A Call to Action for Puerto Rico relief
How to provide support for an American humanitarian crisis
Two weeks.
The need for help is as imperative now as it was in the hours and days following Hurricane Maria. Nearly 2 million Americans do not have access to drinking water. Electricity will be uncertain for months. The people in Puerto Rico are doing intense, hard, and often dangerous work, but they need help.
Here’s how:
Donations
The Hispanic Federation has the Unidos Hurricane Relief Fund for Hurricane Maria Victims in Puerto Rico:
From March For Science Puerto Rico on how to help.
Monetary donations:
Donation drop-off centers for other materials:
Call, write, email your reps.
Tell them Puerto Rico needs our support. Demand it. Don’t let up:
“Hi, my name is ___ ___, I live in _____, I’m calling because it’s imperative that congress bands together and provides more help to Puerto Rico and fights for the representation they currently lack in our government.”
To find your rep:
Promote Communications (where possible)
Zello is an app for android that those in areas affected by outages can possibly use to help turn their phone into Walkie-talkies. It’s not foolproof, but families and friends in Puerto Rico and across the US are using it to help locate family — from one affected family:
“Zello is a walkie talkie app that’s very helpful, you can ask people about specific locations, streets and see if people out there responds. Search for groups like Hurricane Maria Ponce.”:
Stay informed and seek out ways to help
Be an advocate for recovery, but stay informed on how the effects of disasters can perpetuate or exacerbate injustices in response scenarios:
There are countless people doing amazing work to put resource lists together, seek them out and help how you can:
Together, united we can come together and help Puerto Rico. The disaster relief efforts are going to last for months; we can’t let up.
NOAA Satellite Imagery of Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria
