Since Mercy Corps arrived four weeks ago, it has already distributed 290 MasterCard prepaid debit cards, in $150 to $200 increments, across the island. Funding comes from private and individual donors.

Now, the group is focusing on giving out another round of money in two municipalities in the west of the island: Las Marias and Maricao. It worked with Long Term Recovery Group, a local organization that operates in this region of Puerto Rico, to identify the most vulnerable communities. Many residents are still waiting for money from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

That includes Eugenio Beniquez, 46. Since the hurricane, no officials from FEMA or the Puerto Rican government have come to his home to offer emergency relief. The visit from Mercy Corps, he says, is the first time outsiders have come to his home.

"There's 1,000 people in this barrio," says Beniquez. "We've been forgotten."

Beniquez lives with his wife, two daughters and two young grandchildren in a low-income neighborhood deep within the sunken hills of Lares. His house is at the dead end of a long and winding road.

Soon after the storm, he went down to the community center in Lares to see whether he could get any help. "One group gave me one bottle of water and the choice of one pear or one apple," he says. "But not both."

He begged local officials for water, and they finally gave him some. But it was for cleaning and washing – not to drink.

Beniquez's biggest problem right now is "not the food. It's the water," he says. That's what he would buy if he had $100.

Cash can get you only so much

For the most part, the local grocery stores in Lares and San Sebastian, where people from Las Marias and Maricao shop, have some food. The meat aisle may be halved, but there are so many people living without power, most have been buying precooked meats like ham and canned Vienna sausages. What they don't have — but residents desperately need — is enough water and ice.

People from all over western Puerto Rico shop at Mr. Special, a local supermarket on the main road in Lares. Store manager Jose Mendez says the water and ice shipments have been arriving irregularly — sometimes not even the full amount. When he puts out the goods, they run out in about a half-hour. A line forms, and customers are allowed to buy one bottle of water and one bag of ice per person.

Mendez has another problem: Mr. Special can only take cash payments at the moment. Because the storm has disrupted telecommunications, Mendez can't get the computers at the cash registers online.

It also means people can't use their tarjeta de la familia, or family card. It's a monthly stipend of money that the Puerto Rican government gives low-income families to purchase groceries. And on this part of the island, thousands of families depend on it. A family of two gets about $200 a month; a family of four, about $400.

When he is not able to use his card, Beniquez says, he leaves his shopping cart right where it is — even though it's full of groceries — and walks straight out the door. It pains him to have to return to his family empty-handed.

For Morehead, a trip to Mr. Special validates what she has seen and heard in her surveys. Because of the problems with the registers in Lares and San Sebastian, Mercy Corps will have to give this round of money to people in actual cash. The group previously distributed MasterCards, but the supermarkets in those areas had more reliable payment systems.

Morehead also saw that people continued to have difficulty accessing clean drinking water. The shelves at Walgreens, Mr. Special and Econo, another local supermarket chain in Lares, were empty. When there is water, it is expensive — about $1.25 a bottle.

The shortage of water has made people desperate. On the outskirts of Maricao, people are siphoning water dripping from a main that has been damaged by severe mudslides after the storm. They told Morehead that they were just using it for cleaning and cooking. But she suspects some are drinking it, too. She doubts it's safe to drink.

Mercy Corps has added water filters to its upcoming aid delivery. It will also provide solar lanterns with USB ports. Many people have been using their cars to charge up their cellphones, then driving 30 minutes out of town to find a signal.

The group hopes to deliver the aid package at the end of the month. But if workers make it back to Beniquez's home, it will be too late.

He and his family are leaving Puerto Rico next week, driven by something Beniquez saw and said he will never forget.

One of his granddaughters was lifting an empty plastic bottle to her mouth. Over and over again she was trying to drink.

Beniquez had run out of water and had nothing to give her. He says, "That's when I knew it was time for us to go."

Copyright NPR 2021.