The entire post-Maria disaster scenario from Puerto Rico, and the USVI should be unacceptable for all of us. It is now 59 days without power for many on the islands, and for people who have not had power since Irma hit on September 7 — it has been much longer. Today will be day 73. Those who remain face many troubles ahead, however, given news reports, we should raise alarms about the situation of those who have fled— to Florida.
This is the story of one family — a father and daughter, who evacuated from Puerto Rico to Orlando, Florida.
From No Power in Puerto Rico to Living in a Car in Orlando
ORLANDO, Fla.—When Félix Martell took his 5-year-old daughter, Eliany, to her first day of school in central Florida this week, they stopped at a McDonald’s bathroom to wash her because they had been living in a car for days.
“I wanted her to be clean,” he said, tearing up.
Two months after Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico, evacuees are streaming off the island to central Florida—straining schools, intensifying demand for medical care and pinching an already-tight housing market.
About 160,000 people have arrived in Florida from Puerto Rico since early October, according to state data, many coming to the Orlando metro area. Some arrivals have enough resources to make the transition smoothly. Many are landing with little cash and no friends or relatives to turn to. More than 26,000 arrivals have sought services at three disaster-relief centers set up after the storm.
“What we’re facing here is something that’s unprecedented,” said John Horan, chairman of the Seminole board of county commissioners. “This could go south very quickly.”
Local television news had the same report.
Father, 5-year-old daughter forced to sleep in car after evacuating from Puerto Rico
Marucci Guzman with Latino Leadership is hearing stories like this every day at the center. “We would get here at 8:30 and there were people who had been waiting here since 7:30," Guzman said.
The nonprofit was already busy before Hurricane Maria. Now, the need has grown. "We had to install nine more phone lines, buy six more computers on top of the 10 that we have now to be able to take the onset of calls to be able to provide services," Guzman said. Each day, the center's pantry is stocked and emptied.
The need is there not just with food but everyday living and it's one Guzman and volunteers continue to pour their hours into, especially for families who only want to make the lives of their loved ones better.
"I know it's hard for her because at night, when we stay in the car so I see in her eyes," Martell said. "It's not a perfect situation but we, we are going to be alright, I think."
According to this news report, Latino Leadership got Felix and his daughter into a hotel — till the end of the week.
Just what is going on and what Governor Scott and the Federal government are doing to ameliorate the situation — which can only get worse without intervention— isn’t clear. The hurricane relief package requested by the White House is far lower than Texas and Puerto Rican officials hoped to receive, and it looks like Florida won’t get its needs met either.
The New York Daily news reports that the Florida Congressional Delegation also requested an additional $27 billion for this season’s hurricane damage, and no one’s quite sure how $44 billion can be stretched to cover the nearly $200 billion in additional relief requested by the two states and one territory.
The Orlando Sentinel has been covering community pleas to Florida Governor Scott.
Central Florida leaders press Gov. Scott on plans for Puerto Rico evacuees
Marucci Guzman, executive director of the nonprofit group Latino Leadership, said her group has dealt with families in Central Florida being forced to sleep in cars, telling Jacobs that the group provided dinner to a few such families the night before. Jacobs had said the county hadn’t confirmed any cases of evacuee families living in cars.
“Families are calling while they’re still in Puerto Rico, and we’re telling them, ‘Unless you have a house to come to here, please don’t,’” Guzman said. “Go to where you have family, if it’s New York, if it’s Philadelphia, if it’s Kentucky. Go to where you have family because you’re not going to be homeless. Right now, you’re not going to get that immediate housing.”
Still, she said of those arriving in Florida, “They’re not leaving. The majority are not going to go. They’re going to be here, and they’re going to be productive members of our community.”
Health care is critical — and that is not just physical health, but mental health as well.
Central Florida health providers worry about wave of Puerto Rico evacuees
Dr. Amaryllis Sanchez’s last patient on Friday was an elderly man who had lost everything back home in Puerto Rico, now living alone here in a hotel room and in need of medical care.
“I know I’m going to cry in the car all the way home,” said the teary-eyed Sanchez, who grew up on the island and has been a longtime volunteer primary care physician at Grace Medical Home, a free and charitable clinic in Orlando.
The clinic’s patients are typically low-income and uninsured Orange County residents, but for the past two weeks, the staff has been dedicating Friday mornings to the care of displaced Puerto Rican patients who suddenly find themselves without jobs and health insurance here.
That has local leaders worried that in the long run, this wave of uninsured individuals will overextend Central Florida’s already-stretched safety net system.
As the Republican controlled Congress attempts to slash funding for health care under the guise of a tax cut, just where does that leave funds for states who will be absorbing people fleeing here, and funding for fixing the ongoing crisis on the islands?
Sunday there will be a Unity March for Puerto Rico in Washington DC
My hope for the future is that there will be a focused march to the voting booths to rid us of the pestilence of heartless politicians who clearly don’t give a damn about any of this — or any of us.