It's so hard to have left the island to go to university in the states and I thought at the moment that would be the hardest thing I would have to do. But this past week Puerto Rico was hit by Hurricane Maria. The island has been left without power, there is almost no running water throughout the entire island, lines for gasoline and food stretch for hours, hospitals are running out of diesel to run their generators. People are quite literally dying because help cannot come to them soon enough, and I'm halfway around the world feeling hopeless and selfish that I can't do more for my island in their time of need. I have been fortunate enough to have some communication with my family and know they are all right but this is not the reality for many many families on the island which a week later still don't know how many of their family members are. There are less than fifteen flights leaving a day and people are desperate to get out.
I could go on and on forever about different scenarios I've heard of, but I think the one that struck me the hardest, the one that made me visualize the situation the best was a text a friend of mine posted that her father sent her. She posted it on her facebook but I think it encaptures the situation perfectly well.
"Well the stone age continues on the island. Funny how much we need all these gadgets and then you get used to not having them and would just settle with an elevator that works so you don't have to climb 4 times a day to the 19th floor.. But in general it's almost funny how screwed up its getting. Food is scarce at the markets so people are buying whatever they get their hands on... I am buying lunch for everyone at the office everyday. Today the person that was in charge of getting food could only find cheese filled knockworst. Needless to say I had an orange for lunch. But the crazy part is the fact that without electricity people can't keep much in their houses or cook so we need to buy food from restaurants... Problem is that nobody is taking credit cards because systems are down and the cash machines aren't working because of communication issues. So everyone is running out of cash an they can't buy food and they can't call people to ask for food because their phones don't work, communication in most places is non-existent and they can't drive anywhere to find the food because gas is so limited that they stand in lines that have 250cars waiting at a time so they wait is 5hours.. But it gets complicated because they can't stand in them or they miss work and won't get a paycheck. So maybe they can go after work? Nope.. Because everybody has to rush home because curfew starts at 7 so all gas station workers start closing at 5. Some banks are starting to open but lines are horrendous... Today I send a worker to stand in line and he was In the line from 8am until 4pm..the bank had to close for a long time because they ran our of diesel for their generator. But those are the lucky ones.. Most companies haven't opened hundreds of thousands of workers will not get paid.no work, no pay. No money, no food, no running water, no oven, no police to protect them because the police has to be protecting the diesel fuel that is going to urgent care facilities because hoodlums are stealing the gas.. But you still see people with axes cutting down fallen branches. They say it keeps their mind of the fact that they along with their mom, brother neighbor and uncle just had the roofs peeled off their homes. They have nothing but they have hope. So they feel they have it all. There's lots of talk of humanitarian relief coming soon. I hope it gets here before more tragedy hits.. Hungry, angry, unbathed, working all day and going home to heat, hard floors without beds because they were washed away. Today I was able to change a check for $1,000 because of limits in exchange and handed it out amongst the workers so they would at least go home with cash. I had the warehouse guys standing in the gas lines with all of the office personnel cars to fill their $20 quotas. We made it thru another day.. I hope people will show up for work tomorrow because you don't know what situation they will face.. But the day goes by, we get into our jobs and all seems somehow normal.. It's like people have cried so much they don't want to cry anymore because people keep telling them, hey at least your still alive.. One of the girls that works in merchandising was telling us the days it took to take her neighbors body away because the proper personnel couldn't make it thru.. He died from a heart attack during the storm.. Sad stories.. But she said the story and then turned back to her Computer screen. It took me hours to just comprehend that incident.. Anyways.. I hear the cavalry is arriving soon...i think that as soon as people start seeing power turning back on things will turn around fast."
So if any of this resonates with you, I urge you, any dollar amount counts. There are many thrustworthy non-profit links set up to help recovery in Puerto Rico.
http://unidosporpuertorico.com/ (in spanish)
http://unidosporpuertorico.com/en/ (in english)
https://hispanicfederation.org/donate (and where it says ‘I would like to designate this gift for’ click Puerto Rico Hurricane Relief)
Text UNIDOS (space) YOUR AMOUNT (space) and YOUR NAME to 41444. Press send. Click link.
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