USC senior Jon Rivera was asleep when Hurricane Maria hit back home in Puerto Rico. "I remember waking up and immediately checking weather.gov. It was really bad to see how the eye went through San Juan. I didn't know anything about my family for two days."
Even though his immediate family had told him they had an emergency plan when they spoke the day before, Rivera worried.
"I had midterms going on, and all these things happening, and having that in the back of your head is really detrimental."
Many USC students of Puerto Rican descent are worried about the safety of their families in the aftermath of Maria, which hit the island on Wednesday morning at Category 4 strength. The storm disabled the island's power grid, leaving most of Puerto Rico's population without electricity and cellphone reception.
After two days, Rivera got a text from his mother and was able to Facetime with his family.
Hector Reyes, a junior, also had to wait days before hearing from his family. "I spoke to them for the first time three days ago," he says. "I still haven't spoken to my brother at all."
For Reyes, the uncertainty affected his ability to function. "I felt powerless. I didn't know what to do. I didn't know if I was supposed to go to class, if I was supposed to study. I was just sitting looking at my phone, waiting for my mom to call."
Reyes says the experience has been sobering. "I'm here … furthering my education just for them, to go back and be a professional and give them a better life. When I go back, are they going to be alive?"
Limari Archuleta, a senior, has struggled to feel normal as well. "My whole family is over there," she says. "It's been hard to sit over here and try to keep going to class and do the things I'm doing over here, knowing that the people back home are suffering…and not being able to do anything."
Archuleta woke up on Wednesday to footage of destruction in her home town of Carolina. "I watched all the videos," she says. Those videos just added to her concern. It's horrible imagining a million different horrible things that could happen based on what I was seeing on the internet and on my Facebook."
Puerto Rico is facing extreme difficulty recovering from Hurricane Maria, especially after suffering the effects of Hurricane Irma earlier this month.
"There's still no electricity, no water, no cell service," says Rivera.
"Everything's lost," says Reyes. "You can see pictures of the island, and that's not the island that I left behind."
While these USC students are separated from their loved ones, they are joining forces to raise money to send aid to Puerto Rico.
"I just joined a group of university students across the U.S. that created a GoFundMe page," says Archuleta.
As for relief efforts on campus, there hasn't been much yet. Archuleta hopes to change that. "I'm trying to reach out to people to see if we can start something."
While helping from afar is allowing Puerto Rican students to feel less powerless, many just want to make sure their families are all right in person. But because of the destruction, students are facing the prospect of not being able to visit their home anytime soon.
"I had a plane ticket for this upcoming weekend but it was canceled," says Reyes. "I'm just waiting until I can buy one again."
Rivera is planning a trip to San Juan in December to visit his family. He is preparing to see for himself the impact the hurricane has had on Puerto Rico. "I'm expecting it to be really different from where it was when I left last summer," Rivera says.