images tell of maria s destruction. but on the ground the faces tell the story of the desperation, as many on this island of 3.5 million people struggle to reach their loved ones. this is the only place where we can just signal. reporter: on this highway overpass, dozens pull over, hoping that this spot is the one to reunite family, if only by voice. jose flores drove for hours to get here, to get to cell service, to get to tell his daughter in florida one thing. so she ll let my family know that we re fine. reporter: for other, borrowed satellite phones are their last hope. people are trying anything they can to reach out. this note handwritten was passed along to our photographer in hopes that it would reach a loved one. it says, among other things, tony, okay. tony at frank s house, and love you all. thank you, thank you, thank you. reporter: later that day, we were able to get a call out to
this is the only place where we can get signal. reporter: on this highway overpass, dozens pull over, hoping that this spot is the one to reunite family, if only by voice. jose flores drove for hours to get here, to get to cell service, to get to tell his daughter in florida one thing. so she ll let my family know that we re fine. reporter: for others, borrowed satellite phones are their last hope. people are trying anything they can to reach out. this note handwritten was passed along to our photographer in hopes that it would reach a loved one. it says, among other things, tony okay. tony at frank s house and love you all. thank you, thank you, thank you. reporter: later that day we were able to get a call out to his girlfriend in new york. so it was just such a relief. neither i nor his family has slept all week just worrying about him. reporter: an fcc report found
everything? not only that, many residents are having a hard time reaching their loved ones because most of the cell phone towers are not working. here is the latest from cnn s leyla santiago in san juan. reporter: from above, the images tell the story of maria s destruction. but on the ground, the faces tell the story of its desperation. as many on this island of 3.5 million people struggle to reach their loved ones. this is the only place where we can get signal. reporter: on this highway overpass, dozens pull over, hoping that this spot is the one to reunite family, if only by voice. jose flores drove for hours to get here, to get to cell service, to get to tell his daughter in florida one thing. so she ll let my family know that we re fine. reporter: for others, borrowed satellite phones are their last hope. people are trying anything they
how puerto ricans are struggling to get calls to the mainland to let family members know they survived the hurricane. reporter: from above the images tell the story of maria s destruction but on the ground the faces tell the story of its desperation as many on this island of 3.5 million people struggle to reach their loved ones. this is only place where we can get signal. reporter: on this highway overpass, dozens pull over, hoping that this spot is the one to reunited family if only by a voice. jose flores drove for hours to get here to get to cell service, to get to tell his daughter in florida one thing. to let my family know we re fine. reporter: for others, borrowed satellite phones are their last hope. people are trying anything they can to reach out. this note handwritten was passed along to our photographer in hopes that it would reach a
rescued? my estimate is over 1,000. we need more people in boats and vehicles going door-to-door. this is a door-to-door process. the president and first lady now on the way to texas. our live coverage begins with scot mclane in houston. scott? reporter: john, the rain is still coming down here in houston. we are in the northeast part of town under a highway overpass. this is a staging area for a lot of emergency crews and the volunteers who brought their own boats to help out however they can with the flooding. you can see those ready tvs there belong to the coast guard. they have unloaded boats. they are going to be headed out. if i can get the photographer to pan out to show what we are dealing with. you can see how heavy those bands of rain are that are coming down. a lot of people are headed out into this. as you can see on the horizon there, there are homes back there. a whole heck of a lot of them