People in Central Florida are trying every way they can to get in touch with loved ones on the island of Puerto Rico, which was devastated by Hurricane Maria.
Many are praying their loved ones are still alive.
A day after Hurricane Maria ravaged the island, flooding towns, crushing homes and killing at least two people, millions of people on the island faced the dispiriting prospect of weeks and perhaps months without electricity.
Shared Google Doc of information out of Puerto Rico | Resumen de Pueblos
With power out in 100 percent of the country, it’s been nearly impossible for people to connect.
Channel 9’s Jorge Estevez and Chief meteorologist Tom Terry took to Facebook to explain the storm’s impact and help families reconnect.
Estevez got a first-hand account from a man who rode out the storm with his family in their home.
Watch: Jorge Estevez answers questions on situation in Puerto Rico
Edgar Ramos spoke to Estevez on the phone.
Ramos lives in Bayamon, a hard-hit area west of San Juan on the North Coast.
Ramos said the winds got so strong he thought parts of his concrete home was going to rip off.
Anyone with questions or information can comment on Estevez's Facebook page or share his information with family and friends. Watch: Jorge Estevez answers questions on situation in Puerto Rico, encourages community to share where they need information from on the island
Flooding and Damage on the Island
Hurricane Maria went right over the island of Puerto Rico with 155 mph winds, knocking out the island's power.
More than 95 percent of the island's wireless cell sites are down.
A massive storm surge brought extensive flooding, with some rivers rising 27 feet in the central part of the country.
Authorities say Hurricane Maria's winds ripped palm frond roofs away from trees and caused some other damage to restaurants in the Bavaro beach resorts on Dominican Republic's east coast.
Restaurant workers on Thursday sought to remove the fallen trees from rooftops and clear away debris left by the storm in the popular beach resort populated by eateries and shops.
But Ernesto Veloz, president of the hotel association in the Bavaro-Punta Cana tourist area, said he was relieved damage wasn't any worse.
"Thanks to God, we didn't get the worst" of it, he said by phone.
Earlier, the hotel association in the Dominican Republic reported Hurricane Maria didn't inflict any serious damage to the county's tourism infrastructure.
Video: Hurricane Maria brings extensive flooding in San Juan
Video: Hurricane Maria leaves total devastation in Puerto Rico
VIDEO: Hurricane Maria blows the roofs off buildings in Puerto Rico
VIDEO: Drive through Puerto Rico shows extensive damage from Maria
Stories from the Island
Coast Guard rescues woman, children from boat
The U.S. Coast Guard says a woman and two children were rescued from a boat that went missing off Puerto Rico during Hurricane Maria, but a man died aboard the vessel.
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The Coast Guard in Miami said in a statement that a British Royal Navy helicopter hoisted three people
Thursday from the capsized vessel.
It had sent a distress call Wednesday saying it was disabled and adrift in seas with 20-foot waves and 100 mph winds near Vieques, Puerto Rico.
The Coast Guard says the dead man's body was not retrieved and that the boat had capsized.
The search included an HC-130 search plane, a fast response cutter, the USS Kearsage amphibious assault ship and Navy helicopters.
The names of those on the vessel were not released.
VIDEO: Elderly man and young boy rescued from flood waters in Puerto Rico
Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor waits to hear from family in Puerto Rico
Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, whose family is from Puerto Rico, says she hasn't yet heard from half her family after Hurricane Maria walloped the island.
Sotomayor, the high court's first Hispanic justice, was speaking Thursday at an event at the Newseum in Washington. She said Puerto Rico "is suffering a great tragedy right now."
Sotomayor says that she and her family in the United States are "exceedingly concerned." She asked for the crowd's prayers for Puerto Rico but also the other islands, Texas and Florida that have been recently impacted by hurricanes.
Sotomayor's parents immigrated to the United States from Puerto Rico before she was born. Sotomayor grew up in New York.
Video: Hombre puertorriqueño habla del huracán María
Osceola County pastor helps families communicate with loved ones in Puerto Rico
A man with a heart for helping is going old school to get information from Puerto Rico.
An antenna coming out of his window strung through the trees up over his house, is connecting Pastor Ian Thomas to the unreachable.
Early Thursday morning, his ham radio was silent.
"And by 9:30, things started jumping. And then we were talking to Puerto Rico,” he said.
Many people in Central Florida, like Alexandra Ale, have family living on the island, which was devastated by Hurricane Maria.
"I was feeling like I was suffocating because my hands are tied and kind of just waiting around to hear from someone," Ale said.
Thomas is taking requests from people across the U.S., then doing what he can to find out through radio waves if they're alright.
"They just need someone to knock on the door and say, 'Are you still alive? Are you OK grandma?'
Because you have an 80-year-old lady who didn't think anything would happen and no one's checked on her,” Thomas said.
The process is tedious, but he's not going to stop because he knows for so many families, giving up on their loved ones is not an option.
Ale feels thankful because her family is one of few with enough phone service to get a message out.
She now knows at the very least they are alive.
"My sister's words, 'It looks like a bomb exploded,’” she said.
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