From the lobby of a hotel on the outskirts of Boston, Jesenia Flores fills out an online job application, hoping to find work that will get her small family back to normal for the first time since Hurricane Maria flooded their home in Puerto Rico.
The hotel along the interstate has been a refuge for her and other Puerto Rican families, but it’s frustrating “to be cooped up here without knowing what will happen to us,” the 19-year-old mother said as her 15-month-old son squirmed and cried in her lap.
So far, FEMA has provided $113 million in rental assistance to 129,000 people who were in Maria’s path across the island. Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rossello has asked for the deadline to be extended to May 14, and the government says it is reviewing the request. Nonprofit groups, churches and state and local governments have also provided temporary housing help and other forms of support to the tens of thousands of Puerto Ricans who fled to the mainland in the aftermath of the Sept. 20 storm.
