Hi! Not music related but just wanted to post something in remembrance of the over 4,600 people that died days/weeks/months after the impact of Hurricane Maria on September 20, 2017, and recap my experience after.
Many theories have been raised about why so many people died, and the government (both State and Federal) lack of preparedness and inability to address the disaster in a more expedited manner. In the end, no one was ready for a hurricane of such magnitude and lessons learned from past major hurricanes impacting the mainland (Andrew and Katrina for example) have been totally forgotten.
One thing for sure, unless you have experienced a Category 4, almost Category 5 hurricane, you don’t have an idea or say in what proper preparations procedures are. In my previous job I was in charge of the Business Continuity planning for both Puerto Rico and U.S. Virgin Islands locations for a Canadian bank I used to work for. Never in my life I would’ve imagined what I would be responsible for such a huge endeavor in a major disaster affecting both territories within a span of two weeks (Hurricane Irma impacted U.S. Virgin Islands exactly two weeks before Hurricane Maria impacted Puerto Rico). The amount of logistical work to get emergency supplies to our peers in U.S.V.I. was enormous, requiring external partners to coordinate U.S. Coast Guard approvals just to land a boat in Charlotte Amalie, U.S.V.I. Thankfully all went according to plan and emergency supplies finally made it to out main branch.
Now, September 21, 2017. Our Business Continuity Plan established that specific key staff would try to make it into the main offices one day after the disaster. A trip that usually took 20-45 minutes took me almost three hours but I finally made it to the Main Office building. I was one of the first ones to arrive, and we made it to the building lobby. The building had power (huge diesel generator), no A/C, no elevator service (had to walk up and down 11 floors several times every day until they were fixed), and lo and behold we had communications to the mainland. We were able to contact our main offices and provide them with an initial status report. The island’s entire power grid was down and communications was very difficult. Recovery plans went immediately into execution and the first branch was open for service on Saturday. Just remembering the number of people in queue to withdraw cash from the ATMs gives me the chills. In the end we were able to recover and reopen all of our branches by late October.
The rest of the island, specifically the areas that were directly impacted by the eye of Maria, reminded me of battle zones. Roofs torn apart, no trees, utility poles torn or bent, power lines all over the place, people wandering in shock and disbelief, huge queues in gas stations to get gasoline for small power generators, it was chaos. In the end I spent almost two and a half months without power, and I was one of the fortunate to have it restored in such a short time, due to the many political scandals related to the contractual agreements between the government and several private companies in charge of restoring the power grid.
As mentioned previously, the government’s, both State and Federal, inability to prepare for and address the disaster is still inexplicable. It’s been three years and still some areas in the island look like just the day after the hurricane. Just a few days ago approval to release 13 Billion USD in funds to rebuild Puerto Rico’s electrical grid and reboot the Department of Education was given by the Congress, and yes, 3 years after the disaster, and less than 45 days before a Presidential election. Seems that the more than 1 million Puerto Ricans that migrated to the United States, specifically the state of Florida, after the disaster now matter to the Federal government.
Hope my rant does not bother you but I had to.
Victor