Isle Needs More Help, PR Mayor Says at Brooklyn College

By MARLENE GOMEZ & JAMIE DELIZ

Puerto Rico isn’t getting the continued help it needs from FEMA and the Mayor of San Juan isn’t backing down!

This determination was crystal clear as San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulin Cruz-Soto visited Brooklyn College Thursday to boost awareness and aid to the Caribbean island following the recent devastation caused by Hurricane Maria.

The mayor said she recently received word that as of December 15, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Army Reservists would “pull out” of Puerto Rico because the island was in the “process of stabilization” 10 weeks after the hurricane hit.

FEMA reportedly has provided more than $230 million to assist families and $464 million for rebuilding infrastructures. Yet, Puerto Rico’s debt exceeds $70 billion, which may take years to recover and pay off.

Cruz who walked around at times holding back tears as she spoke about the state of the island, advocated that the debt be cleared. “What you knew before was no more.” Cruz said. “This was about saving lives, nothing else.” She added, “You cannot rebuild, you have to transform.”

Earlier Cruz had said that about 166.4 million pounds of trash was picked up in San Juan, which includes the 87.7 million pounds of debris and vegetation.

In San Juan, also according to Cruz, 218,778 out of 350,000 people were fed with the the help of The Hispanic Federation, providing some 217,000 pounds of food.

While improvements are being made, some Puerto Ricans are still living in the dark.

“As of today, about 90 percent of the people have water,” said Cruz. “Those that do not have water, don’t have water because there’s no electricity. There’s about 50-60 percent of generation of electricity, which does not mean that people have power at their homes. It means that electricity’s been generated, that we have a renewed capacity, but it does not mean that it’s being distributed.”

Most of the hospitals in Puerto Rico are still running on generators, but it can not withstand “weeks and weeks and weeks of 24 hours a day,” said Cruz. In most cases, many doctors have to operate using the light from their cellular phones, while also having to pump, by hand, the “lungs of their patients.”

Also present was New York City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito, a native of Puerto Rico who has visited the island three times since Hurricane Maria hit. Her mother still resides there.

“I come here to also challenge each and every one of us, that we make a long-term commitment to the future of Puerto Rico,” said Mark-Viverito. “Our ability to organize, and push back,  and demand that this government and this administration  do what is right by Puerto Rico, because this administration and this country owes a lot to Puerto Rico.”

The San Juan mayor walked around with students relating ideas of how they could help the island. Then she ate a Nathan’s hot dog on a campus bench, saying she had been eating Spam for weeks.