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Debris and destroyed homes line the beach at La Boca, in north-central Puerto Rico. Hurricane Maria shrunk the beach from a wide, flat expanse of sand to a narrow one, making the waterfront homes vulnerable to storms. Then, another storm battered the homes and wore away their foundations. |
Rosa Elena Mastache Dominguez, 54, comes from a family of fishermen. Some four generations back, her ancestors claimed a little piece of shoreline on the north-central coast of Puerto Rico. They built a house on the black-speckled sand, looking out onto palms and blue-green water. |
“My grandparents grew up here, my grandparents raised my parents here, my parents raised us [here],” she said. |
The tight-knit community, now known as La Boca, has a deep a connection to the land here. Many families have been there for generations and feel that their way of life and history lie on that beach. So it was all the more shocking when Hurricane Maria struck last September. |
The storm changed the landscape; Maria’s waves clawed away at the sand, reducing the width of the broad, flat beach by approximately 90 percent. But it wasn’t just that the familiar landscape disappeared — it left La Boca defenseless. |
“The beach works as a buffer of all the energy from the swells and the storm waves,” said geologist Maritza Barreto. |
Without it, the community became vulnerable to storms. |
But Maria didn’t directly damage the beachfront homes. That came later, in February, when another weather system brought huge waves. Without the beach to protect them, Mastache and her neighbors watched nervously as the water washed in. |
Rosa Elena Mastache Dominguez looks out of a door in her family home. The door once led to bedrooms and bathroom but the entire back of the house collapsed when a storm washed in. |
At Mastache’s home about four months later, clothes hung on a line and the driveway was neatly swept. Her parents had built up the modest home into a cement structure with several bedrooms and bathrooms. When she unlocked the door, the smell of Clorox mixed with ocean rushed out. The home was empty. |
“The sea split the house in half,” she said, pointing to a crack running up one wall and down the next. |
Where the entire back of the house used to be, there was nothing. The waves scooped sand from underneath it until whole rooms collapsed. The family moved out and closed the gaping hole with a metal sheet. |
Their neighbors helped buy a pile of rocks to reinforce the foundation. Mastache peeked through a broken wall at a worker riding a small machine as he maneuvered between jagged slabs of cement. Just beyond, a neighbor’s bathroom, walls and all, lay in the sand. |
Six houses and a handful of businesses were damaged in La Boca, but the problem repeats all over the island. |
Even before Maria, more than half of Puerto Rico’s beaches were eroding, partly because building on the coast can disrupt natural cycles of sand movement. |
That’s a problem when nearly everyone lives along the coasts. |
“Most of the economic activity of Puerto Rico occurs also in the coastal areas, mostly in the San Juan metropolitan area,” said Ernesto Díaz, Director of the Puerto Rico Coastal Zone Management Program. All the electric power stations are located on the coast, along with sanitary infrastructure, power lines and fiber optic cables. |
He says erosion is a natural process. Sea levels also vary naturally over time. But human actions have sped those things up. |
“So if sea level rise is increasing at an accelerated pace, and we’re losing beaches also at an accelerated pace, and we humans made ourselves vulnerable by building so close to the coastline, obviously what were formerly natural processes are now social problems,” Díaz said. |
Today, Puerto Rican law prohibits construction on beaches. Some developers still manage to do it but many of the structures on the coast were built before the laws passed. That includes places like the Mastache family’s house in La Boca. It’s been there for about 100 years. |
As these beachside properties succumb to the weather, or just time, people are not supposed to rebuild them. |
The low income community of La Boca bought rocks to shore up what remained of their homes and to reinforce washed away foundations. People there said without help from the government, they had no choice but to rebuild their homes, even though rebuilding on the beach is in many cases illegal in Puerto Rico. |
When Díaz heard that the community is rebuilding, he sat up straight. “If people are dumping rocks to protect properties as we speak they are doing so illegally,” he said. |
Mastache knows all this. But she says the government hasn’t told them to stop rebuilding. Enforcement is notoriously lax. |
She adds that no one is helping them to relocate, either. |
The weather system that ultimately damaged homes in La Boca wasn’t a federally declared disaster, so people here don’t qualify for the emergency money that other families received after Maria. Mastache says without aid, many in her low-income community don’t have the option of moving. |
She also acknowledges there’s a good chance that the house, even if it’s rebuilt, will be wrecked again by the sea. |
And yet, she says the affected families all want to return. |
As she locked up the front door, another door that once led to a bedroom flew open. Through it, she looked out at the ocean waves breaking in the near distance. |
This reporting was made possible by the Fund for Environmental Journalism of the Society of Environmental Journalists. |
Dietmar Hamann believes his former club Bayern Munich should consider offloading Mario Gotze to Manchester United in a swap deal with unsettled Angel Di Maria. |
"There has been talk of a swap with Manchester United for Angel Di Maria," the former Bayern midfielder said. |
"Whether that is likely I don't know, but Di Maria is the type of player Bayern need, and they have to bring in players of his calibre." |
Lazio centre-half Stefan De Vrij has ruled out a summer move to Old Trafford, insisting he remains happy at the Serie A giants. |
The Netherlands international told Fox Sports: "I'm happy at Lazio and I'll still be here next year. |
"I hope to play in the Champions League with this shirt, but that doesn't determine my future. If we don't qualify, it wouldn't change anything - I want to stay here." |
Chelsea have been handed a boost in their £70million pursuit of Juventus midfielder Paul Pogba as team-mate Andrea Pirlo dents United's chances of a return. |
"He seems very happy at Juventus, I know he is focused on finishing the season with a lot of success," Pirlo said. "Whatever the future is for him I don't see it being Manchester United. |
"To live as organically as possible, in harmony with the world." |
About Me A creative human woman doing human things with the life I'm blessed with. |
Wild Fact About Me My birth mark is a heart shape, on my thigh. |
My Philosophy "Don't ever do anything you wouldn't make a quilt out of and display it for everyone to see" |
If I were Mayor, I'd make the world a better place by I would ban GMO's/chemicals and artificial ingredients in our food sources. |
What/who changed my life and why My child, having someone else to care for and raise in this world taught meore than I could have imagined, about myself and health and being a proper human. |
Mon., June 27, 2011, 6:55 p.m. |
Norma “Duffy” Lyon, whose life-size butter sculptures of cows, Elvis and even Jesus and his disciples delighted Iowa state fairgoers for nearly half a century, has died. She was 81. |
Lyon suffered a stroke at her rural home Sunday and died shortly after at a hospital, Michelle Juhl, one of Lyon’s nine children, said Monday. |
Known to most people as the “butter cow lady,” Lyon was pregnant with her seventh child when she produced her first bovine butter sculpture, a 600-pound cow, for the Iowa State Fair in 1959. |
The rural Toledo housewife went on to sculpt a butter cow every year until she retired in 2006, and along the way also sculpted the likes of Garth Brooks, a Harley-Davidson motorcycle, Smokey Bear and other images in her 40-degree refrigerated showcase at the fair. |
She picked up her penchant for sculpting while earning her veterinary science degree at Iowa State University and helping her husband with the family dairy and beef cattle operation. In the midst of her animal medicine and mammalian anatomy classes, Lyon took two sculpting classes. |
The Iowa State Fair has featured a butter cow every year since 1911 as a promotion for dairy products, and Lyon got her start after working briefly under her predecessor, Earl Dutt, whose work didn’t overly impress her. |
“It was a good farm cow, but it wasn’t a show cow,” Lyon told The Associated Press in 1999. |
While Lyon wasn’t the genesis of the butter cow, she did expand the medium during her time as a butter sculptor for the state fair, much to the delight of fairgoers. |
She began carving companion pieces in 1984, starting with a horse and foal. In 1996, Lyon recreated Iowa artist Grant Woods’ “American Gothic,” the famous painting of a stern-faced man and woman with a pitchfork in front of a farm house. |
The following year, Lyon suffered a stroke, but recovered in time to sculpt the traditional cow and a 6-foot likeness of Elvis Presley that saw fairgoers lined up around the building that housed it. |
In 1999, Lyon took on what was arguably her most ambitious project: Her own rendition of the biblical story of the Last Supper, featuring disciples around a table leaning back on lounge chairs while Jesus stood at the head of the table with his arms stretched out, looking toward the heavens. |
Lyon also garnered attention in 2007, when she publicly backed Barack Obama for president and appeared in campaign ads for him. |
Juhl, who was 4 when her mother sculpted her first butter cow for the fair, doesn’t remember a time when her mother wasn’t the “butter cow lady.” But she does remember getting to travel to Des Moines for the fair. |
Lyon is survived by her husband, G. Joe Lyon, her nine children, 23 grandchildren and five great-grandchildren. |
Published: June 27, 2011, 6:55 p.m. |
Summer's officially here, so it's time to fire up your manual 3D sandcastle printer and bust out your turtlebacks and head to the beach. But what are you going to wear? |
This summer, get some better-fitting man trunks from Bonobos, the online retailer known for better-fitting man pants. High Tide trunks measure 5" — great for exposing your pale nerdlegs to some precious Vitamin D. If you're more of a board shorts guy, the 9.5" Low Tides are perfect for surfing both the waves and the Internet. |
Right now get up to 50% off of Bonobos swimwear as well as on suits by brands like Onia, Orlebar, Reyn Spooner, and GANT. And here's a special summer present: new customers get an additional 10% off of swimwear— just use code Gizmodo10 at checkout from today until July 19. |
And if you live in NYC or Boston, stroll over to a Bonobos Guideshop, and a Bonobos Guide (your complimentary personal shopper well-versed in style and fit advice) will hook you up with your dream man trunks. |
Today is Tuesday, Dec. 18, the 353rd day of 2012 with 13 to go. |
The moon is waxing. The morning stars are Mercury, Venus and Saturn. Evening stars include Jupiter, Neptune, Uranus and Mars. |
Those born on this date are under the sign of Sagittarius. They include Britain's Joseph Grimaldi, known as the "greatest clown in history," in 1778; British Methodist leader and hymnist Charles Wesley in 1788; English physicist Joseph Thomson, discoverer of the electron, in 1856; Austro-Hungarian Archduke Franz Ferdinand in 1863; British short story writer Saki (H.H. Munro) in 1870; Soviet leader Joseph Stalin in 1878; Swiss modernist painter Paul Klee in 1879; baseball Hall of Fame member Tyrus "Ty" Cobb in 1886; film director George Stevens ("Shane," "A Place in the Sun," "Giant") in 1904; West German statesman Willy Brandt (Nobel Peace Price laureate) and writer Alfred Bester, both in 1913; actors Betty Grable in 1916 and Ossie Davis in 1917; chef Jacques Pepin in 1935 (age 77); Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards in 1943 (age 69); South African activist Steve Biko and film director Steven Spielberg (age 66), both in 1946; movie critic/historian Leonard Maltin in 1950 (age 62); actors Ray Liotta in 1954 (age 58), Brad Pitt in 1963 (age 49) and Katie Holmes in 1978 (age 34); and singer Christina Aguilera in 1980 (age 32). |
In 1865, the 13th Amendment to the Constitution abolished slavery in the United States. |
In 1912, after three years of digging in the Piltdown gravel pit in Sussex, England, amateur archaeologist Charles Dawson announced the discovery of two skulls that appeared to belong to a primitive hominid and ancestor of man. The find turned out to be a hoax. |
In 1915, U.S. President Woodrow Wilson, whose first wife died a year earlier, married Edith Bolling Galt. |
In 1989, a pipe bomb killed Savannah, Ga., City Councilman Robert Robinson, hours after a bomb was discovered at the Atlanta federal courthouse. A racial motive was cited in a rash of bomb incidents. |
In 1991, General Motors announced it would close 21 plants and eliminate 74,000 jobs in four years to offset record losses. |
In 1997, South Koreans elected longtime leftist opposition leader Kim Dae-jong president, marking the first time that a member of the opposition defeated a candidate of the New Korea Party and its predecessors. |
Also in 1997, the 6-mile-long Tokyo Bay tunnel connecting Kawasaki and Kisarazu opened. The project took 8 1/2 years to complete and cost $17 billion. |
In 2003, teenager Lee Malvo was convicted of murder in the Washington-area sniper attacks. His adult companion, John Muhammad, was convicted earlier by a jury that recommended the death penalty. |
In 2004, the United States officially forgave all of the $4.1 billion owed the government by Iraq and urged other creditors to do the same. |
In 2005, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, 77, was hospitalized after suffering what was described as a mild stroke. |
And, in 2005, Bolivia elected Eso Morales as its first Indian president. |
In 2006, Robert Gates was sworn in as the U.S. Defense secretary. He served until July 1, 2011. |
In 2007, African National Congress delegates chose Jacob Zuma as their leader, ousting South African President Thabo Mbeki who had controlled the party for 10 years. |
In 2008, Rwandan Col. Theoneste Bagosora was convicted of genocide by a U.N. court for his involvement in the 1994 massacre of 800,000 people. |
In 2010, the U.S. Congress voted to repeal "don't ask, don't tell" policy that prohibits openly gay men and women from serving in the military. U.S. President Barack Obama signed the measure into law Dec. 22. |
In 2011, gas prices in the United States fell more than 5 cents over the previous two weeks as crude oil prices dropped. The average regular gasoline was $3.24 a gallon. |
Also in 2011, former Czech President Vaclav Havel, one of the leading anti-Communist dissidents of the 1970s and 1980s, died at the age of 75. |
A thought for the day: Anatole France said, "To know is nothing at all; to imagine is everything." |
BOSTON, MA - JULY 5: Jake Marisnick #6 of the Houston Astros makes a leaping catch against Brock Holt #26 of the Boston Red Sox as he crashes into the scoreboard during the sixth inning at Fenway Park on July 5, 2015 in Boston, Massachusetts. |
While the Green Monster at Fenway Park is its own animal, there are sufficient similarities to Minute Maid Park’s wall – and sufficient room as the outfield wall slopes toward right center - that Astros center fielder Jake Marisnick is comfortable with his role as late-inning defensive stopper. |
The 37-foot-high monster extends 231 feet toward just short of dead center, which at 390 feet is the shallowest in Major League Baseball, but the wall then extends to 420 feet near the bullpens. It’s a lot of room to cover heading toward right center, but Marisnick is familiar with the challenge. |
“It has more room for outs,” he said. “You have more room to run balls down. If you’re running at that angle, you know you have room. We’re pretty familiar with it. |
Merriam-Webster's top-words list is based on increases in lookups in 2014 and sudden spikes of interest. |
Mark Twain said, "The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and a lightning bug." |
In his day, writers could revel in their power to shape the world with well-chosen words. These days, there's nothing like a fast-food commercial and the Internet to give words some voltage. |
The French phrase "je ne sais quoi" rose to No. 6 in Merriam-Webster's 2014 list of top words after being featured in a Sonic commercial. |
Jenna said what? Indeed. Those chicken wings probably didn't give the guy that certain air of savoir faire, but the commercial got a lot of people to learn a little French. That's more than some high school French teachers can say. |
The expression that means "a pleasant quality that is hard to describe," according to Merriam-Webster's, which says the literal translation is "I know not what." Neither do I. Since the ad came out, je ne sais quoi has been among the top terms looked up each day on Merriam-Webster.com. That made the phrase a contender for 2014 word of the year. |
Don't get too excited, opera fans. This isn't about high-tone pursuits. It's not about what happens in Petri dishes, either. Nor is it about the shared social customs anthropologists love to study. |
This is about our continued fascination with sorting ourselves into sub-groups. |
Or as Merriam-Webster's puts it: "The term ... allows us to identify and isolate an idea, issue or group. ... Culture can be either very broad (as in 'celebrity culture' or 'winning culture') or very specific (as in 'test-prep culture' or 'marching band culture')." |
I belong to the drinks-coffee-black culture. That's what I was doing when I got an email in which "tea party" groups railed about a "culture of bias" against conservatives. |
This is something liberals might dismiss as typical of the right's culture of whining. |
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