A Puerto Rican family in Seattle is watching nervously from afar as Hurricane Maria barrels toward their home.
“It’s very hard for me. It's my hometown, it's my island,” said Angie Bravo. “It’s too much.”
She and her husband came to Seattle a month ago from Puerto Rico, where they live. Their son, Vicente, who runs La Isla restaurant in Ballard, brought them to Washington at the start of hurricane season, as a precaution. This year that turned out to be a very wise decision.
“You're like an ant waiting for an elephant to pass over you,” Vicente Bravo said.
Hurricane Maria is aiming right for Caguas, the town where the Bravos live in Puerto Rico.
“I'm not worried about the house. I'm worried about the people and my family,” Angie Bravo said.
She was in front of the TV Tuesday, texting and calling friends and family on the island.
“I will be with coffee I think all night long,” she said.
Seattle has a small, but proud Puerto Rican community and Vicente is already planning a fundraiser at his restaurant.
“We are the embassy of Puerto Rico,” he said. “They just come here and feel like home.”
But what will home look like in a few days? Will everyone be ok? Right now those are troubling questions.
“I just want that Thursday comes and I can talk to all of them, that's the only thing that I want,” Angie Bravo said.
La Isla is raising money for hurricane relief efforts. Click here for more info.
