Puerto Rico's biggest airport is teeming with travelers, as people attempt to flee the destruction the hurricanes meted, while other fly in to help. As NY1's Michael Herzenberg discovered on scene, the airport provides a window into the crisis on the island.

Flying into San Juan, you see piles of rubble are everywhere.

Get a little closer, and you realize you saw people's home.

At the airport, there is twisted metal and emotions. "You see everything destroyed, devastating," one woman said, her voice heavy. "You just don't know what to do, what step to take."

The hurricanes blew away the woman's roof and flooded her home. Her family thought they were going to die.

"That night was terrifying," she said.

Now, like others at the airport, she's waiting for a family member. Her nephew from Albany is flying in with food and supplies.

"Keep ringing because that's the only response that we're going to have," she said.

While the main areas of San Juan Airport that have commercial flights are filled with people coming into Puerto Rico and family members waiting for them, general aviation areas are packed with people waiting to leave.

"It's been hard living here with this situation," said Abigail Sophia Roman, who is part of the exodus.

17-year-old Abigail Sophia Roman has been ill. She was hospitalized during the storm, and is flying to Orlando to live with her uncle for a while. Her mother got seats on a flight, which were donated by the Houston Astros.

"A lot of mixed emotions of course," said her mother, Marielle Chavez. "I would want her to be with me and I want to be the one who helps her out, but I know she's going to be better there."

The wait is long and hot for prop planes and jets, with the terminal overflowing with people.

Dr. Frank Nocilla, a physician from Lake Placid, New York, has to wait in the heat and humidity outside for a flight home.

"When there's a disaster, we get activated as a team," Nocilla said. "We set up medical tents and provide medical services to the people."

Nocilla was deployed by the federal government for ten days in Puerto Rico, providing badly-needed medical care, after spending three weeks in Houston amid the devastation of Hurricane Harvey.

"You're helping people directly who have been completely destroyed in so many different ways, and we can provide medical care, and if we can do that it's the best thing you can do in your life," Nocilla said.

It's a good thing he feels that way: He's scheduled to return to Puerto Rico for another tour in November.