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Puerto Ricans Relieved To Take Shelter From Hurricane Maria In New England

BOSTON (CBS) – With Hurricane Irma bearing down, some residents of Puerto Rico are headed to the United States for cover.

On Friday, some of them arrived in Boston.

One woman's family welcomed her Logan Airport, the second time she has had to flee and stay with family in New England over the last month.

"She went back home after Irma went by," said her nephew Jose Roche. "Then she got the news that Maria's coming so she decided to come back and get away from it."

Hurricane Maria
Hurricane Maria bears down. (WBZ-TV)

It was one of the last flights out of San Juan before Hurricane Maria threatened to take a swipe at the island.

"I have a lot of family there," said Greg Molina, who helps organize the Massachusetts Puerto Rican Festival in Boston every year. "The people that leave the island are the people that have the resources to leave the island, but a lot of them don't, so a lot of them try to hunker down and try to ride it out."

He has set up family Facebook groups, so he can keep in touch with relatives there even if they lose power.

Flights out of Puerto Rico are hard to come by. Some locals had vacations come to an abrupt and dramatic end.

"They evacuated the hotel, they were draining the pool," said Alexis Silva, as she picked up her bags at Logan.

"The entrance of the hotel usually is a glass door, but now they have a temporary 2 by 4 wall," added Devin Stanley. "I'm very relieved that we're home."

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