Puerto Rico · Interviews and Photovoice

FEWtures: Urban and rural experiences of disasters

We document how households in Puerto Rico experience food, water, and energy insecurity during disasters, comparing urban and rural experiences.

Energy

Community health

FEWtures activity connected to the study of insecurity, disasters, and health

Context

Disaster Response

Since 2022, we have documented how households in Puerto Rico experience food, water, and energy insecurity during disasters such as Hurricanes María (2017) and Fiona (2022). This project compares urban and rural experiences to understand how where we live shapes a disaster's impact—and the strategies we use to respond. The project has two phases: household interviews and a Photovoice exercise. This page shares both.

Phase 1

FEWtures · Phase 1

Photovoice

Photographs and accounts of how households and communities experienced resource insecurity after a disaster.

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A language for reading these experiences

Four dimensions intertwine.

The petals provide a preliminary visual guide to Water, Food, Energy and Health within each experience.

Water

Food

Energy

Health

Preliminary visual classification for this prototype. The research team must validate it before publication.

DAY 1

The challenge

Something that represents the household’s most challenging resource insecurity after a disaster.

DAY 2

Community assets

People, places and resources that help meet needs after a disaster.

DAY 3

How it felt

Memories and emotions associated with water, food and energy insecurity.

DAY 4

Worries and concerns

These accounts reveal connections between resources, health and everyday life.

DAY 5

Future and solutions

What happens if conditions persist, and what solutions could change that future.

The complete field

An experience has more than one dimension.

The responses return as a living field. Move your cursor through it and explore by day or dimension.

34 experiences

What we learned

These are the five main lessons from this part of the study:

Energy security is the foundation of wellbeing. Energy directly affects other essentials of everyday life: access to water, food preservation, and health. When energy fails, everything else becomes unstable.

“Only the people can save the people.” Many community efforts respond collectively to disasters. Even where there is no formal organization, there is a clear willingness to work together to meet neighbors' immediate needs.

Mental health suffers too—and not only because of the hurricane. Emotional impacts come both from the weather event and from prolonged lack of access to essential resources in the weeks and months that follow.

If nothing changes, the challenges will continue. Residents recognize that, if conditions stay the same, Puerto Rico will continue facing challenges in water, food, energy, and health.

Communities already envision solutions. Opportunities they identified include small home battery systems, community gardens, and community centers for prevention and emergency response.

Prepare as though you will spend 5 days without water, electricity, or access to supermarkets.

Water:

store at least 1 gallon of drinking water per person per day in sealed containers. Fill bathtubs and buckets before forecast events for cleaning, not drinking.