| No Images? Click here   The news cycle has been unrelenting lately -- the mass shooting in Texas, Louis CK and Roy Moore, to name a few stories -- which makes it easy to miss what's happening in Puerto Rico. Thousands of people are still without electricity and running water, especially the poor and undocumented.The latter are a community of Dominicans who’ve lived on the island for decades. HuffPost reporters went to Puerto Rico in early October, but as recently as Thursday, many villages have not received much support. The president of one of the communities we visited told us she feels like they are being discriminated against when it comes to help because many of the residents are Dominican immigrants.Carolina Morena, a HuffPost reporter who spent a week there, has the story.What was the seed for this story?We were initially scheduled to visit Loíza, a municipality known to be home to many afro-Boricuas, but an activist told us we had to visit Villa Hugo 2, an impoverished community in Canóvanas. He said the the impact there was on another level.There was destruction everywhere. Roofs had been ripped off, and wooden homes were completely flattened. Damaged mattresses, furniture, TVs, personal belongings lined every street. As we walked around we listened to as many stories as we could. Many villagers opened their doors to us, hoping that the footage we took would make its way back to FEMA, somehow. The first thing many asked when they saw us was simply “FEMA?” It was heartbreaking having to tell them we were only reporters.What was most challenging about reporting this story?One of the most difficult parts of reporting this piece is asking these hurricane survivors to give you their time when they’ve lost everything. Many would try to laugh and smile as they spoke to us, but their spirit just seemed broken.It’s difficult to arrive in a place that's been completely destroyed and not be able to help in a substantial way. We were just there to listen. When I checked up on a few of the families a few weeks later over the phone, very little had changed for them. They asked me if the organization I worked for could help them, whether it was food or even mattresses to sleep on.How do you explain to someone with four kids and no where to live that you have no way of helping them other than by elevating their voice and story? Their situation is only getting worse over time.What was most surprising about reporting this story?We expected to be told that not enough aid was being distributed and we knew that there was going to be a lot of destruction on the island. What we didn’t expect was the magnitude of how little had changed in the first weeks after the storm.Bureaucracy is a real obstacle to relief efforts; FEMA and the military’s presence is not felt on the island aside from their headquarters in San Juan. The sentiment far and wide is one of “pick yourselves up by the bootstraps” and “we can’t rely on the government for help.” Many are hoping that there will be some assistance from FEMA and other agencies, but for the most part they speak as if they were on their own.The resilience of the Puerto Rican people amazes me, because there is not one person on the island whose life wasn’t turned upside down after Hurricane Maria.PS: Before you go we invite you to read other stories you may have missed this week.
  The internet's best stories, and interviews with the people who tell them.Did you like reading this email? Forward it to a friend. Or sign up! Can't get enough? Check out our Morning Email.©2017 HuffPost | 770 Broadway, New York, NY 10003 |
 |  |  |  |
-
-
0 comments:
Post a Comment