It’s hard to walk around East Harlem without seeing a symbol of Puerto Rican culture. Home to a large Puerto Rican community, the area is often referred to as Spanish Harlem or El Barrio.

Many of the community are thinking about their loved ones back on the island as it’s in the path of Hurricane Fiona.

“In this neighborhood, there’s a lot of Puerto Ricans and Dominicans also. But especially Puerto Ricans around here and we’re very concerned. We’ve been talking about it,” said Evelyn Vasquez Móntalvo, an East Harlem resident who has ties to Puerto Rico.

Another resident, David Roman, said he’s tried connecting with his family.

“I have family in Puerto Rico. I have cousins. I have aunts,” Roman said, mentioning that he had got in contact with one of his cousins. “She told me that there is a storm coming. That she was okay. That she was preparing to secure the storm.”

Some in the community wish they could do more.

“I feel like I can’t help them because I’m over here and they’re over there,” said Charon Martinez, who mentioned that most of her family were displaced after Hurricane Maria in 2017. “Some of them lost houses. It got very destroyed. Right now I haven’t heard from them. I hope they’re okay.”

Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico and still almost five years to the day, the island is still feeling plagued by issues with power as the island tries to reconstruct its grid.

“That was an absolute terrible storm. They prepare with getting the food that they need. Knowing that they’re electricity, even without the storm it goes away,” Zoraida Plaza, another New Yorker with family on the island, said.

The community hoping that Puerto Rico isn’t significantly impacted by this storm.

“I just don’t want nobody getting hurt. We have lost so many lives in these past few years,” Martinez said. “I want everyone to take cover.”