Reporting for this story was supported by the Pulitzer Center. Sarah Mattalian is a 2025 Reporting Fellow.
The heavy downpours that bring roughly 90 inches of rainfall to Las Marías, Puerto Rico, each year subside in the first few weeks of December, the start of the dry season. Even as the rainfall decreases, rain still comes on a near-daily basis, often in short bursts that cause mist to rise from the tropical mountainside forests. The rain makes it easy for rainbows to form above the hills where the municipality is nestled.
But the precipitation causes more than iridescence in the sky. The region where Las Marías is located, on the west side of the archipelago’s main island, about 90 miles from San Juan, is elevated and prone to landslides. Heavy rainfall cascades into swollen rivers,