Viewpoints

After Hurricane, Teens Build New Lives in NY

By Marcos De Paula

Staff writer

After Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico, high school students Nestor Ortiz, 17, and Abdiel Miranda, 19, moved to New York City with their families. In their new city, life has been full of surprises and hardships.

“It was a blessing,” Ortiz said recalling his thoughts when he first landed in New York on Oct. 30, 2017.

“There were so many emotions,” Miranda said, in Spanish. He arrived in New York a few days after Ortiz, on Nov. 3.

Ortiz and Miranda were among tens of thousands of Puerto Ricans who left the island after the hurricane. Some, including those two teens, who’ve since become friends, wound up in shelters run by the Department of Homeland Security’s Prevention Assistance and Temporary Housing.

The choice to leave was not an easy one for Miranda. He grew up in Caguas, 16 miles outside of San Juan, the capital city. His family had taken all the necessary precautions in anticipation of Hurricane Irma, which passed north of Puerto Rico two weeks before Maria hit. The full force of that second hurricane caught them off guard.

“The power went off, the water. There was no food … The cars, the animals, the people were flying. They were swept off by the hurricane,” Miranda said, in Spanish. “There were huge floods, wooden houses were destroyed, and there was no medical care. All of that created a panic.”

The Mirandas’ home was not destroyed, though its exterior paint and back terrace were stripped away. The biggest worry is that his mother’s job, selling insurance, disappeared. . “There was no work, there was no money,” he said.

Ortiz, who played high school basketball in his hometown of Canóvanas, on the island’s northwest coast, spent the hurricane in the house of one of his stepmother’s friends. When he returned to his own house, it had been destroyed.

“We went to the house to see if anything was left and we discovered that people were stealing from us … We lost everything in our house,” he said.

So, Ortiz’s father ,moved to New York in June 2017; his wife and three children arrived in November. Temporarily, the lived in an apartment in the Bronx. Then, from Nov. 5, 2017 until March 24, 2018, the whole family lived in a shelter on 28^th Street in Manhattan. There, they had to share many things with other homeless families.

“The microwave was the problem. We needed to wait a long time [to use it]” said Ortiz, who, during that time, enrolled at Manhattan Academy for Arts and Language.

When Miranda arrived in New York, he spent two days looking for shelter, with his mother. He found himself lost in the city. Still learning to speak better English, he struggled to understand what many people were saying and with getting around on the subway.

They wound up at Travel Inn, temporarily. To him, it seemed, that homeless Puerto Ricans were not a priority for shelter workers who were supposed to help families find housing. “Afro-Americans first. Hispanic people last,” Miranda said, giving his opinion on who seemed to get favored treatment by shelter workers.

His family started receiving food stamps. His mother got a job as a home attendant. After five days in the shelter, he enrolled Manhattan Academy for Arts and Language, where he met Nestor Ortiz. “My mother wanted me to have a great future,” said Miranda, adding that he wants to major in computer and system engineering while in college.

Today, Miranda and his mother live in apartment on the western edge of Midtown; they won the chance to rent it through a lottery.

Ortiz’s family lives on Flatbush Avenue in Brooklyn.

Ortiz wants to finish high school and visit his native Puerto Rico someday. Miranda, who plans to attend New York City College of Technology this fall, also hopes to revisit his homeland.

“My purpose is to work,” Miranda said, “and keep moving forward in life.”