Hurricane Maria Bestows Displacement & Dehumanization on the Residents of Puerto Rico
Between September 16 to October 2, 2017, the worst natural disaster on record called Hurricane Maria heavily affected the island of Puerto Rico. This hurricane was categorized as “Category 5,” meaning that it causes severe damage (National Hurricane Center). Puerto Rico is known for its location, resting along the northeast Caribbean Sea. Before the hurricane hit, almost half of the Puerto Rican residents lived below the poverty line. According to reports made by the Mercy Corps, Puerto Rico holds the highest poverty rate in any U.S. territory. Mercy Corps states that this is one of the most horrific storms to hit the island in over 80 years. Puerto Rico is home to over 3.4 million people and this storm left these people in “desperate humanitarian crisis” (Mercy Corps). More than 250,000 people were forced to leave their homes and migrate to the continental U.S. Mercy Corps was a very prominent source of aid to the people of Puerto Rico when the storm first hit. Their mission statement was to focus on providing assistance to the vulnerable and underserved populations that are most likely to be missed in broad relief efforts from big organizations such as FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (MercyCorps.org). Mercy Corps reported that the hurricane had turned the streets into rivers of debris, cut the island’s electricity 100 percent, increased the scarcity of food and water, tore apart houses, and submerged weather stations and cell towers in its cold waters. Hurricane Maria’s highest wind speed reached up to 175 mph and its death toll currently stands at over 1,000 people.
Six months later, Puerto Rico still lacks the sufficient amount of electricity and clean drinking water it is supposed to have. Emergency responders concluded that it will take a hard and long time to return to “normal” life activity. In retrospect, being normal means to abide the social norms of society (PsychologyToday). Emergency Program Manager for Mercy Corps, Karla Peña, had visited Puerto Rico to help aid the victims and stated in her interview that “the service is not stable and we suffer many power outages every other day. We also see many houses with temporary blue roofs and water services are very unpredicted in some municipalities.” She sees how Puerto Rico has been struggling to secure adequate relief funds from the U.S. government to aid the suffering victims. According to Mercy Corps, Puerto Rico’s territorial status gives them unequal treatment to programs such as Medicaid. These health programs were somewhat helpful in aiding those who were most affected, in poor neighborhoods like Las Marias and Maricao. Not only was Puerto Rico given unequal treatment, but the hurricane had disrupted the lives of about 350,00 public school students and it took around five weeks to reopen most of the schools after the storm (Mercy Corps).
My uncle, Jesus Ayala, is a native to Puerto Rico and had migrated to California to prosper and live a better life. Leaving the island of Puerto Rico alone was difficult as he left his whole family back home. Devastation ran through my uncles veins the day that Hurricane Maria had struck as family is everything to him. As previously stated (in the Mercy Corps article), my uncle had no way of communicating with his family back home. After hours of not sleeping due to the anxiety the storm gave him, he miraculously received service to contact his brothers and sisters. His family had told him how they were safe, but were forced to be evacuated temporarily from their homes. “We aren’t terribly hurt, but we did lose a lot of valuable stuff that was our mother’s,” said one of his sisters, Elena. While on call, my uncle had offered to help with anything that his brothers and sisters may need, such as money and moral support. This was his only way to help since he is 85 years old and isn’t able to do much due to his old age. A day after this phone call, I asked my uncle why he left Puerto Rico a long time ago. He answered, “When a natural disaster hits Puerto Rico, the country becomes very ignorant and chooses not to help everyone…only those who have money.” I was very taken back when he told me that this is what a country’s government does to their people. It’s morally incorrect to treat people like this in such a time of hardships because a human action to take in a time like this is to offer help and use your resources to rebuild. His family had been forced to displace from their home which causes them to feel a state of dehumanization. They felt like they had been forced to leave their world for a safer place and be treated as if their life didn’t matter, just like how Animal felt when he became categorized as an “animal” due to the after effects of the Bhopal Disaster.
Indra Sinha wrote “Animal’s People” to show how a natural disaster can displace and completely dehumanize hard-hit victims, such as “Animal,” the main character in the story. Animal is a seventeen year old boy who had been a victim of Bhopal Disaster, a deadly gas. This event happened between December 2nd and 3rd in 1984. It was gas leak at the Union Carbide India Limited Pesticide Plant in Bhopal, Madhya, Pradesh, India. Animal’s back had been twisted beyond repair due to the chemicals that leaked out of the pesticide plant. He had to resort to walking on all fours in order to transport from place to place. He was obviously frustrated that he had been a victim of this tragedy so he set out to speak to town officials to make changes for how these victims were to be helped. This didn’t do anything for the people. Days later, a young American doctor by the name of Elli Barber arrived in Khaufpur to open a free clinic to help these victims, but ended up coming to this place to help and spy and find out why this event took place, without physically helping. Elli Barber found it more difficult than she expected to help all these victims. Animal felt displaced due to the fact that he had been used just to retrieve information and not helped by professionals. The people who were “helping” the victims of this disaster had brought upon this state of dehumanization, meaning that they felt that the worth of their lives was not the same as those who were there to “help.” This novel and its instances relate heavily to how force displacement and dehumanization are consequences that come out of a natural disaster. This ultimately ties right back to how my uncle’s family felt “out-of-place” when they were forced to leave their home. The state of forced displacement and dehumanization shows how a natural disaster is a scenario where things can be taken out of one’s control and manipulated to hurt the victim and less likely help them. The similarities between my uncle and Animal in Animal’s People are that they both felt like a worthless individual who didn’t deserve to receive help. Both Animal and my uncle went through the struggle of finding a way to overcome this catastrophic event, by means that they both became aware of their resources and use it to their own advantage.
In conclusion, Hurricane Maria and the Bhopal Disaster both brought a state of displacement and dehumanization to the victims of these catastrophic events. Those who choose to become emergency responders should use their resources and give them to those who need it rather than being ignorant. My uncle’s family and Animal in Animal’s People need to know their humanity matters just as much as those who offer to help and are able to give the right resources. Even those this family had been forced to leave their native land, they are still dehumanized at the fact that they weren’t even getting the help they needed. Forced displacement ties closely with dehumanization and how they can affect how aid is dispersed.
