A HUSBAND and wife from Granada who have been missing in Puerto Rico for over a week after Hurricane María swept the island have been found safe and sound.
Adrían Argente and Isabel Hortal, both 27, live on the Caribbean island nation and had sought refuge at the house of some friends in the town of Isabela whilst waiting for the cyclone, which has devastated the country, to pass.
The storm had left most of the country incomunicado with phone lines and internet down and no postal service, so Adrián and Isabel were unable to contact their families and friends in Granada for eight days.
Yesterday (Wednesday), they were finally able to seek help from national authorities to enable them to somehow get in contact with their distressed relatives in their province of birth.
This involved trying to get through to the foreign affairs ministry and Spanish Consulate in Washington DC, USA, since 'there is no electricity or connections' in much of Puerto Rico.
Isabel's brother Emilio Hortal assures: “They are completely fine, they have food and water and are still safe in the house where they stayed during the hurricane.”
The couple, who are both studying a master's degree in engineering in the Latin American country, decided when the cyclone struck that they would be safer at their friends' home in Isabela than in their own house in Mayagüez, which was right in the eye of the storm.
A friend of the couple managed to get a WhatsApp message through to Adrián's and Isabel's families to tell them where they were staying.
Puerto Rico has been completely destroyed by Hurricane María, and its home-grown international pop legend Ricky Martín has launched an appeal on Twitter, saying: “My people need you, please help.”
