My Five Days in Puerto Rico

I just arrived home in New Jersey after spending five days traveling all over Puerto Rico. In the interest of elevating awareness about just how bad things are, and to hopefully encourage more and more people to get involved with the relief, recovery and rebuilding effort, I hope you'll take a few minutes to read my short account of the experience. When you do, try and imagine being there without electricity or a roof over your head; cut off from the world, unable to find clean water to drink, food to eat, or medicines to take. That's what the vast majority of our fellow Americans in Puerto Rico are dealing with right now, and it's just not right.

Sunday, October 15

I spent my first day in Puerto Rico traveling around parts of the island with Segismundo Gutierrez, Head of Operations for Senator Henry Neumann. Gutierrez has been deeply involved in all aspects of the relief effort, and he’s also worked closely with my friend Tanya and the team at Stronger & Better Together.

We drove through the town of Loiza where enormous shopping centers had been condemned, people and cars were lined up on the side of the road waiting for food and gas, police officers were directing traffic on roads that had piles of debris, including downed powerlines and trees, on both sides. It’s also where an enterprising Puerto Rican was standing on the side of the road selling washboards because doing laundry using a washing machine is not an option without power.

During my visit to Llorens Torres, one of the largest public housing projects in Puerto Rico, I met three chefs. All three had lost their jobs when the restaurants they worked at (Nonna & Finca) were destroyed by Maria. Today, they were volunteering their time cooking hot meals for Llornes Torres residents over a makeshift stove. While flooding was widespread in Puerto Rico after Maria, Llornes Torres was under two to three feet of water more than a week and a half after the storm. We also drove through the grounds of the largest horse racing track in Puerto Rico, Hipodromo Camarero. Despite the fact that most of the facility is in ruin, including the stables where only half of them seemed to have a roof, there are still tons of horses being boarded there.

Condado Beach, where I’m staying, and Old San Juan were also hit hard by the storm as evidenced by the piles of garbage and trees on the sidewalks, boarded up windows and fractured buildings. However, both areas were buzzing with life and the hum of generators, which powered a number of bars, restaurants and stores.

The Federal Government is coordinating their response a short distance away at the Centro de Convenciones and nearby airfield, where FEMA trucks, military vehicles, and satellite dishes line the parking lots and helicopters sit waiting on the tarmac. There’s also a Sheraton hotel and casino on the grounds, which was packed with people gorging on free WiFi and Cuban food while taking a break from the oppressive heat in their ice-cold air conditioned lobby – a stark contrast from everywhere else I’ve visited to date.

Down at the Port of San Juan, I saw acres and acres of shipping containers that included countless rows of refrigerated containers with generators humming away to keep their contents cold. Later in the day I had the opportunity to speak with the Comptroller for United for Puerto Rico, an initiative started by the First lady of Puerto Rico that provides aid and support to those affected by Hurricane Maria. He told me that they are processing 7-12 shipping containers per day from their base of operations on the main floor of the Coliseo de Puerto Rico.

The Coliseo de Puerto Rico is also home base for Chef José Andrés’ World Central Kitchen, a collaboration between local businesses, chefs, and volunteers who prepare and distribute tens of thousands of meals per day – tins of paella, sandwiches, etc. Today they had made more than 18,000 sandwiches and roughly 15,000 orders of paella by 4:00 p.m. I spent time speaking with Ginny Pinero, a lawyer by training who now spends 100 percent of her time coordinating the overall effort, and Jose Ortiz, who founded a mobile food ordering company called, Dame Un Bite, and runs logistics. They were both so gracious with their time and incredibly positive despite the circumstances. I’m looking forward to going back tomorrow to see the World Central Kitchen team in action.

Shortly after the sun went down and the skies opened up with teaming rain, we drove through Israel-Bitumul, which was described to me as one of the worst barrios in San Juan. The streets were pitch black except for our headlights and a handful of illuminated windows. Like most of the other places I visited today, the streets were piled high with garbage – mattresses, sheet metal, trees – and many of the houses had a blue tarp in place of a roof. I can’t even imagine what it’s like to live in a house with no roof, electricity, or running water for a day, let alone three weeks.

I knew that the people of Puerto Rico needed help, but seeing the devastation firsthand makes me realize just how dire the situation on the ground really is. Unfortunately, I’m told that the places I’ll visit in the days ahead are much, much worse. More to come...

Monday, October 16

Today I woke up to overcast skies and a light, but steady rain.

At around 9:00 a.m., I was picked up by a Trademark Paralegal and law school student named Alejandro Calaf who had recently started a non-profit called, Water for Puerto Rico. Alejandro had made plans to deliver bottles of water and other items to students at a school called Crearte in Yabucoa, a city on the southeast side of the island where Maria first made landfall packing 155 mile-per-hour winds.

Crearte is a non-profit, government and privately-funded school that offers programs aimed at the formation of values and character through the arts, creativity and commitment to learning. Before heading out, we stopped at Crearte’s San Juan location in the barrio of San José. Like nearly every other building in Puerto Rico, the school was devoid of power and had sustained damage during the storm, which a group of adults were working to fix as we walked in. At roughly the same time, the skies opened up and it began to pour.

Alejandro and I got a tour the facilities, which were full of kids ranging in age from nursery school to high school, and we spent a few minutes speaking with the school’s Executive Director, Brenda Liz Santos Hernández. Brenda beamed with pride as she spoke about Crearte, but her eyes welled up with tears when talk turned to the magnitude of the rebuilding effort. The rain was still coming down pretty hard, but we agreed to make a run for Alejandro’s truck so we could make our way to the city of Caguas in the Central Mountain Range of Puerto Rico, which is where FEMA has one of their main distribution centers.

As we approached Caguas, the rain picked up in intensity, and before long roads turned into rushing rivers, which wreaked havoc on small cars, dislodged debris and snarled traffic. When we finally arrived at the FEMA distribution center, Alejandro explained what we needed, answered a few questions and ultimately signed for the 2000 lbs. pallet of water bottles and 10 cases of American Red Cross Comfort Kits, which we loaded into his pick-up truck (with the help of a forklift).

About 40-minutes later, we arrived in Yabucoa, a city whose landscape remains littered with twisted metal, downed powerlines, telephone poles and lots and lots of trees.

After unloading the water and comfort kits, I got a tour of the facility from the school’s English Facilitator, Jose Velez and IT/Data Entry Lead, Pedro Rosa. As we walked, Jose and Pedro talked glowingly about the Crearte program. They also stopped every few feet to show me examples of Maria's destructive power - sections of missing roof, disfigured classrooms, and their newly destroyed basketball facility, which was meant to provide shelter from the storm for the Yabucoa Police Departments' brand new SUVs.

While Crearte has remained closed to the 22 Montessori students, aged 3-months to 4-years old, and eighty-four 12 to 21-year-olds enrolled to attend, the staff has been working on repairs and fulfilling requests for aid from local residents. To date, they have delivered care packages to roughly 1200 families in need, which is of critical importance because more than 50 percent of Yabucoa residents live below the poverty line.

While the people of Puerto Rico (at least the ones I’ve met) are optimistic that things will improve, it’s not happening fast enough. I visited a couple on the outskirts of the rain forest in a community called Zarzal in the town of Rio Grande. They didn’t have electricity or running water, and use a bucket of water to “flush” their toilet.

Driving down the highways, it’s not uncommon to see clusters of cars parked on the side of the road with their hazard lights on because they’ve found a cell signal. As a result of today’s rain, the Rio Grande de Loiza, the largest river in Puerto Rico by volume overflowed its banks – again, further complicating the relief and rebuilding effort. Schools remain closed and there’s talk that the entire school semester may be suspended.

So, when will things return to “normal”? I have no idea, but I know this: the people of Puerto Rico deserve better.

Tuesday, October 17

Before leaving my hotel this morning, I saw a U.S. Marshall from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives, and decided to start-up a conversation. I learned that he was based in Virginia and had arrived in San Juan late yesterday from St. Croix where he had been assisting with the relief effort there. His new assignment: to escort doctors and their medical supplies to the areas of greatest need, and take precautionary measures to guard against potential violence, including theft. Moments later, my ride pulled up so we shook hands and went our separate ways.

My first stop on my third day was a return visit to the Coliseo so I could see the volunteers from Chef José Andrés’ World Central Kitchen #ChefsforPuertoRico operation preparing huge pans of paella and sandwiches for distribution to those in need. I was totally blown away by every aspect of their operation. There were teams of people assigned to every step of the paella preparation, packaging and distribution process, and they executed it with military precision.

They had an equally sophisticated approach to sandwich-making, wrapping and distribution, which I had to learn from one of the other volunteers before they would let me help out. White bread first, then a healthy dose of cheese spread, followed by sliced ham, a thick schmear of mayonnaise, and finished off with one more slice of white bread.

Then it needed to be wrapped tightly and placed neatly into a cardboard box for distribution. I didn’t keep track of how many sandwiches I made, but by days end the team had prepared and distributed nearly 20,000. I didn’t know it at the time, but my visit coincided with a pretty amazing milestone. With the help of donations from around the world, an army of committed volunteers, food trucks, boats, and even a helicopter, World Central Kitchen has served over 1 million meals to the people of Puerto Rico in over 60 communities.

Shortly after 1:00 p.m., I accompanied my new friend Segismundo Gutierrez to the Capitol of Puerto Rico for the first meeting of the Senate since Hurricane Maria. Despite the fact that I didn’t understand a word of what was said during my time in the chamber (aside from what Segismundo translated for me), the experience was truly fascinating. Having the opportunity to see and hear Senator Henry Neumann and other Senators deliver impassioned statements and propose new laws during what is arguably one of the most pivotal moments in Puerto Rico’s history was not lost on me. I was, and remain extremely grateful to have been there.

Later in the afternoon, I had the good fortune of meeting up with Arland Miller, who along with his wife runs a home improvement retail company called, Remodela. He also happens to be a pilot. In the days after Hurricane Maria, Arland began flying reconnaissance missions all across Puerto Rico, and subsequently began flying relief missions with a number of his friends to some of the hardest hit parts of the island under the banner, Caribbean Flyers.

Arland was kind enough to take time out of his busy day to give me an aerial tour of Puerto Rico in his Cessna 185 Skywagon. After taking off from Isla Grande Airport in San Juan, we spent the next one-and-a-half hours surveying the damage in Loiza, Luquillo, Rio Grande, Fajardo, Ceiba, Yabucoa, Humacao, Maunabo, Patillas/Guayama, Cayey, Aibonito, Barranquitas, Orocovis, Jayuja, Utuado, Arecibo, Barceloneta, Manati, Vega Baja, Dorado, and Toa Baja, from low altitude. What I saw was heartbreaking. Demolished houses. Washed out bridges. Solar and wind farms reduced to splinters. Forests stripped bare. High voltage power lines strewn across a mountainous landscape.

I can’t even begin to imagine the extent to which people are suffering in the hard to reach places I flew over today. The people of Puerto Rico need our help now, and they need it 24 hours per day, seven days per week. This is already a humanitarian crisis of epic proportions, but it has the potential to become far worse. My sincere hope is that local, state and federal government officials will develop a significantly stronger relief, recovery and rebuilding strategy, and commit themselves to doing a better job prioritizing, coordinating and executing the response with greater urgency than before.

Since this isn’t likely to happen overnight, I’d strongly encourage you to support non-profit organizations and individuals who are making a difference today. People like Arland Miller and the Caribbean Flyers, Chef José Andrés’ #ChefsforPuertoRico, and the folks at Stronger and Better Together. While we have a daunting task ahead of us, I remain convinced that together, we can make a difference.

Wednesday, October 18

Today is my fourth day in Puerto Rico, and the first since my arrival that I saw signs of activity and incremental progress toward the recovery and rebuilding effort.

The first crews I saw were from the Jacksonville Electric Authority (JEA), the 8th largest community-owned electric utility company in the U.S. I counted no fewer than 15 trucks, and at least three times that many people, hard at work repairing utility poles and power lines on the road to Caguas in the southernmost part of San Juan.

There was a crew from San Juan’s Department of Natural Resources cleaning out clogged sewers, another repairing pot holes, and another using a chainsaw to pare back dangling limbs from splintered trees. I saw multiple sorties of military helicopters, including at least one CH-47F Chinook buzzing overhead, as well as my first working traffic light. Seriously.

Our first stop today was a return visit to the FEMA distribution center in Caguas to request water for a local non-profit organization called Mano a Mano, as well as tarps for Senator Neumann’s team to deliver to the people of San Juan, Aguas Buenas & Guaynabo. The facility was alive with activity, and crawling with military personnel who were busy loading hundreds of palates of water onto huge trucks and into Humvees for distribution.

After waiting about 30 minutes, we met with the two women responsible for managing inventory and logistics for the facility. They told us that getting water wouldn’t be a problem, but providing us with tarps couldn’t happen without first getting pre-authorization from the government of Puerto Rico. They gave us a number to call and explained that the new review process was requested very recently by the Puerto Rican government because they want to ensure tarps are allocated and distributed equally to the communities that need them, and avoid giving any one location more than they actually need. Unfortunately, Segismundo was unable to reach anyone at the number provided to us by FEMA so we weren’t able to secure any tarps today. Thankfully it didn’t rain.

Later in the afternoon, I accompanied Senator Neumann and his entire team to La Colectora, a densely-populated, economically depressed community in the Figueroa barrio, to deliver food and water to local residents.

Our small caravan snaked its way through streets littered with potholes, debris and other obstacles, including cars, bicycles, shopping carts and the occasional dog before coming to a stop in front of a small park where we had arranged to meet La Colectora community leader Nati Santos. Nati helped coordinate our visit, and was responsible for letting people know we were coming. We arrived to a huge line that stretched down and around the block, and continued to build steadily over the course of our hour-and-a-half-long mission. There was so much demand that a few of us left midway through to get more food and water so no one would be turned away.

There have been so many moments this week where I’ve been on the cusp of tears, but today was the closest I’ve come to breaking down in public. Despite having lost so much, the people I met today were quick with a smile, patient, and extremely thankful. I simply can’t fathom the thought of having to stand in line for a few bottles of water and a box of food just so that I could provide for my family. Can you?

Finally, I’ve received lots of comments on my Facebook posts about the things I’ve seen and done in Puerto Rico, but I was particularly moved by a message from my friend Kate who was worried because she hadn’t been able to get in touch with her friends Alejandra, Leonardo and his brother Emmanuel, who live on the island. I asked her for more information with hopes of being able to help. She told me that they ran a restaurant in Pinones called El Nuevo Acuario, and so I asked Segismundo if there was an easy way to find out if they were OK. He suggested we take a drive to the restaurant, which we did.

What we found was disheartening. The marquee and parts of the roof were missing, and there were clear signs of water damage. There were other restaurants close by that looked to have also suffered at the hands of the storm, but they were open for business. El Nuevo Acuario was not. We decided to ask around to see if anyone knew the owners, and if they did, whether they were alright. Much to our surprise, the very first person we approached told us that all three were fine. He even gave us Leonardo’s dads’ phone number who, when reached a short time later, confirmed that everyone was safe and sound. Needless to say, Kate was so happy to hear the news about her friends, and I was thrilled that the story had a happy ending.

Thursday, October 19

Today was my last day in Puerto Rico, and it got off to an emotional start, which I guess I should have expected. I’ve been staying at the Condado Hilton, which is one of the hotels here in Puerto Rico primarily reserved for FEMA personnel. When I went to check out of my hotel, one of the women at reception greeted me with a big smile and said, “Going home for a few days?” When I told her that I wasn’t with FEMA and explained why I was here and what I have been doing, she welled up with tears and said, “Thank you and bless you for helping the people of Puerto Rico. I hope you won’t forget about us, and will come back soon.” I swallowed hard and told her, “I promise, I won’t.”

Segismundo Gutierrez was waiting downstairs to pick me up because we were headed to Isla Grande Airport to meet Stronger and Better Together' Walter Collazo and Barbara Sacks, and Dr. Elly Benzaquen-Parkes, a member of the Internal Medicine Faculty Practice at Orlando Health, who were traveling in on a plane full of medical supplies.

Dr. Benzaquen-Parkes and her colleague Dr. Michelle Mendez had started a GoFundMe campaign a few weeks earlier to help raise money for the purchase of prescription and over-the-counter medicines.

Thanks to the support of local pharmacies and clinics, they were able to secure most of the medicines and medical products at cost, which included: five different types of antibiotics, cardiac meds, anti-inflammatory meds, Insulin, Glucometers, oral and topical Steroids, and First Aid Kits for Wound Care.Their next steps were to get the supplies to Puerto Rico, and find the best way to distribute them. Thanks to a mutual connection, they got in touch with the team at Stronger and Better Together and began planning for the mission.

After choosing a date, they worked with Segismundo to identify which community to serve, and who else they might partner with to ensure maximum impact. Ultimately the team got in touch with Dr. Humberto Guzmán and Dr. Michelle Carlo. An orthopedic surgeon by training, Dr. Guzmán currently leads a team of medical volunteers called "Puerto Rico Stands on its Feet,” which has delivered medical care to people in 35 cities across the island since the storm first hit. In addition to practicing family medicine, Dr. Carlo has been collecting supplies and helping doctors get access to medicines through a makeshift distribution center she established.

Fast forward to today. We traveled back to La Colectora, and set up our makeshift clinic in their community center where our doctors treated dozens of patients – young and old – non-stop from 12:00 – 4:00 p.m. Senator Neumann also made it a point to stop by to show support for the members of his community and to thank us for our efforts. All in all, it was a heartwarming experience and further proof that we truly are Stronger and Better Together. It was also a fitting end to an unforgettable and deeply moving trip. I’ve got so many thoughts running through my head right now, but I’m simply too exhausted to put them down in writing. I hope you’ll check back, and will also consider making a donation to Stronger Better Together so that we can continue supporting the people of Puerto Rico because they need our help now more than ever.