Puerto Rico scandal stirs anger and memories of the difficult days after Hurricane Maria
CAROLINA, Puerto Rico - Every night for a week after Hurricane Maria, David Adames sat in the dark inside his funeral home here on the outskirts of San Juan in case another family needed him.
The 46-year-old embalmer posts his cellphone number on a placard near the front door with instructions to call at any hour. But the Category 4 hurricane had knocked out power and cellular service on much of the island, so people would just walk into Funeraria Adames Memorial and tell him where to pick up the dead.
He embalmed 20 bodies that month - more than twice the usual number - and worked at a frantic pace to avoid burning out his gasoline-powered generator or wasting precious fuel. When a nearby hospital fried its generator, it couldn't keep its mortuary cold and corpses started to rot.
He said families pleaded with him: "Is there
