Resulta que, en el paso del huracán, el techo de la iglesia se abrió en dos, y la iglesia se desplomó completamente la parte de arriba. O sea que la experiencia mía fue mas difícil aun, porque tuve que pasar el huracán allí en vivo, que eso fue… teníamos el agua acá arriba. Pensábamos que nos, que nos íbamos a morir, porque esa estructura empezó a temblar. Entonces, no tuvimos ropa algunos por tres días, bueno. La historia es larga.” [“And when the hurricane happened I was sheltering in a church. It turns out that the church is on two levels, and the lower part has a school. We had thirty families there. It turns out that, in the passage of the hurricane, the roof of the church was split in two, and the church completely collapsed on top. In other words, my experience was even more difficult, because I had to go through the hurricane there live, that was ... we had the water up here. We thought that we, that we were going to die, because that structure began to shake. So, we didn’t have any clothes for three days, well. The story is long.”]

No. of mentions(%): 2(0.4%)

Stories about the wind

(Abiotic factors)

No. of mentions (%): 49 (1.4%)

“Y no quedó nada, nada de la casa, se llevó la nevera, todo lo que estaba alrededor de la pecera, todo salió volando. Como es como un laberinto, el viento daba regresaba y nos batía porque fue como una máquina de moler y allí fue destrozando todas las casas. Después tú notabas que se terminó, ya en mi casa no estaban los vientos, pero yo veía el resto de viento destrozando las casas. No hubo virazón como antes. En mi casa explotaron las ventanas y se metieron hacia adentro.” [“And there was nothing left, nothing from the house, he took the refrigerator, everything that was around the fish tank, everything flew away. As it is like a labyrinth, the wind would return and beat us because it was like a grinding machine and there it was destroying all the houses. Later you noticed that it was over, the winds were no longer in my house, but I saw the rest of the wind destroying the houses. There was no turn as before. In my house the windows exploded, and they went inside”]

No. of mentions (%): 18 (1.3%)

“Bueno, en mi caso yo estuve agarrando ventanas para que no se abrieran y mi hija, agarraba otra. En mi casa hay una puerta que es como de cristal y a mi mamá le daba miedo que se fuera a salir, así que ella la abrió un poco y se quedó velándola desde lejos que no se fuera a volar. Ella entró en crisis porque el televisor estaba enfrente a esa puerta de cristal, y empezó, “¡Pero mueve la puerta!”, y yo la miro y yo, “Ahora no es la hora, lo siento por ti, sí se va el televisor bye, bye, tv”, pero gracias a Dios no le pasó nada. Si, nos quedamos agarrando las puertas” [“Well, in my case I was grabbing windows so they wouldn’t open and my daughter grabbed another. In my house there is a door that is like glass and my mother was afraid that it would leave, so she opened it a little and kept watching from afar that it would not fly away. She went into a crisis because the TV was in front of that glass door, and she started, “But move the door!”, And I look at her and I, “Now is not the time, I feel sorry for you, yes the TV bye, bye, tv”, but thank God nothing happened to him. Yes, we were holding the doors.”]

No. of mentions (%): 7(2.5%)

“El viento era… Era una furia, era… o sea yo pasé Georges, yo me acuerdo de Hugo. Pero realmente esto fue, esto no se… ni… esto no se compara. No se compara.” [The wind was ... It was a fury, it was ... that is, I passed Georges, I remember Hugo. But really this was, this I don’t know… nor… this doesn’t compare. It does not compare.”]

No. of mentions (%): 3 (1.1%)

“En mi casa el viento se llevó todas las tormenteras que daban para atrás... se las llevó todas, y las tiró para un lado y al otro día amanecieron en la dirección completamente opuesta de donde salieron”. [“In my house the wind carried away all the thunderstorms that were giving backwards ... it took them all, and threw them to one side and the next day they woke up in the completely opposite direction from which they came”]

No. of mentions (%): 17 (1.7%)

“Una ventana que no está para afuera, está dentro de la casa, da para la sala, de un cuarto para la sala, hizo, empezó a sonar así a la una que todavía no había nada y eso me levantó. Después de eso, nada, empiezo con mi esposo a escuchar la radio, y todo y eso era un monstruo sonando cuando empezó el pleno, yo creo que eran como las tres y media de la mañana y eso era un monstruo, realmente tú escuchabas un monstruo, lo que tú escuchabas por las ventanas eso era un monstruo que estaba afuera.” [“A window that is not facing the outside, is inside the house, it opens up to the living room, from a room to the living room, it did, it started to sound like that at one o’clock that there was still nothing and that lifted me. After that, nothing, I started with my husband listening to the radio, and everything and that was a monster sounding when the plenary session began, I think it was like three thirty in the morning if more or less there) And that was a monster, really you heard a monster, what you heard through the windows that was a monster that was outside”]

No. of mentions (%): 4 (0.8%)