RN Volunteers Who Have Been on the Ground in Puerto Rico Call Any Removal of Aid “Premature and Deadly”

Nurse volunteers who just returned from National Nurses United (NNU)’s second disaster relief mission to Puerto Rico, through its RN Response Network (RNRN) disaster relief project, said today that conditions on the ground remain dire, and that it is imperative that the Trump Administration and Congress not just continue to provide critical aid, but sharply step up the effort.

The RNs’ comments follow the hasty announcement Wednesday that Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) would reverse its plan unveiled only Tuesday to end the emergency distribution of food and water to the island, a plan that was widely condemned even by some Republican allies of the President—especially given that a third of the island is still without power.

“At this point, it’s outrageous to even discuss cutting off FEMA aid; it would simply add a next level of disaster to a pre-existing, man-made disaster. Our nurses have seen firsthand, on the ground, even in the past few days, that FEMA aid, which was far too slow and inadequate to begin with, is still necessary to save lives,” said Cathy Kennedy, RN, NNU Vice President and lead volunteer for RNRN’s October Puerto Rico deployment.

Kennedy points out that RNRN volunteer nurses have encountered a massive mental health care crisis on the island, where suicides have increased by 16 percent compared to 2016, and where Puerto Ricans are still suffering under great uncertainty about the future.

“People who are still trying to address their shattered everyday lives, still-damaged housing, still-broken infrastructure, and lost jobs cannot be expected to somehow come up with the necessary resources to walk into a supermarket and buy what they need to survive, just because a supermarket is now open,” said Kennedy.

NNU’s RN Response Network volunteer nurses first deployed to Puerto Rico from October 3-18, in conjunction with the AFL-CIO, a mission in which they stepped into first responder roles, in many cases, due to frequent encounters with storm survivors who had not yet been contacted by FEMA or any aid workers at all. Nurse volunteers returned to Puerto Rico this past week, in partnership with International Medical Corps volunteers and local providers, to help staff mobile primary care clinics and conduct home visits to hundreds of patients.

According to nurses, while power and water have been restored to some areas of the island, many other areas are still going without. Nurses also point out that with the inadequate, slow federal government response, many citizens and businesses with the ability to do so have already fled to the U.S., leaving behind a poorer, more elderly population, without enough work. Nurses say that many Puerto Ricans they met still do not have funds to cover all their post-storm survival needs and would be left in a catch 22, without FEMA aid, trying to figure out how to run a generator to keep food fresh—or buy the food in the first place.

“How could our government even think about denying aid to citizens of the U.S. when they need it? That time to provide this aid is still now,” said volunteer RN Amy Tidd, of Bangor, Maine, who deployed to Puerto Rico in both October and January.

“I was in Anasco [last week], and we visited a landfill with storm-related debris. There were thousands and thousands of refrigerators.  Each one of those fridges is representative of someone who has lost everything,” said Tidd. “Even though things are slowly getting better, these people, who are still living with tarps for roofs, are not going to have new homes built by magic.  There is an overwhelming sense of fear at this point.”

“As far as rebuilding of homes, electricity, and providing food, there were still quite a few people in the further reaches that were still depending on [FEMA aid] because they couldn’t make it into larger communities.  Their income was so low they didn’t have enough money to pay for the gas,” said RN volunteer Maria Rojas, of Tampa Florida.

Rojas, who deployed to Puerto Rico in October and January, says that, in her view, the federal government’s months-long inadequate response has led to unnecessary, protracted suffering for Puerto Ricans, contributing to the current mental health crisis.

“I live in Florida, and whenever we have a big storm come through, we have FEMA everywhere, setting up in local community centers, coliseums, everywhere.  This is all within first week or two.  I have never seen the response be as slow as it was to the people of Puerto Rico,” said Rojas. “In Florida, we would have never been without resources that long.”

“Many Puerto Ricans I met don’t know who they can trust,” says Tidd, pointing out the recent announcement that Puerto Rico’s electric utility, the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA), would be privatized. “There’s money to be made whenever there’s a disaster.  A lot of people here are very aware of this.”

Kennedy emphasizes that rather than expecting the people of Puerto Rico to get to the supermarket, to buy water and food in order to “go back to the normal economy,” as FEMA has stated, the federal government should still be helping everyday people firmly rebuild their lives.

“Puerto Rico cannot go back to a ‘normal’ economy when patients have not received the necessary help they need to go back to any kind of ‘normal’ life,” said Kennedy. “Again, these are U.S. citizens, and they deserve the support they need from our government to stay in good health. The nurses have been there doing what we can to help, and we expect our government to stand up for Puerto Ricans, too—with FEMA aid that is stepped up, not ramped down.“

For more than 12 years, RNRN volunteer nurses have cared for thousands of patients during disaster relief and humanitarian assistance deployments that include the South Asian tsunami (2004); Hurricanes Katrina and Rita (2005); the Haiti earthquake (2010); Hurricane Sandy (2012); Super Typhoon Haiyan/Yolanda (2013), the Continuing Promise 2010 and 2015 humanitarian missions with the Department of Defense, and Hurricanse Harvey, Irma and Maria (2017). RNRN volunteers have also provided first aid and basic response services to hundreds of community events across the country, as well as rotating teams who assisted the water protectors in Standing Rock in 2016. RNRN is powered by NNU, the largest organization of registered nurses in the U.S.

For more than 12 years, RNRN volunteer nurses have cared for thousands of patients during disaster relief and humanitarian assistance deployments that include the South Asian tsunami (2004); Hurricanes Katrina and Rita (2005); the Haiti earthquake (2010); Hurricane Sandy (2012); Super Typhoon Haiyan/Yolanda (2013), the Continuing Promise 2010 and 2015 humanitarian missions with the Department of Defense, and Hurricanse Harvey, Irma and Maria (2017). RNRN volunteers have also provided first aid and basic response services to hundreds of community events across the country, as well as rotating teams who assisted the water protectors in Standing Rock in 2016. RNRN is powered by NNU, the largest organization of registered nurses in the U.S.