While playing in Puerto Rico, Roberto Perez remembers Hurricane Maria

Sept. 28, 2017. The Cleveland Indians beat the Minnesota Twins 5-2. It was their 100th win, just a few weeks after concluding an American League record-setting 22-game winning streak. Indians catcher Roberto Perez broke an 0-for-18 skid with his eighth home run of the season in the 5-2 victory.

It was a particularly memorable day for Perez, for none of those reasons: He had spoken to his mom for the first time in close to a week.

On Sept. 20, Hurricane Maria became the first Category 4 storm to make landfall in Puerto Rico since 1932, bringing 155 mph winds and massive rainfall. And something unprecedented happened: Power and communication were completely cut off to the vast majority of the…