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Hurricane Maria Is Hitting Puerto Ricans in Their Pocketbook

"We are paying more on a daily basis, because by not having electricity... it could be an additional more than $15 a day of (fuel)," said one local

Surviving for what is now more than five weeks without electricity and depending on bottled water is adding up for the residents of Puerto Rico.

Costs for survival are on top of what they have to pay for items or homes damaged or lost in Maria's destructive sweep up the middle of the island.

"We are paying more on a daily basis, because by not having electricity – in my case I found a generator – it could be an additional more than $15 a day of (fuel)," said Lizette Rodriguez, who lives in Caguas, but has been staying in her mother-in-law's apartment in San Juan for the past two weeks.

Rodriguez said that before Maria, she would normally spend $15 a week on gasoline for her car. But that's how much she was spending per day for her generator, which she can't run continuously.

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