When Hurricane Maria struck Puerto Rico in September 2017, it became one of the deadliest storms ever to hit the island. Nearly 3,000 people were killed and parts of the island are still recovering, lacking access to power and clean water more than a year later.
“We Had Gone Back 20 Years.” The Heads of Puerto Rico’s Largest Media Company on Life After Hurricane Maria
One of history’s deadliest hurricane’s could have decimated Puerto Rico’s largest businesses. Instead, Grupo Ferre Rangel decided to pivot. “It was a race to transform ourselves,” said company president María Luisa Ferré Rangel. “The hurricane forced us to see ourselves in a different way. Our call centers became the FEMA call centers. We were supplying electricity and water to our properties that are part of our real estate business, and so we began to rent out small spaces to people who needed to get back to work but had no place to go, we gave space to NGO (non-profit organizations) so they could also be first responders in the emergency. We started to think about what other services we could provide…This is work that continues until our businesses and our economy are back on track and the social fiber of our society is regenerated and healed.”