When The Tourists Stopped Coming, This Puerto Rican Town’s Nightmare Began

RINCÓN, Puerto Rico ― The morning after Hurricane Maria ravaged Puerto Rico in September, Lisa Brown Masters waded through the flooded streets of the small beachside town of Rincón to check on the hotel she founded ― only to find it crumbling into the ocean.

The concrete porch of the Tres Sirenas Beach Inn was cracked in two, and waves crashed against the foundation of the two-story building. The ocean had eaten up the 30 feet of pristine beach that used to stretch out in front of it. There was no power, and no running water.

As reports about the hurricane’s devastation spread around the world in the days that followed, Masters received one call after another: Guests were canceling their reservations and they wanted their money back.

They haven’t returned.

Without the usual influx of tourists in the high-season winter months, the inn has rapidly fallen into debt. The collapse of the business has thrown Masters’ life in disarray. Her struggles have trickled out into the community. She had to lay off Carmen Bonilla Ramos, the inn’s housekeeper, Benita Cardona, the cook, and Jasson Vincenty Ruiz, the maintenance man. Vivienne Miranda Rodriguez, a masseuse who used to serve the hotel’s clients, was left without customers. Like countless other business owners and workers in the beachside town, they don’t know how they’ll get by until the tourists come back.

Source: huffingtonpost