Hurricane Maria Hits Home for Jon Rivera
October 18, 2017 | Men's Volleyball, USC Ripsit Blog, Features
When Jon Rivera took his official visit to USC, he decided on the spot that he wanted to be a Trojan. Not long after, the now-junior opposite hitter for USC men's volleyball packed up and moved more than 3,000 miles away from his hometown of San Juan, Puerto Rico, leaving everything he knew behind.
While he's loved every moment of his time in Los Angeles, thoughts of his friends and family in Puerto Rico have weighed heavily on him for the past month. On Sept. 20, Hurricane Maria made landfall on the island of Puerto Rico as a Category 4 storm, causing devastating damage and leaving millions without electricity, clean water and other necessities.
Rivera called it "a privilege" to have grown up on the island.
"I think Puerto Ricans are known to be really welcoming," he said. "There's really just a sense of community everywhere you go. There's no sense of race — everyone's just one nation. Based on that, growing up in San Juan was a great time ... And it's such a beautiful place. You can go to a rainforest one day and then just go to a pristine beach the next day. It's a great place."
So when Rivera saw that Hurricane Maria was barreling straight towards Puerto Rico, he worried about his family and friends. The night before the storm hit, Rivera spoke to his parents on the phone and heard all the precautions they were taking to stay safe, including roping their doors to prevent them from slamming open and closed with the wind.
Rivera woke up on Sept. 20 to photos and videos of San Juan that were almost unrecognizable. And since the storm knocked out nearly all the electricity and cell service on the island, he had no way of reaching his family to see how they fared. For two days, Rivera tried to distract himself while waiting for his phone to ring.
"It was hard here," he said. "We would go play volleyball, and you've got to give it your best. It's part of the competition to focus in on what you're doing in terms of volleyball and school. I really just kept myself busy."
Rivera's family went to great lengths to get in touch with him after the hurricane hit. His father waited 15 hours in line for gasoline to fuel up his car and drive to the local convention center — the closest location that had cell service. During that conversation, Rivera's father assured him that his family was safe, explaining that they'd huddled up in a hallway in their home with locked doors on each end while the storm passed through San Juan.
While Rivera's house, made mostly from cement, came through the hurricane unscathed, he acknowledged the suffering that many on the island are still enduring. According to Puerto Rico's Department of Public Safety, 48 people have died as a result of the hurricane. The latest estimates show that 85 percent of the island still has no electricity and 30 percent of the population still has no access to clean drinking water.
"The state that they're at, to be completely honest, it's not good," Rivera said. "No one's state is good there. And it's about to improve, but it's really hard to have that thought in your head."
Rivera has been encouraged, though, by the support he's received from the USC community. When he told his head coach Jeff Nygaard that he needed a break from practice to focus on his family, Nygaard not only obliged, but starting looking into ways to help. Nygaard called Rivera within an hour and told him that USC had a program that could fund a trip home to Puerto Rico to hand out supplies. While Rivera initially loved the idea, he realized it was impractical, as flights out of Puerto Rico were so few and far between that he'd have a hard time getting back to USC.
Thankfully, Rivera's mother recently made it onto one of those flights to come visit for Trojan Family Weekend.
As Puerto Rico continues its efforts to recover, Rivera implores people to look into fundraising sites to help restore oil, electricity, clean water and more to the island that he calls home.
USC encourages members of the Trojan Family to learn more about Hurricane Maria and offer help in any way they can.
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While he's loved every moment of his time in Los Angeles, thoughts of his friends and family in Puerto Rico have weighed heavily on him for the past month. On Sept. 20, Hurricane Maria made landfall on the island of Puerto Rico as a Category 4 storm, causing devastating damage and leaving millions without electricity, clean water and other necessities.
Rivera called it "a privilege" to have grown up on the island.
"I think Puerto Ricans are known to be really welcoming," he said. "There's really just a sense of community everywhere you go. There's no sense of race — everyone's just one nation. Based on that, growing up in San Juan was a great time ... And it's such a beautiful place. You can go to a rainforest one day and then just go to a pristine beach the next day. It's a great place."
So when Rivera saw that Hurricane Maria was barreling straight towards Puerto Rico, he worried about his family and friends. The night before the storm hit, Rivera spoke to his parents on the phone and heard all the precautions they were taking to stay safe, including roping their doors to prevent them from slamming open and closed with the wind.
"It was hard here," he said. "We would go play volleyball, and you've got to give it your best. It's part of the competition to focus in on what you're doing in terms of volleyball and school. I really just kept myself busy."
Rivera's family went to great lengths to get in touch with him after the hurricane hit. His father waited 15 hours in line for gasoline to fuel up his car and drive to the local convention center — the closest location that had cell service. During that conversation, Rivera's father assured him that his family was safe, explaining that they'd huddled up in a hallway in their home with locked doors on each end while the storm passed through San Juan.
While Rivera's house, made mostly from cement, came through the hurricane unscathed, he acknowledged the suffering that many on the island are still enduring. According to Puerto Rico's Department of Public Safety, 48 people have died as a result of the hurricane. The latest estimates show that 85 percent of the island still has no electricity and 30 percent of the population still has no access to clean drinking water.
"The state that they're at, to be completely honest, it's not good," Rivera said. "No one's state is good there. And it's about to improve, but it's really hard to have that thought in your head."
Rivera has been encouraged, though, by the support he's received from the USC community. When he told his head coach Jeff Nygaard that he needed a break from practice to focus on his family, Nygaard not only obliged, but starting looking into ways to help. Nygaard called Rivera within an hour and told him that USC had a program that could fund a trip home to Puerto Rico to hand out supplies. While Rivera initially loved the idea, he realized it was impractical, as flights out of Puerto Rico were so few and far between that he'd have a hard time getting back to USC.
Thankfully, Rivera's mother recently made it onto one of those flights to come visit for Trojan Family Weekend.
As Puerto Rico continues its efforts to recover, Rivera implores people to look into fundraising sites to help restore oil, electricity, clean water and more to the island that he calls home.
USC encourages members of the Trojan Family to learn more about Hurricane Maria and offer help in any way they can.
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