Puerto Rico town struggles with elderly healthcare
Eddie Ortiz and Antonia Morales, right, are living in a hotel after spending a week in a shelter in the town of Lajas, Puerto Rico. The husband and wife, both 83, lost the roof of their home in Hurricane Maria, and water destroyed everything in it.
(Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)
Leohermanijildo Cotte, 96, died because there was no electricity for his oxygen tank during Hurricane Maria.
(Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)
Heriberto Riveiro, 41, passes the gravesite of Leohermanijildo Cotte, who died because there was no electricity for his oxygen tank during Hurricane Maria. In the town of Lajas, on the southwest coast of Puerto Rico, elderly residents are most at risk in the days after the hurricane.
(Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)
Nashka Camila Riveiro, 6, attends the burial of Norma Casiano Rivera. She will be moving to Orlando, Fla., and going to school there.
(Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)
Luz Maria, 78, is on a respirator at the Garden of Eden convalescent home in the town of Lajas. She was at a shelter, but it lost power more than a week ago.
(Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)
The coffin of Norma Casiano Rivera is carried to the gravesite at the Lajas municipal cemetery, where more than five people have been buried since Hurricane Maria.
(Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)
Catalina Melendez Jusino, 91, has been drinking rainwater since Hurricane Maria hit more than 10 days ago. She finally received water donations on Friday.
(Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)
The Perez Funeral Home in the town of Lajas has had more than eight funerals since Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico.
(Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)
In the town of Lajas, on the southwest coast of Puerto Rico, a shipment of water the Federal Emergency Management Agency finally arrived.
(Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)
Hurricane Maria ruined the banana crop in Lajas, a farming community in Puerto Rico’s southwest.
