Hurricane Dorian unsettling for some Puerto Rican residents in Florida who survived Maria in 2017

Naples

ORLANDO — Two years ago, she waited 12 hours in line for ice after Hurricane Maria devastated her town in Puerto Rico.

Julian Rodriguez, 28, feared she would face similar circumstances as Hurricane Dorian threatened her new life in Orlando.

Likewise, Winellys Quiñones, 31, left her beloved island for a better life in Orlando after she watched Maria destroy her area. Her faith in God keeps her grounded, but part of her fears include reliving the months following the devastating hurricane.

Julian Rodriguez says a tearful goodbye to her mother, Martha Cedre, as she heads back to Puerto Rico.Martha stayed about a week longer to wait out Dorian incase it hit Puerto Rico, but now that the storm is coming to Florida she feels it's time to go home. Both women braved Hurricane Maria two years ago, and now Julian will have to weather Hurricane Dorian in Florida. Orlando International Airport, Sunday, September 1, 2019.

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The two have closely monitored the forecast of Dorian and feared the Category 5 hurricane would have an impact on Central Florida.

Quiñones works at Grillers Puerto Rico Restaurant in Orlando. She decided to move to Orlando a year ago to give her three children, 12, 11 and 7 a better education.

She said after the hurricane, some schools in Puerto Rico struggled to get back up and running.

“The hardest part for me after Maria was watching the look on my children’s face," Quiñones said. “Everything was normal, and then it wasn’t.”

Quiñones said although she prepared her children for Dorian, she tried not to show her uneasiness.

"It is not good for them psychologically."

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According to Teralytics, a New York-based tech company that tracked Puerto Rican migration after Hurricane Maria using cellphone data, 43 percent of Puerto Ricans who left the island moved to Florida. Of the Puerto Ricans who moved to Florida, 22 percent moved to Orange County.

Rodriguez moved to Orlando last month after she got a job offer from Disney. Her mother stayed with her until Sunday morning when she traveled back to Puerto Rico from Orlando International Airport.

Hurricane Maria, that hit Puerto Rico almost two years ago, is still fresh in, Wilnellys Quiñones', mind. She battled that hurricane with her family on the island. Now living in Orlando, FL, with her children, she prepares once again for Hurricane Dorian. She works at Grillers Puerto Rico, in Orlando, Sunday, September 1, 2019.

Rodriguez remembers having to go to school for her graphic design degree while most of the island still did not have power.

“It was so hard, especially if you had classes at night,” she said.

Talk of Hurricane Dorian hitting Orlando also terrified Quiñones.

“I try to stay calm," Quiñones said in Spanish. “But as the days pass and I see how strong Dorian is getting, I get a little bit uneasy. I don’t want to go through the same experiences that I went through when I was in Puerto Rico during Maria.”

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