Last November, Juan Rojas, 30, and his family moved to New Bern, N.C. from Puerto Rico. Their livelihoods came to a halt after Hurricane Maria devastated the island. After Hurricane Florence rapidly strengthened on Monday, he and his family decided to leave for Marietta, Ga., where his brother lives.
“They said that Hurricane Maria was a Category 5 hurricane, but it was more because she was a five, but she had tremors and she had tornados in her, too,” he said. “They had houses flying over … it was bad. If that was in Puerto Rico, where the houses were concrete and everything was shaking, I don’t want to know what’s going to happen here.”
Rojas says their concrete home was still standing after Maria, but the strength of the storm tore off their garage roof. “The whole house was trembling. It was shaking. And it’s a concrete house,” Rojas said.
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