On September 20th, 2017, a catastrophe impacted the island of Puerto Rico.This natural disaster known as Hurricane Maria impacted thousands of people on the island in a devastating way; particularly impacting those who once resided there but now no longer do.

Here, at the University of Dayton, many students who call the island of Puerto Rico their home were heavily impacted by this disastrous storm. Though they reside here in the states, the unknowingness of their families and loved ones affected on the island, was something heavily felt throughout campus, even to this very day.

Through this new project, I aim to provide a platform for those students who were impacted. I hope that by seeing their images and reading their stories, those who also reside within the University of Dayton campus and beyond can react and feel the emotions of that horrific day from those individuals who were personally impacted.

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Maria D., a senior criminal justice studies major at the University of Dayton agreed to articulate her memories from Hurricane Maria.

Read her statements below:

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"Puerto Rico is heaven."

"Hurricane Maria occurred on Wednesday, September 20th. I remember that a few weekends before it was family weekend (at UD) and both my aunt and my grandmother came to visit me.

On a certain day I was talking to my mom on the phone and she said that the island was on alert because a hurricane was predicted to go through the island.

At first I didn’t think much of it because we’ve been lucky for several years and nothing has happened; Irma was predicted to hit the island, but thankfully it deviated and barely touched us."

"I remember feeling scared, nervous, anxious…I didn’t sleep that night at all.

I spoke to my mom on the phone during that day - before anything happened - since Maria hit the island like at 2 a.m. or something - and she said she would call me when it started to get heavy. She didn’t. So, I phone called her and by then all the lines were out.

I tried not to panic, but all I felt was a rollercoaster of emotions that I couldn’t control."

"I was able to contact my uncle the day after because he never lost signal on his phone - I was so happy to hear someone’s voice that we both started to cry.

I wasn’t able to talk to my parents or my sister for 3-4 days. Hurricane Maria entered the island where I live so it’s the first place that lost signal and still to this day it’s not good at all.

No one in Humacao or the neighboring towns had service, but we all still tried calling. My friends and I made a group text and we would text anything we found out about where we live - we called them any way we could think of but still nothing."

"I’m never going to forget the day that I received a call from my parents. I was working and I got a phone call through WhatsApp from my sister.

I immediately dropped everything I was doing and took the call. Hearing their voice was such a relief that all I did was cry and so did they for the 30 seconds the call lasted."

"On September 30th we had a Drop-off event on campus where people brought TONS AND TONS of relief aid for Puerto Rico.

At a certain point, 3 pickups trucks came in full with waters and batteries! If I’m not mistaken I think about 12 skids left UD to go to PR."

"The Puerto Rican culture is a very flamboyant, rich and flavorful culture. Growing up on the island is like growing up in paradise and I wouldn’t change it for the world.

There is a misconception that Puerto Ricans are not American citizens and we are - PR is a territory of the United States.

I would say things in Puerto Rico are getting better, but we are still not quite there yet. Puerto Rico cannot be forgotten. There’s a long road ahead of us to recovery and we still need all the help we can get."

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To help aid those still impacted by Hurricane Maria, please visit the following link(s):

http://www.unidosporpuertorico.com/en/

https://give.internationalmedicalcorps.org