‘Nobody knows what these people are going through’ in Puerto Rico

Guillermo Padilla, the president of the Puerto Rican Association of Washington, said he’s disappointed with the United States’ response to the devastation from Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico.

President Trump has been praising his administration’s response to Puerto Rico, while slamming Mayor of San Juan Carmin Yulin Cruz, who pleaded for better aid from the government.

Padilla, who set up a GoFundMe page to help hurricane victims, says the response from the United States has been a “failure” so far.

Nearly two weeks after the hurricane, he says it’s difficult to reach anyone on the island to assess how bad the damage is.

“Nobody knows what these people are going through, not even me, and I’m Puerto Rican,” he said. “It’s just hard. And everybody thinks that, ‘OK, they’ll be OK.’ But they don’t understand.”

After six days, the GoFundMe page Padilla set up had reached just under $1,800 out of its $10,000 goal.

Puerto Rico after the hurricane

The Associated Press reports that, according to an official count, at least 16 people were killed when Hurricane Maria wreaked havoc on the island in September. The death toll could end up being much higher, according to the Miami Herald. Since then, recovery efforts have been painfully slow, with residents struggling to acquire the most basic of human necessities.

“They think that we’re responsible for the infrastructure,” Padilla said. “You know, I served in the military for the United States and I’m Puerto Rican. I think if I can serve in the military … they should respond to us like any state in the United States.”

As much as residents tried to prepare, Padilla said nobody could imagine the devastation.

“You can’t imagine. You can’t prepare,” he said. “People say they can prepare for this, but they don’t know until it happens. Katrina came and we were supposed to be prepared and we weren’t.”

Padilla says the island will rebuild, but it’s going to be incredibly difficult. After all the cameras goes away, people will still be struggling.

“People don’t have jobs, so how do they go to work? How do they recover the economy? How do I rebuild my house when I can’t go to work and get paid? It’s gonna take a big effort not only from the Puerto Ricans there, but the Puerto Ricans in the United States, too.”

The Puerto Rican Association of Washington gathered 10,000 pounds of food and supplies to deliver to those in need. He says those supplies will have to be delivered to the East Coast by truck.

“We need the funds to get this stuff over to the East Coast,” he said.