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poalakoala · 7 years

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Puerto Rico from somebody on the ground, UPDATES

I've had many people in the US ask me how they can help, and I'll be honest that I haven't had the time to sit down and properly think about it (doesn't help that I have access to information on the internet for approx 15 minutes every day), but now I'm going to throw this out there. It's going to be long. Firstly, you need to understand the situation. Our infrastructure is destroyed. We have no power, in fact, the 4% of San Juan that managed to get electricity back lost it again. Last I read only 45% of the island had clean water services. This isn't just a lack of food and water. In case you hadn't heard, we're also approximately $72 billion in debt, and this hurricane is estimated to have cost over $30 billion in damages. You can send all the food and bottled water you want, and by all means please continue to do so because we are short on those, but there's also a huge distribution problem. Many supermarkets have not been able to open again because of structural damage. People are making lines for hours to be able to get into the few that are operational again. Gas stations? 80% were supposed to open again by Tuesday, September 26, yet people are still making literally 8+ hour lines (this is not an exaggeration) in the HOPES that they will be allowed to get some fuel. Many banks are only dispensing cash, which is vital because the vast majority of establishments can only accept cash at the moment, and the lines for the atms also can take hours. People have 5am to 7pm to be able to do all these things in one day because of curfew. Some hospitals are running out of diesel already, meaning that their back up generators are shutting down, so all those patients are being transferred to government hospitals that were already understaffed and understocked BEFORE Maria. To recap, in San Juan, where conditions are better, people are wholly dependent on cash to buy basic necessities, people have no power, in many cases no water, no communication with the outside world or the rest of Puerto Rico, no gasoline to get around, barely any places to get food, and entire hospitals are being evacuated. Literal boatloads of supplies are sitting in ports because the government can't distribute them, and some ships are just sitting there with their cargo. It's much worse outside of San Juan. Entire towns have no working gas stations, no hospitals, no running water, and no operational supermarkets (on top of no power or communication). Maria destroyed the vast majority of our crops. Many of these towns were also hit the hardest by the hurricane and saw thousands of families completely lose their homes. Now back to the distribution problem: you can send tons of food and articles of basic necessity, but if the government is having a hard time distributing them in the metropolitan area, it's literally downright impossible to get them to some of these towns. But what about the aid that has already been sent? Not enough. We need more resources, personnel, money, everything. Many of the rescue personnel and federal authorities already here came weeks ago because of Irma's devastation in other Caribbean islands and can't focus entirely on the disaster in Puerto Rico. Like I said earlier, distribution and mobilization is one of the key problems. I go around San Juan and don't see any of the people that came to help. Entire towns elsewhere in the island have not seen a single paramedic, soldier, or FEMA worker. The only places I've seen them are in the hotels they're staying at, so there's clearly a massive problem with mobilization. American politicians? I've seen some pay lip service to the plight of Puerto Rico, but not a single package or proposal. Local officials had to beg Congress to notice what was happening. President Trump was kind enough to give $1 million of his vast fortune to efforts in Houston (notice the sarcasm), yet he hasn't offered a single penny to efforts to rebuild Puerto Rico. He thought that criticizing NFL players exercising their right of free speech was more important.

OCTOBER 6TH UPDATE

I’ve been struggling with this update for a while because it’s almost been a week since the last and, well, a lot has both happened and not happened.

So Trump’s visit. It was what we were all expecting, despite the tiny flicker of hope that he would suddenly see the light and mobilize to help us. Trump held a press conference that didn’t allow any local reporters to ask questions, just the approved group that had travelled with him, because in true facist fashion Trump wanted to control the narrative and not face any hard hitting questions. He was taken to a wealthy area, where he visited one family and then was taken to a wealthy church for some basket paper towel games. He minimized our suffering and devastation by saying this wasn’t a disaster like Katrina (nevermind that the 3 Star General in the island has already compared the situation to Katrina and says this is worse than anything he has ever seen), praised the federal response, took a picture with a bunch of sell out local politicians, and then boarded his plane one hour before schedule to take off.

Trump came almost two weeks after Maria destroyed us. He was scheduled to be here for 5 hours and spent 4. Of those four hours, he spent 17 minutes talking to local officials about what we needed and the status of the situation. 17 minutes. He also just made fun of us in a press conference by imitating the Puerto Rican accent on camera and then outright laughing, but hey, he already told the island to go fuck itself and get over ourselves ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

This piece explains how FEMA is already trying to bury updates about Puerto Rico and make people think they/Trump are doing a spectacular job

Moving on……

Things where I’m staying are getting better. My brother’s apartment has electricity again because he lives next to many hotels currently housing feds as well as the airport. The supermarket next door is open and has mostly non-perishable foods, lines to get in are about 1 to 1.5 hours. There’s also a few fast food joints open nearby. Overall, things are pretty good where I live, but at this point that means having water + electricity and access to some food. That’s what’s considered the good life right now in Puerto Rico, and it’s a luxury available to less than 10% of the island, two and a half weeks after the hurricane. Do NOT let the media fool you. Whatever pictures and videos you see of people going back to their normal lives is extremely misleading and likely taken in wealthy areas of San Juan. We’re still going through a humanitarian crisis, and millions are still in dire circumstances that have not changed since the hurricane hit.

The federal response continues to be underwhelming. They’ve been air dropping aid to cut off towns, but the pictures I’ve seen of this aid are often zip lock bags with one pack of cookies, one can of sausages, one Mots and a granola bar. These are the so called “care packages.”

I was watching a local news show and they interviewed the woman in charge of the reserves in the island (90% of which are Puerto Ricans that were already here btw). She outright admitted that the federal response has been slow and they’re not satisfied with what they’ve been doing, but that they’re working to do better. The show was Jay Fonseca’s October 5th 10pm program, in case anybody wants to hunt down the clip. I believe her, but I don’t have much faith in her superiors acting quickly.

Statistics time:

- That death toll of 16 people is utter garbage. The same day that Trump went on about our measly 16 people death toll, the official number was updated to 34. A few days after we finally got information from towns in the western side of the island and they reported at least 200 deaths just in that zone. Many hospitals are still processing their numbers, and people continue to bury loved ones in backyards.

- About 90% of the island is still without power, those with electricity are for the most part in the wealthier pockets of the metropolitan area. Even those areas still suffer from power outages that can last up to days at a time.

- About half the island still without water.

- Most of the hospitals are running, but many depend on generators that run on diesel and we still have a diesel crisis. Some are barely functional, as in doctors are performing surgeries with iPhone flashlights.

- The big international airport is running 24 hours now and there’s less hysteria, but people are being told to get there four hours early and many still get their flights cancelled at the last minute. Some airlines are capping their prices at low prices under $100, but I don’t think that’s going to last for much longer. Cruise ships have started charging again to get people out.

- As of October 3rd FEMA had yet to authorize full disaster help, which Texas got 10 days after Harvey

Fundraisers to donate to:

ComPRometidos - In my opinion the best big fundraiser to donate to, they’re doing a lot of work to also rebuild infrastructure and help long term recovery

Jane Stern Dorado Community - Helps a local library in Dorado that is also acting as a relief center, this fund is run by a friend of mine I trust immensely.

CMU Student’s Humanitarian Mission - Also run by somebody I know and trust, she’s using connections to charter a private jet that takes supplies to the island and brings back elderly/people in need of hospital care to the states.

General Reminders:

- Please, PLEASE call your Congresspeople, ask for the Jones Act to be removed, ask for debt relief so that we don’t have to prioritize paying back Wall Street, FOR GOD’S SAKE SEND MORE HELP TO REBUILD OUR INFRASTRUCTURE ASAP

- Petition to remove Jones Act

#Puerto Rico #Maria #Hurricane Maria

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