Chapter 9 Spotlight: A Just Recovery for Puerto Rico

Just two months after Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico in September 2017, Elizabeth Yeampierre returned to the home of her ancestors. “I went with a really heavy heart,” she said of her return to Puerto Rico. “My heart literally hurt.” The devastation was excruciating to see—neighborhoods completely destroyed, the grief of widespread death, the struggle to clear the wreckage and rebuild without electricity, food, running water, or supplies. “It was like a chapter out of Octavia Butler’s...