I recently had the good fortune to visit San Juan, Puerto Rico, while on vacation with my family. I’m not sure what I expected when we arrived, but I was surprised nonetheless.
I knew that the recovery from Hurricane Maria in 2017 was still underway, but I was interested to find that rebuilding was at very different stages in different parts of the city.
Some areas looked virtually untouched by the hurricane while other areas were almost completely abandoned, boarded up, or still patched with tarps. It was clear that some Puerto Ricans had bounced back faster than others.
One of our Uber drivers was a lovely woman who had been living in neighboring Carolina for many years and who, until recently, worked for the Ritz Carlton San Juan for 19 years. She explained to us that she has been out of work since the hurricane, but that she felt financially secure because the Ritz Carlton released her 401K earnings without penalty to her.
So, between her 401K and Uber rides, she was doing fine. This made me think, however, about those who did not have retirement funds, emergency funds or other such resources to help them recover following a crisis.
Simple observation revealed that the ability to adapt was not universal here.