Puerto Rico

Ok--- let's keep this civil and without political comments, as I'd like to keep it open. 

In the aftermath of Maria's wrath, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands have been decimated.  While tons of us on the mainland would love to help, not everyone knows how to, or where the best places to spend would be.   The Red Cross is an obvious choice, but there are many concerns about the $$ being sucked up by administrative costs.   Let's have this thread focused on places where folks can help, and any news from the islands that people have heard.  One of the most frustrating things for people in these areas is lack of communication.  Hopefully we can spread useful knowledge and some of that may make it back to the islands.  

Here's a few sites I've found:

top 10 places to help

other ways to help

Good thread. I donated to Unidos Por Puerto Rico, which was set up by PR's first lady. Easy, fast, takes credit, debit or PayPal.

Margie

I have checked charities with this site before, because it can be scary giving a lot of hard earned money to people who are apt to waste it.

https://www.charitynavigator.org/

I've seen adopt a family efforts going around for usvi.  Makes a lot more sense sending them exactly what they need rather than spitballing money or resources. 

mndsm said:

I've seen adopt a family efforts going around for usvi.  Makes a lot more sense sending them exactly what they need rather than spitballing money or resources. 

I'd agree, except USPS is not operational in Puerto Rico yet, so sending directly isn't an option. (that I know of)  It seems we can just send $ and resources to charities at this point.  

Yeah, pr is a little more hosed right now. 

I know beating on the Red Cross is popular but I deal with them fairly often at work and they've been a good group of people. Besides responding to large disasters like this in many communities they respond to events like building fires and evacuations to arrange temporary shelters and supplies for the people being displaced.  From my observation this gives them a good network to draw from when they need things on short notice. Considering the scope of what they accomplish day to day I'm not that surprised that they have to pay decent money to attract good management. The Salvation Army is also good in many areas but I don't know what kind of reach they have outside the mainland US.  If you're ok with religious organizations I send money and have friends that volunteer with Samaritan's Purse .  They do quite a bit of international work and have been sending people and supplies around the Caribbean for a while now.

I will make some inquiries with my aviation contacts. Often many corporate aircraft and crews are put into relief work after disaster strikes. I am confident that there are some flights from Florida taking place now . Those of you in Florida can probably drop off items at the local  airport FBO and they will get to Puerto Rico quickly.  I know gentleman that flew his Mitsubishi mu2 to Haiti probably 10 times on relief work several years ago, I believe that it was an earthquake that time. He could haul about 2,000 pounds per trip. He accepted all donations. I will post my findings later today

So in terms of the condition....

Ponce is in ok shape, all of my family had no issues with structures or whatnot. But even after a week, no phones, including many cell phones. Power is a big unknown, as the major power line systems are totally devastated. 

We are meeting with sis in law today to discuss if there is anything we should be doing. Just don't know. 

Our friends face a different and similar questions. One had her apartment gutted (not destroyed, windows blew out) and her business is very unknown, so she is coming back to the mainland for a while. The dilemma is parents- do they bring them here for a while or not. (Same for us). 

What they need most is stuff. Gas, food, water. Quickly followed by infrastructure parts. This is hampered by the lack of waiver of the Jones Act, which Florida and Texas both got but needed less, since they have more ports and roads going there. There isn't a convoy of X Edison driving to the island to rebuild. Nor are pipelines being rerouted to bring energy to them. 

It took just about a week to get any news of my mother in law, and we still have not spoken directly. Scary as heck, but the person we hired to take care a few years ago it totally awesome. The future is very unknown. And bringing mom to Michigan or Massachusetts is VERY complicated. So....

I didn't mention, the rest of the island is chaos. Some places had light damage, others had their homes crushed by trees or power poles. And a lot of flooding in the middle. So there's a whole range of damage. 

Some of the roads are good, so just getting stuff in and around is possible, but difficult. 

Things are still tough, but there are good signs. A local grocery store has opened. 

No power, but there does seem to be some more cell service. 

One big problem is "panic" where people hear something is open and have something, it leads to a run. Oh, and banks are not open. Being cash only, that is a problem. (On the good end of that, there isn't gouging- prices seem more than fair. )

i hope other parts of the island is improving. The Jones Act was waived this morning. 

I've been communicating with a friend who  lives in San Juan.  They now have water for 4 hours a day, but still no power.  Communication seems to be the biggest problem--- and getting supplies to those in need--- as roads are blocked, and well......there's no communication.  

She's remarkably upbeat--- which is inspiring considering the conditions.  It's going to be a long road back---hopefully each day is better than the last. 

Co-worker of mine showed me a video that pissed me off. His family that is still in PR own a trucking company. Last he told me, they have over a dozen big rigs.. They and almost every other big rig in PR has been sitting outside the gates to the docks in San Juan trying to load supplies. Homeland Security won't let them in. They are told to leave their name and cell number and when a supermarket calls for supplies, they will get a call to load and take it out.

3/4s of the island has no cell phone service, less have electricity. How is a supermarket supposed to get an order to San Juan so a truck can deliver it?

Apparently the citizens are taking matters upon themselves. I had a couple of random sketchy dudes come in and buy all my water and canned meat. Destination,  Puerto Rico. 

In reply to mad_machine :

Insane. 

Our family is asking us to send some stuff, too. Not food. Just some stuff. But if basic things are not being distributed, how can mail do anything?

we did hear that stores are allowing people in with escorts. 

Still, the whole network was there and working prior to the storm, so where roads exist, they should be back assuming stuff moves. 

Which will allow rebuilding so that the really devastated parts can be repaired and rebuilt, too. 

Really, much of the island is ok, other than no power or phones and some superficial damage. Get that going to help the truly needy. 

I have second hand info that there are relief flights but I don't have names or places for anyone to contact.

Braden

In reply to alfadriver :

I have some some coworkers down there with family.  From what I've heard many trucks were damaged in the storm and some drivers are busy tending to their family's problems. At least one of them has sent word that are volunteering to drive while they're there.

Some more small steps- some more banks are opening. And power companies are looking into line conditions in back yards. 

My SIL finally spoke directly with my MIL. Which is a huge relief. Things still suck bad. But it is getting better, still. 

Things may be improving, but maybe not quite fast enough....

You may have heard that many people are evacuating themselves or relatives to the US. We may be doing the same due to other people doing that.  Ugh. 

The problem being that we have no idea how to get down there.  It's possible to fly.  But beyond that, it's really hard to tell.  Rental cars are not going, hotels are not going, communication isn't going.  People want to leave, and I'm not sure how they are doing it.  Oh, and possible just means that it's possible, not that it's likely. 

It's really hard to be here and totally useless. 

So we are working toward moving family- part of that being a pet dog.

I found that the Humane Society is moving shelter pets, which is great.  But they wont help private owned pets.  Huh?  I have to give up my pet to adoption so that the Humane Society will move them out of harms way?  Seems less than humane to me.

Very frustrating.

I lived there for ten years and unless you have been exposed to what is known as "Island time" you cant fully appreciate how long this is going to take. Life in PR happens a a different pace; urgncy is not really in the local DNA.  A phone install or appliance repair on the Island is a week long ( or longer) campaign at the best of times.

Once the immediate threat is stabilized, the reality of who and how to pay for reconstruction is going to be front and center.

If my factory was one of the casualties, might it be a good time to bail and use the funds to build out of the path of Hurricanes?

I am going to forecast a big blip in people moving to the mainland.

I guess I don't understand why Puerto Rico struggles so much. Even Jamaica seems like it's better off. There are plenty of islands, Hawaii included that are more remote and more stable. 

I'm so fascinated with Puerto Rico and can't wait until I can travel down there and I've even dreamt of buying a little farm further inland, but its such a quagmire of economic/political situation. 

In reply to pheller :

Lots of odd reasons.  But relative to Jamaica- it's quite a bit more developed, so when that gets knocked out, it's a much bigger impact.   I've been there after some other major hurricanes- remembering that George hit Ponce directly.  This one was much, much stronger than that, and caused a lot more damage.  Damage to an infrastructure that had not really been well maintained given the financial issues of the government.  

Vs Hawai'i, I've asked myself those questions for many years.

Alfa, would you buy property down there? I know before you said it's maybe not the best place for health care, but what about for younger folks taking a few years long sabatical?

In reply to NOHOME :

We're alreasy getting ready for it here.