Having sat through three near misses with Hurricanes Luis,
Marilyn, and Bertha and then Hortense, which was more rain than wind, I
must say I have been surprised at the enormity of the destruction of a 
"real" hurricane.  I am sure many of you realize that I was not 
living in Puerto Rico when Hugo struck the island.  Because of
this I have always felt that I had missed a critical right of passage to be 
included in this project.  The passage of Georges has corrected
this but I must admit it is now one that I could have lived without. 
The hardest thing to deal with is the depression that follows the
storm -- the human mind cannot rapidly assimilate the overwhelming 
destruction and changes that are brought by a storm of this 
magnitude.  Never in my life have I ever seen so many damaged
trees, houses, and buildings.  What really gets me is the innumerable
time I have driven over power and telephone lines since the storm.

Two weeks later things are looking up.  We have phone and water
at home and are hopeful power will return soon.  We were recently 
informed that we will not have cable TV for two months (by a man 
passing house to house asking for our name, address, and account 
number so that they could reconstruct their computer files --
good ole TCI!).  The lack of power would be much easier to accept if
it were not for the incessant noise of our neighbors' generators.  We are
accustomed to cooking in the dark and when that seems to be too much effort
we have been able to go out to a handful of restaurants that have managed
to remain up and running.

In terms of science infrastructure, our major frustration has
been the generator at El Verde.  It failed to start after the
hurricane (altho it ran fine the day before) and we cannot get it serviced
-- even tho they keep promising they will come by to service it.  We
are struggling with a smaller unit to keep the herbarium room dry as
a minimal effort.  Hopefully, we can get the main unit running
soon.

Walking around in the forest is a struggle.  Altho the damage is
not as great as Hugo (I am told) there are a number of large tree
falls, particulary on the exposed ridges.  Once the trails are cleared
is achieved, working in the forest will be much easier.  


Jess Zimmerman