https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/nov/09/six-weeks-after-hurricane-maria-puerto-ricans-still-waiting-for-help-from-fema
Six weeks after Hurricane Maria, Puerto Ricans still waiting for help
from Fema
Federal agency still hobbled by lack of electricity and reliable cell
and internet service – stopping Puerto Ricans from getting the help they
desperately need
[Hmmm, you would think the lead disaster response agency in the U.S.
would know to bring their own power, portable cellular service towers
and fuel. All the NGOs know that.]
Oliver Milman in Utuado
Thursday 9 November 2017 06.00 GMT
Online aid forms that can’t be filled out because there’s no internet.
Follow-up calls missed because cellphones can’t get a signal. Federal
officials who can’t speak Spanish and leave families waiting for weeks.
More than six weeks after Hurricane Maria, the Federal Emergency
Management Agency (Fema) is still hobbled by the lack of electricity and
reliable cell and internet service – stopping Puerto Ricans from
accessing assistance they desperately need.
“I feel like it’s constant begging, I’m a professional woman and now I’m
crawling, just crawling for help,” said Luz Nereida Montero, a former
school administrator who lives in the town of Utuado, a community
perched in the mountains that rise in the centre of the island.
To apply for federal aid, residents must fill out a form online or call
a telephone number – but no one has access to the internet or phone in
Utuado. Fema has gone back to paper and pencil in Puerto Rico to remedy
this, but residents said the first federal representative only showed up
in Utuado last week, 42 days after Maria.
Before Fema arrived, Nereida Montero traveled several hours to another
town to get in touch with her daughter-in-law in Michigan to fill out
the online form. She’s still unsure when Fema will show up to inspect
her house to approve the assistance money. And she has another common
problem in that she’s not sure how the agency will contact her either,
given her complete lack of communications.
Maybe they’ll send a letter to her ruined house. For now, she’s living
with her ex-husband, surviving on crackers and cookies supplied by the
church.
In several different towns, people reported that Fema staff often did
not speak Spanish, either in person or during long waits on the phone.
Federal employees sent to the island have struggled in the mountains,
often getting lost and asking for directions or left stymied by
impassable roads. A key bridge near Utuado completely collapsed,
prompting residents to erect a rudimentary zip line in order to receive
food and water over the muddy river.
Fema would be forgiven for feeling a little punch-drunk. For the first
time in 166 years of records two category four hurricanes made landfall
on the continental US in the same season, with Harvey dumping 25
trillion gallons of water in just a few days in Texas, followed by Irma
ripping up the spine of Florida.
Then came Maria on 20 September, pummeling Puerto Rico with winds of up
to 154mph and damaging or wiping out 230,000 homes. The whole island was
left without power and the the lack of drinkable water drove some people
to rip the seals off wells that were condemned due to toxic pollution.
The Guardian asked Fema if its response to Maria has been slow or
unwieldy, prompting the agency to forcefully reject the suggestion.
“Are you aware of Harvey? Of Irma? Are you aware of the wildfires in
California? To cover this story properly you have to get that right,” a
Fema spokesman told the Guardian.
“It’s been a challenging time. It’s an island surrounded by water 1,000
miles from Florida. We’ve moved as quick as we can. You seem stuck on
slow. It’s not slow.”
Fema has extended the deadline for disaster relief to 120 days, easing a
looming deadline for applications that was previously due on 20
November. The agency said it has registered more than 1 million people
for assistance, approving $125m in payments so far.
It insists it has a presence in each of Puerto Rico’s 78 municipalities
and those like Utuado that were hard to reach have received
helicopter-borne supply drops. Local people have been hired to help deal
with Spanish speakers on the phone, although the inspections are largely
done by contractors.
“Many places are still not accessible, but we are finding creative and
innovative ways to reach people,” said the Fema spokesman. “People are
staying with relatives, or in hotels, so we reach out by email or
through family members. It might take a bit longer.”
Government bureaucracy has sometimes jarred with traditional practices
in places like Utuado, which is surrounded by peaks covered in the
broken bones of flattened trees. Like many agriculture-based communities
– coffee is grown in the hills here – land is often divided up
informally within families. Applications for aid that demand deeds and
other property verification are met with puzzlement. An emergency legal
aid fund has been set up to bridge the gap.
“The people who come from the US don’t know our idiosyncrasies, or even
our rights or our laws,” said Carmen Villaneuva Castro, a community
leader in San Juan who has led efforts to provide aid to those outside
the metropolis. “Sometimes they don’t know words in Spanish. It’s like
they don’t know our reality.”
Electricity output is still 40% below normal levels and around 20% of
Puerto Ricans still don’t have water. The total number of deaths is less
clear – the official tally stands at about 55 but Carmin Yulín Cruz, the
mayor of San Juan, has said the actual total is much higher, most likely
in the hundreds.
Meanwhile, San Juan is staggering back towards normalcy – vegetation is
now on the previously bare trees, the lines at gas stations have
dissipated and mobile phone coverage is creeping back. But the recovery
is much slower in rural areas and there’s hefty cynicism aimed at both
Fema – “Fema es el problema” is stamped into bollards along several main
streets – and at the debt-ridden Puerto Rican government and
municipalities that are supposed to direct the aid that Fema provides.
“It’s been 43 days and it should be getting better, but it’s not,” said
Yulixa Paredes, another Utuado resident who hasn’t been to work since
4ft of water was introduced to her office. “People are getting desperate
now. There’s not much food. There’s still not much gas. There’s no
water, even in the supermarket.”
The delays have surprised some aid workers who are still trying to
administer basics such as food, water and shelter. At the Coliseo
Roberto Clemente, a venue for basketball and gymnastics turned into an
aid processing centre, “hope” packages are being sent out filled with
rice, raisins and, to help purify putrid water, chlorine tablets.
“I was in Haiti after the earthquake in 2010 and it seemed like there
was a bigger US government presence then than there is here now,” said
David Darg, vice-president of international operations at Operation
Blessing, a humanitarian organization operating from Coliseo Roberto
Clemente. “It has surprised me that there are still huge gaps that need
to be filled.”
