The gates of the unusually low drought-affected Carraizo Dam are seen closed in Trujillo Alto, Puerto Rico on June 29, 2020. RICARDO ARDUENGO / AFP via Getty Images)
Puerto Rico's governor declared a state of emergency on Monday after a severe drought on the island left 140,000 people without access to running water, despite the necessary role that hand washing and hygiene plays in stopping the novel coronavirus, as The Independent reported.
<p>The island will start water rationing on July 2, as 26 percent of the island is under a severe drought and 60 percent is under a moderate drought, according to <a href="https://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/CurrentMap/StateDroughtMonitor.aspx?PR" target="_blank">U.S. Drought Monitor</a>, as The Independent reported. According to Governor Wanda Vasquez, that means 21 of 78 municipalities are affected by the severe drought while another 29 are affected by the moderate drought.</p>
<p>The rationing will affect 140,000 clients of the water service, including some in the capital of San Juan, according to <a href="https://apnews.com/485aa49fc349decdbbef5e663d92dc74#:~:text=SAN%20JUAN%2C%20Puerto%20Rico%20(AP,territory%20amid%20a%20coronavirus%20pandemic.&text=Gov.%20Wanda%20V%C3%A1zquez%20said%2021,29%20by%20the%20moderate%20drought." target="_blank">The Associated Press</a>, as the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority starts to shut off water for certain blocks of the day.<br></p><p>That means some residents will be without water for 24 hours every other day as part of strict rationing measures. Puerto Rico's utilities company asked residents not to stockpile excessive amounts of water because it would exacerbate an already bad situation.</p><p>There will also be 23 water trucks spread across the most impacted parts of the island. Officials asked that anyone seeking water from the trucks wear a mask and adhere to social distancing guidelines, according to <a href="https://apnews.com/485aa49fc349decdbbef5e663d92dc74#:~:text=SAN%20JUAN%2C%20Puerto%20Rico%20(AP,territory%20amid%20a%20coronavirus%20pandemic.&text=Gov.%20Wanda%20V%C3%A1zquez%20said%2021,29%20by%20the%20moderate%20drought." target="_blank">The Associated Press</a>.</p>
<p>Some residents in the northeastern part of the state were already rationing water earlier in June.</p><p>Many residents rely on a system of reservoirs in Puerto Rico for water, but several have not been dredged for years, leaving sediment to collect and allowing the excess loss of water, according to <a href="https://thehill.com/changing-america/sustainability/infrastructure/505082-puerto-rico-declares-state-of-emergency-cuts" target="_blank">The Hill</a>. The water rationing efforts will target households connected to the Carraízo reservoir, one of 11 that Puerto Rico's government operates. It has not been dredged since the late 1990s.</p><p>Five other reservoirs are under a state of observation. Officials have already taken other measures, including activating water wells and transferring more than 30,000 clients from Carraízo to another reservoir, according to the AP.</p>
<p>"We're asking people to please use moderation," said Doriel Pagán, executive director of Puerto Rico's Water and Sewer Authority, adding that she could not say how long the rationing measures will last, as The Independent reported.</p><p>She told The Associated Press that the utility company is talking with FEMA about a $300 million dredging investment. But that project will not bring any short-term relief since the process is long and requires various studies for FEMA to approve the project.</p><p>According to The Associated Press, the upcoming water rationing efforts will target households connected to the Carraízo reservoir, one of 11 that Puerto Rico's government operates. Pagán said that reservoir was last dredged in the late 1990s. Five other reservoirs are under a state of observation. Officials have already taken other measures, including activating water wells and transferring more than 30,000 clients from Carraízo to another reservoir.</p>
<p>As the <a href="https://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/CurrentMap/StateDroughtMonitor.aspx?PR" target="_blank">U.S. Drought Monitor</a> map shows, much of the drought blankets the southern and eastern parts of the island, including San Juan and Ponce. The southern part of Puerto Rico was hit by a powerful <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/earthquake-puerto-rico-2644424292.html" target="_self">6.4 earthquake at the beginning of 2020</a>.</p><p>The current drought in Puerto Rico came on quickly. In mid-May, no parts of the island, which is a U.S. territory, were under drought, though some spots were abnormally dry. Now, a long dry spell has left many parts of the island with four to eight inches less rain than normal over the past 30 days, according to <a href="https://weather.com/safety/news/2020-06-30-severe-drought-puerto-rico-state-of-emergency" target="_blank">The Weather Channel</a>.</p><p>Residents in most areas will be prohibited from excessive use of water such as watering gardens during daylight hours, filling pools, and using a hose or non-recycled water to wash cars, as The Independent reported.</p><p>Some thunderstorms are expected for today and tomorrow. "However, we are not expecting enough rain ... to solve the problem we're seeing," said Fernanda Ramos, a meteorologist with the U.S. National Weather Service in San Juan, as The Independent reported.</p>
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Members of environmental nonprofit Casa Pueblo install solar panels in Puerto Rico's Adjuntas community. Arturo Massol
By Coral Natalie Negrón Almodóvar
The Earth began to shake as Tamar Hernández drove to visit her mother in Yauco, Puerto Rico, on Dec. 28, 2019. She did not feel that first tremor — she felt only the ensuing aftershocks — but she worried because her mother had an ankle injury and could not walk. Then Hernández thought, "What if something worse is coming our way?"
<p>Her hunch was right. In the twilight hours of Jan. 7, 2020, a magnitude 6.4 earthquake struck the U.S. territory, with its epicenter near the city of Ponce on the south coast, a few miles from Hernández's hometown. Buildings trembled throughout the territory, but the southwest took the brunt of the quake, with dozens of partially or completely collapsed dwellings, including a school and a church, according to a <a href="https://www.elnuevodia.com/noticias/locales/fotogalerias/muchosmunicipiosdelsurexperimentarondanosenestructurasyresidencias-galeria-2539161/" target="_blank">report</a> from El Nuevo Día. The island's primary power generation plants in the southern area of Puerto Rico failed, immediately plunging the territory into darkness.</p>
<p>As a survivor of Hurricane Maria's devastation in 2017, Hernández was consumed with anxiety and desperation at the prospect of having to live through another natural disaster, and watching the government mismanage the recovery again. "My father's Alzheimer's progressed since the storm, and dealing with an equal emergency was unthinkable," she said, before bursting into tears. She doubted she could maintain her economic stability after the earthquake damaged her nail business in the urban center of Yauco.</p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMjgzMjgzOS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYxMjU3Nzk2OH0.857RhIF4LSWcGUSfMGPhvPB565_zzh44UhSJ6sXBJk8/img.jpg?width=980" id="bc44c" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="e5a757e7f8226f8383c08ded4aa73378" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
A view of a washed out road near Utuado, Puerto Rico, after a Coast Guard Air Station Borinquen MH-65 Dolphin helicopter crew dropped relief supplies to residents Tuesday, Oct. 3, 2017. The locals were stranded after Hurricane Maria by washed out roads and mudslides. U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class Eric D. Woodall / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
<p>Help did arrive, although it didn't come from the government initially. Instead, a hyperlocal response made up of disparate nonprofits and volunteers arrived and provided much needed aid, even during continuing aftershocks. Hernández said she was especially thankful for the response from one community organization, Tabernacle Followers of Jesus Christ.<br></p><p>Those volunteer initiatives sparked a feeling of trust in refugee camps, said Víctor Amauri, a social worker and one of the help coordinators with Solidarity Brigade of the West, which is made up of people from many organizations who provided direct response to help communities after Hurricane Maria.</p><p>"Strategizing after the hurricane and developing short- and long-term plans was our strong suit," Amauri said. "Now, it isn't straightforward to plan something for tomorrow, because everything changed. Misinformation and lack of transparency from the federal and local governments are preventing us from helping our people as they deserve."</p><p>The group leaders of the Solidarity Brigade used to meet in Mayagüez to organize community building projects. They would teach about composting and orchard keeping, and promote grassroots efforts to enhance food security and local agriculture as tools of self-sustainability.</p><p>"But in this context, we cannot think ahead," Amauri said. "We are still handling dozens of cases of families that are sleeping on the floor because, even though we are a country prone to hurricanes and, thanks to our location in between fault lines, earthquakes, the authorities never developed an emergency plan response."</p><p>A report by the Center of Investigative Journalism of Puerto Rico, the <a href="http://periodismoinvestigativo.com/2018/04/puerto-rico-far-from-having-plan-to-face-climate-change/" target="_blank">Climate Change Series Project</a> — the culmination of years of requesting public documents — found that despite Puerto Rico's vulnerability, the territorial government had taken limited measures to tackle natural disasters. Even though investigative work in 2017 uncovered evidence that the death toll of Hurricanes Maria and Irma was much higher than the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/12/08/us/puerto-rico-hurricane-maria-death-toll.html" target="_blank">64 victims claimed by the former governor Ricardo Rosselló</a> — <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2018/08/28/health/puerto-rico-gw-report-excess-deaths/index.html" target="_blank">nearly 3,000 people are estimated to have died</a>, a little less than twice as many as in Hurricane Katrina — and the territory's ability to respond to emergencies has not improved much. </p><p>The government's inefficient response has led to the formation of several citizen coalitions that know the needs of their communities. The Single Voice Movement is a conglomerate of local nonprofit and community-based organizations that already developed a two-year response plan for earthquake-affected communities. The projects developed by these entities have a vision that looks inward toward active communities capable of supporting themselves and their neighbors, said Cora Arce Rivera, executive director of Aspira de Puerto Rico.</p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMjgyNjU5Ni9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYzNTI0NjQxNH0.-J4GQbxXXye9W14PDKM3E_XOoOpI8vvcUIjLxXAulk4/img.jpg?width=980" id="e1cef" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="cba9a33809657e9e3bee1f9bb8ad4489" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
A group of students from Aspira's Inc. Alternative School in the municipality of Mayaguez ready to go to the town of Cabo Rojo and receive farming instruction. Francisco Acevedo.
<p>Aspira's alternative school in the western town of Mayagüez allows teenagers, most of them school dropouts, to explore the significance of agriculture. The students are learning to cultivate tropical root and tuber crops that can germinate in unfavorable conditions. They are particularly resistant to damage by high wind hurricanes and typhoons, Aspira's agronomist Francisco Acevedo said.</p><p>José Esteban López Maldonado, a student at the elite Residential Center of Educational Opportunities in Mayagüez, runs a <a href="https://www.periodicolaperla.com/le-dan-la-escuela-jose-esteban/" target="_blank">similar project</a> in the small mountainside municipality of Adjuntas. In 2016, he managed to acquire one of the hundreds of schools closed by the local Department of Education and transformed it into a coworking space where people can learn about hydroponic cultivation, coffee planting, and greenhouses. USDA Rural Development, which offers loans and grants to economic development projects, has offered López help to improve the infrastructure of the school, but local authorities have not been able to provide him a proof of ownership so he can take advantage of the program, he said.</p><img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMjgyNjYxMS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYyMjIxOTYzOX0.JODZrc7sTy6qPWZIYGouPMuKX6tGhf39_aQzZPZY7D8/img.jpg?width=980" id="c0d62" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="10c0e9afabada5f2beeae350087009bd" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
José Esteban in Ponce, Puerto Rico, presenting his new initiative to distribute coffee Caturra, produced in his farm Lírica. Coral Negrón
<p>The island also faces a <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/10/04/finally-puerto-rico-has-way-out-its-debt-crisis/" target="_blank">bankruptcy crisis</a> and <a href="https://apnews.com/1211eb3e68b24c35a994c60973c8de65" target="_blank">austerity measures</a> imposed by the federal Financial Oversight and Management Board. José Caraballo-Cueto, an economist and assistant professor at the University of Puerto Rico, said the bureaucracy around government processes exemplifies how the island is the perfect prey for disaster capitalism. "Restoration doesn't have the impact it deserves on the local economy because the biggest beneficiaries are not locals," Caraballo said. "A private law firm is even handling the cases of lack of proof of ownership post-Hurricane María."</p><p>In Puerto Rico, almost 92 percent of houses were damaged by the hurricane, according to a <a href="https://www.americanbar.org/groups/crsj/publications/human_rights_magazine_home/vol--44--no-2--housing/the-lack-of-proof-of-ownership-in-puerto-rico-is-crippling-repai/" target="_blank">report</a> from the American Bar Association. More than 95 percent of those tenants, about <a href="https://www.americanbar.org/groups/crsj/publications/human_rights_magazine_home/vol--44--no-2--housing/the-lack-of-proof-of-ownership-in-puerto-rico-is-crippling-repai/" target="_blank">1.1 million people</a>, applied for the Federal Emergency Management Agency's Individuals and Households Program in 2018, but a FEMA spokesman told NBC News that 335,748 <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/puerto-rico-crisis/no-deeds-no-aid-rebuild-homes-puerto-rico-s-reconstruction-n868396" target="_blank">claims were denied because they couldn't provide a deed</a> proving ownership of their homes.</p><p>Situations such as this one eroded Puerto Ricans' belief in local and federal institutions, which have promoted new governance models, said Arturo Massol Deyá, the executive director of 40-year-old environmental nonprofit Casa Pueblo.</p><p>In 150 locations across the island territory, Casa Pueblo ensured that, after Maria, those with the most urgent need for electricity received solar panels, including hospitals, small bodegas, and the homes of aging residents who required dialysis. In the recent earthquakes, the solar power systems proved to be more resilient than the <a href="https://spectrum.ieee.org/energywise/energy/environment/puerto-rico-earthquake-power-outages-prepa-news" target="_blank">Puerto Rican Electric Power Authority's electricity grid, which failed again</a>.</p><p>In the wake of Hurricane Maria, Massol Deyá acknowledges that people wanted to be helped by their fellow townspeople. "They discovered soon that the true meaning of 'just recovery' is that the resources end up providing services that change the reality of constant vulnerability," he said.</p><p>"Energy is the ability to do work," Massol Deyá said. "We are putting the opportunity in the hands of the people; we want them to acquire the power to govern themselves and enjoy their production. It is the maximum self-decolonization scenario because the top-down model has collapsed. … it is not effective."</p><p>An upcoming Casa Pueblo project, in collaboration with professors at the University of Michigan, will be to use <a href="https://global.umich.edu/newsroom/puerto-rico/" target="_blank">biomass from coffee production to generate energy</a>. The energy produced will be used to power the coffee plantation to improve the harvest. The technique, Massol said, helps to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. Meanwhile, it will generate employment and provide a more sustainable life for the residents of Adjuntas.</p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMjgyNjYyNy9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYzNTYyMDY5N30.Px8y8bw-tVga0q8DTaJ9QTUXdhWJyS03WFa_VFLYrGY/img.jpg?width=980" id="4b2e1" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="ddc2f3b7f05b7fb2e9abd1ad1b9bf604" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
Arturo Massol, executive director of Casa Pueblo de Adjuntas. Omar Alfonso
<p>All these grassroots actions are becoming the backbone of survival in Puerto Rico. For the time being, however, the lives of those residing in earthquake zones are stagnant, said Edward Santiago-Pacheco, a U.S. Army veteran and father of a newborn girl.</p><p>He lost his newly purchased house in Yauco in the 6.4 magnitude earthquake and has not heard back from the insurance company, the bank, or any local government agency.</p><p>"It is hard to overcome this when you just brought a new life into this world," Santiago-Pacheco said. "FEMA only provided money for two months of rent for temporary housing, but I still must pay my house mortgage. The worst part is that the local government is using our pain in favor of their political propaganda."</p><p>On Feb. 10, the Solidarity Brigade learned about Hernández's and Santiago-Pacheco's cases and reached out to them, Amauri said. However, thousands need similar help.</p><p>"Two of our members are sociologists (Roberto Vélez and Jacqueline Villegas), and they developed a census to identify all necessities and help people the best possible way. But we need the government to publish relevant information that can help us organize our strategy," he added.</p><img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMjgyNjY0OC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYxNjUwMzc5N30.OtGMrbtQbNSViTrNakr45D_QvO6L_D_nR954dOVKNaI/img.jpg?width=980" id="c486c" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="3fc839db8949cdade82d010b4981cf9f" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
<p class=""><em>Coral Natalie Negrón Almodóvar is a Puerto Rican data journalist, a current grantee of the Center for Cooperative Media at Montclair State University, and Patti Birch for Data Journalism Fellow at the Committee to Protect Journalists.</em> </p><p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://www.yesmagazine.org/economy/2020/02/24/puerto-rico-natural-disaster-recovery/">YES! Magazine</a>. </em></p>Casa Pueblo's installation of solar panels in a hardware store in Adjuntas. Arturo Massol
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A crack caused by an earthquake is seen in La Guancha boardwalk in Ponce, Puerto Rico on Jan. 9, 2020. RICARDO ARDUENGO / AFP via Getty Images
By Richard Aster
Multiple strong and damaging earthquakes in southern Puerto Rico starting around Dec. 28, 2019 have killed at least one person, caused many serious injuries and collapsed numerous buildings, including a multistory school in the town of Guánica that luckily was empty at the time. These quakes are the most damaging to strike Puerto Rico since 1918, and the island has been under a state of emergency since Jan. 6, 2020.
<p><br>This flurry of quakes includes onshore and offshore events near the town of Indios and along Puerto Rico's southwestern coast. So far it has included 11 <a href="https://www.usgs.gov/faqs/foreshocks-aftershocks-whats-difference?qt-news_science_products=0#qt-news_science_products" target="_blank">foreshocks</a> – smaller earthquakes that preceded the largest event, or mainshock – with magnitudes of 4 and greater. Major quakes occurred on Jan. 6 (magnitude 5.8) and Jan. 7 (magnitude 6.4 mainshock), followed by numerous large aftershocks.</p><p><a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=khkdN24AAAAJ&hl=en" target="_blank">Seismologists like me</a> are constantly working to better understand <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/earthquakes">earthquakes</a>, including advancing ways to help vulnerable communities before, during and after damaging events. The physics of earthquakes are astoundingly complex, but our abilities to forecast future earthquakes during a strong sequence of events in real time is improving.</p><p>Forecasting earthquakes is not a strict prediction – it's more like a weather forecast, in which scientists estimate the likelihood of future earthquake activity based on quakes that have already occurred, using established statistical laws that govern earthquake behavior.</p>
<h2>An Undersea Fault Zone</h2><p>Puerto Rico spans a complex boundary between the Caribbean and North American <a href="https://pubs.usgs.gov/gip/dynamic/tectonic.html" target="_blank">tectonic plates</a>, which are sliding past each other in this region at a relative speed of about 2 centimeters per year. Over geologic time, this motion has created the Muertos Trough, a <a href="https://seismo.berkeley.edu/blog/2020/01/07/deadly-earthquakes-in-the-muertos-trough.html" target="_blank">15,000-foot depression in the sea floor</a> south of the island.</p><p>This plate boundary is riddled with interconnected fault structures. The present activity is occurring on and near at least three interrelated large faults.</p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMjUwNzkwMi9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYxMzM2OTQ1M30.C0LJHoMTL55fyQZTmDiwfJoDGDE7LL05nkvSztuLjvY/img.jpg?width=980" id="9c749" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="35f84d58ad0b90d9de549e5688b53c59" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
Multiple faults crisscross the eastern Caribbean. Those outlined in red have a potential to generate a large earthquake. The arrow at top right shows the direction of the North American plate's motion relative to the Caribbean plate. Red stars denote intensity centers for past earthquakes. USGS
<p>Faults are pre-existing weak zones between stronger rocks. In response to surprisingly small force (stress) changes, they rapidly slip to produce earthquakes. The "hair-trigger" nature of fault slip means that predicting the precise timing, location and size of individual quakes is extremely challenging, if not impossible.</p><p>During an earthquake sequence, changing stresses act on nearby fault systems as stress is gradually redistributed within the earth. This process generates thousands of protracted aftershocks.</p><p>Many earthquake sequences simply start with the mainshock. But it is not especially rare for scientists to recognize after the fact that foreshocks were occurring before the main event. Improvements in earthquake instrumentation and analysis are helping scientists detect foreshocks more often, although we have not yet figured out how to recognize them in real time.</p>
<h2>Will One Shock Lead to Another?</h2><p>Researchers have known for over a century that the rate of earthquakes following a mainshock declines in a way that we can characterize statistically. There is also a well-established relationship between the magnitude of earthquakes and their relative number during an earthquake sequence. In most seismically active regions, for a decrease of one magnitude unit – say, from 4.0 to 3.0 – people can expect to experience about 10 times as 3s compared to 4s in a given time period.</p><p>Using such statistical relationships allows us to forecast the probability and sizes of future earthquakes while an earthquake sequence is underway. Put another way, if we are experiencing an aftershock sequence, we can project the future rate of earthquakes and what magnitudes we expect those quakes to have.</p>
<p>
<em>Richard Aster is a professor of geophysics and the department head at Colorado State University.<br/>
</em><em>Disclosure statement: Richard Aster has received funding for earthquake research from the National Science Foundation, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Sandia National Laboratories and the U.S. Geological Survey. He is a past president of the Seismological Society of America (SSA) (2009-2011) and current chair of the board of directors of Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology. Aster also chairs the U.S. Geological Survey's Advanced National Seismic System Advisory Committee, and is a member of the Southern California Earthquake Center Advisory Council.</em>
</p><p>
<em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://theconversation.com/earthquake-forecast-for-puerto-rico-dozens-more-large-aftershocks-are-likely-129874" target="_blank">The Conversation</a>.</em>
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A man carries a St. Jude statue from the Inmaculada Concepcion church ruins that was built in 1841 and collapsed after an earthquake hit the island in Guayanilla, Puerto Rico on Jan. 7, 2020. RICARDO ARDUENGO / AFP via Getty Images
A powerful 6.4-magnitude earthquake struck Puerto Rico just before dawn on Tuesday after a week of heavy seismic activity. The early morning quake caused power plants to shut down to protect themselves, leaving the island in a blackout until power is restored later in the day. It also killed at least one person, injured at least eight and collapsed buildings, as the AP reported.
<p>The quake struck at 4:24 a.m. (3:24 a.m. ET), with its epicenter just off Puerto Rico's southern coast, about 6 miles south of Indios town, according to the <a href="https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/us70006vll" target="_blank">U.S. Geological Survey</a>, as <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/01/07/us/puerto-rico-earthquake-tuesday/index.html" target="_blank">CNN</a> reported. The quake triggered three strong aftershocks with preliminary estimates of 5.6, 5.2 and 4.5 magnitude. A bit later a 5.8-magnitude temblor hit closer to Indios at 7:18 a.m., according to the <a href="https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/us70006vll" target="_blank">U.S. Geological Survey</a>.</p><p>The quake follows a 10-day series of temblors spawned by the grinding of tectonic plates along three faults beneath southern Puerto Rico. Seismologists are unable to predict when the quakes will stop or if they will continue and get stronger, according to the <a href="https://apnews.com/e2ec8e9bd12aea8aff6b240976897389" target="_blank">AP</a>.</p><p>Tuesday's quake was the strongest to hit the island since the temblors began on Dec. 28. It killed Nelson Martínez Guillén, 73, who died after a wall fell on him in the city of Ponce, Mayor Mayita Meléndez said. Another woman had a broken leg after she was pinned under a wall, as <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/07/us/puerto-rico-earthquake.html?action=click&module=Latest&pgtype=Homepage" target="_blank">The New York Times</a> reported.</p><p>"The people are scared," Ms. Meléndez said, according to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/07/us/puerto-rico-earthquake.html?action=click&module=Latest&pgtype=Homepage" target="_blank">The New York Times</a>. "There are homes that are totally destroyed."</p><p>She added that the tremors moving through the area have people near the beach living in fear of tsunamis and desperate to flee their homes. However, the United States National Tsunami Warning Center <a href="https://twitter.com/NWS_PTWC/status/1214464205635457024" target="_blank">wrote on Twitter</a> that there was no related tsunami threat.</p><p>"It's not safe," Ms. Melendez said, as <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/07/us/puerto-rico-earthquake.html?action=click&module=Latest&pgtype=Homepage" target="_blank">The New York Times</a> reported. "The earth is moving constantly."</p><p>Govenor Wanda Vázquez ordered government offices to remain closed Tuesday except for employees working in an emergency capacity, as the <a href="https://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/article239025058.html" target="_blank">Miami Herald</a> reported.</p><p>"It's important for the people of Puerto Rico to remain calm and to secure their lives and property," she said in a statement, according to the <a href="https://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/article239025058.html" target="_blank">Miami Herald</a>. "Citizen security is a priority for me, so we are inspecting vulnerable areas and we're taking all the measures necessary to guarantee the safety of Puerto Ricans."</p><p>Local news on Puerto Rico's southern coast reported that several houses collapsed on the coastline and a local highway was shutdown due to rock fall. A nearby elementary school saw its roof cave in and much of the island remained without power on Tuesday morning, according to the <a href="https://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/article239025058.html" target="_blank">Miami Herald</a>.</p><p>In Guayanilla municipality, the city's colonial-era church from the 1840s, Immaculate Conception, was destroyed.</p><p>"All that's left is one wall and half of another wall," said Glidden Lopez, the spokesman for Guayanilla municipality, of the beige and pink building that had dominated the main plaza, as the <a href="https://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/article239025058.html" target="_blank">Miami Herald</a> reported. "The hospital was damaged and there were several houses that have collapsed but we don't know how many yet."</p><p>Reverend Melvin Díaz Aponte told <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/07/us/puerto-rico-earthquake.html?action=click&module=Latest&pgtype=Homepage" target="_blank">The New York Times</a> that both bell towers collapsed, but the nave still stands, though it is fragile.</p><p>"For those who have lived here their whole lives, this is their history," said Father Díaz, as <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/07/us/puerto-rico-earthquake.html?action=click&module=Latest&pgtype=Homepage" target="_blank">The New York Times</a> reported. "Their sacraments, their wedding."</p><p>Guayanilla also saw a coastal rock formation that had looked like a rounded window collapse. The rock formation, called Punta Ventana, was a popular tourist draw, as the <a href="https://apnews.com/e2ec8e9bd12aea8aff6b240976897389" target="_blank">AP</a> reported.</p>
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Blue tarps given out by FEMA cover several roofs two years after Hurricane Maria affected the island in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Sept. 18. RICARDO ARDUENGO / AFP / Getty Images
Top officials at the Department of Housing and Urban Development confirmed to lawmakers last week that they knowingly — and illegally — stalled hurricane aid to Puerto Rico.
<p>HUD Chief Financial Officer Irv Dennis and Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Community Planning and Development David Woll said before a House Appropriations subcommittee Thursday that the agency purposefully missed a deadline to issue a notice to Puerto Rico that would have jumpstarted a planning process to manage additional aid, despite successfully delivering the notice to 17 other states affected by disasters. </p><p>Woll and Dennis told lawmakers that HUD is concerned about the misuse of funds given to the island. Two years after Hurricane Maria, Puerto Rico has received just a third of the $43 billion Congress has allocated for the island's recovery. </p>
<p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-twitter_embed">
</p><div id="f038f" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="L5760T1576661280"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1184938306288734208" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">With respect to obeying the law, it shouldn't be a difficult choice, should it?
Why is HUD holding up the mitigati… https://t.co/vUy1oqBEr8</div> — David E. Price (@David E. Price)<a href="https://twitter.com/RepDavidEPrice/statuses/1184938306288734208">1571346281.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p></p>
<h4>For a deeper dive:<br></h4><p><a href="https://climatenexus.us4.list-manage.com/track/click?u=d1f5797e59060083034310930&id=e585112f3c&e=0afd421a28" target="_blank">NBC</a>, <a href="https://climatenexus.us4.list-manage.com/track/click?u=d1f5797e59060083034310930&id=f0ee8c0db1&e=0afd421a28" target="_blank">The Hill</a>, <a href="https://climatenexus.us4.list-manage.com/track/click?u=d1f5797e59060083034310930&id=6efc5b5583&e=0afd421a28" target="_blank">Newsweek</a>, <a href="https://climatenexus.us4.list-manage.com/track/click?u=d1f5797e59060083034310930&id=fef7bb4476&e=0afd421a28" target="_blank">The Weather Channel</a></p>
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Luz Hernandez with her niece, Noemi Quinones, who was the first of Hernandez's relatives to ask for help. Nexus Media
By Jeremy Deaton
Every morning, Luz Hernandez goes to work at her hair salon on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, a neighborhood fixture without a website or a Facebook page, where a trim costs $40 and customers can get a cup of coffee while they wait. Every night, she returns to a full fridge in an air-conditioned home in the Bronx. Income from the salon allows her to live comfortably, though not lavishly — but compared to her family in Puerto Rico, who were devastated by Hurricane Maria, she feels like royalty.
<p>After the hurricane, she recalls thinking, "I have everything here — water, lights, a roof over my head — and they're over there without any lights." Hernandez said she could not sit down to a hot meal in a cool home while her brothers and nieces and nephews on the island languished without food or air conditioning. Worried about her family, she took it upon herself to deliver the relief the federal government had <a href="https://www.npr.org/2018/07/13/628861808/fema-report-acknowledges-failures-in-puerto-rico-disaster-response" target="_blank">failed</a> to provide.</p><p>In the aftermath of the storm, Hernandez said, she spent around $8,000 to send aid to family back home, in addition to another $2,000 donated by her clients. "I swear to God, I have the best clients," she said. The money paid for canned beef and chicken, coffee, peanut butter, batteries, solar-powered radios and lamps, as well as generators needed to operate fans, refrigerators and medical equipment, such as her brother's dialysis machine.</p><p>"I don't think I did anything so heroic. I did what I had to do," she said. "I took care of whoever needed the most." She only wishes the government had done the same.</p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xOTQ2MjQ5NS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYzMTUxOTY3NH0.Az8S3uF0dB9ZyObODVnySjwxmg6wGX8Do2Xlc9O4ra8/img.jpg?width=980" id="271f4" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="23ff29704fbd89298c33fe3af6f1701d" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
Luz Hernandez has spent $8,000 sending canned food, batteries and power generators to her family in Puerto Rico.
Source: Nexus Media
<p>Hernandez is remarkable, though not unusual, among members of the Puerto Rican diaspora — many of whom devoted hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars to helping victims of Hurricane Maria. Those interviewed for this story said they were angry that the government had failed to provide relief, particularly to <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/puerto-rico-senate-government-agencies-residents-lack-basic-services-without-power-2018-04-24/" target="_blank">rural areas</a>, and they remain baffled that President <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/donald-trump">Trump</a> continues to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/08/us/politics/trump-rally.html" target="_blank">oppose</a> additional disaster aid for the island, which is still recovering from the storm.</p><p>Fernando "Ponce" Laspina, who runs <a href="https://www.facebook.com/elmaestrobx/" target="_blank">El Maestro Inc.</a>, a boxing gym and Puerto Rican cultural center in the Bronx, recalled the lack of aid after Maria. "The federal government really didn't do the job," he said. "We know a lot of older people who died because they didn't get help on time." Like Hernandez, he made it his mission to help those who were left behind.</p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xOTQ2MjQ3NC9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYxNTgxNDE3Mn0.d7s8PIX3wlc_iEU_F7ainosDUBeKMTm97Gf0BkGBtQg/img.png?width=980" id="66e9f" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="2d331d022940728389e1ac46c4de4a46" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
Fernando Laspina at El Maestro, Inc.
Source: Eddie Aguiar, Hunter College
<p>Laspina said that after the hurricane, El Maestro Inc. filled three 40,000-pound shipping containers with food, water and medical supplies — wheelchairs, walkers, diapers and medicine — and paid around $5,500 to ship each one to a different town desperate for aid. The organization relied on donations and volunteer labor. Dozens of people showed up from around New York City and as far afield as Connecticut and Ohio to contribute goods and help fill the containers.</p><p>"We had all kinds of people here," he said. "There were no barriers, you know — black people, white people, Chinese people, young, old, female, male, gay people — it didn't matter. It was just one big family in New York City coming together for Puerto Rico." Meanwhile, he added, "No help from the elected officials."</p><p>Edna Benitez took a similar tack, working with <a href="https://www.proyectomatria.org/copia-de-casa-solidaria" target="_blank">Proyecto Matria</a>, a human rights group, to bring relief to a community overlooked for disaster aid. She focused her efforts on Miraflores, a small, mountain town in central Puerto Rico. "This is a community that was marginalized prior to the hurricane," she said. "After the hurricane, they were just devastated, and they spent several weeks without food and just drinking water from the falls."</p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xOTQ2MjQ3Ni9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY1MzA0MjkzOH0.ZFqtHubPUlWMc5RQ2e-qPJ8m7JQyqSgQ7vFc-Qhiaug/img.jpg?width=980" id="a0ff4" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="53d8b816badd40706f268136a07c3630" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
Edna Benitez, rebuilding a home in Miraflores
Source: Edna Benitez
<p>Benitez was aghast at the dearth of federal aid after the storm. "I said to myself, 'Where is FEMA? Where is the help that we're supposed to get? Are we a part of the United States?'" she said. On Trump, she said, "We know what his agenda is. He wants to build a wall, and he needs funding for that, and I think that that's more important [to him] than people's lives and people's homes and people's dignity." Trump has pushed Congress to include <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2019/05/06/disaster-aid-donald-trumps-florida-rally-adds-pressure-deal/1093942001/" target="_blank">$4 billion</a> in border wall funding in its disaster relief package, all while fighting against additional aid for Puerto Rico.</p><p>Frustrated by the government's response to Maria, Benitez partnered with <a href="https://www.middlechurch.org/" target="_blank">Middle Collegiate Church</a> in Manhattan to raise money for her work in Puerto Rico. Donations paid for her and other volunteers to travel to Miraflores to rebuild homes, set up cisterns, and help community members develop small businesses selling locally grown foods and knitted goods. Benitez, 61, has been to Puerto Rico eight times since Hurricane Maria. She has painted houses, sealed roofs and cleared land for farming, dipping into her savings to help fund her efforts. In July, she will be taking a group of teenagers to Miraflores to do farm work.</p><p>Contemplating the work of people like Benitez, lifelong New Yorker Elena Martinez said, "The communities in the diaspora in Florida, in Chicago, in New York and Connecticut, they just came through." She added, "I guess it's more real when you know people who were literally affected by it."</p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xOTQ2MjQ3OC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYwOTQzMzMxNn0.S53LmKVKQiY1ncSm9tMMdxmDQ7tD9M-Y_CLyLiyArrg/img.jpg?width=980" id="8581d" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="5d83424579fd6cc4f24e68029cb4d055" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
Bobby Sanabria, on drums, and his Multiverse Big Band playing a benefit concert for Puerto Rico musicians, October 2017
Source: Bob Ramos
<p>Martinez, who runs the <a href="https://www.thisisbronxmusic.org/" target="_blank">Bronx Music Heritage Center</a> with Puerto Rican jazz drummer Bobby Sanabria, raised money to help musicians on the island pay for housing, food and gas after Maria shut down theaters, restaurants and hotels, making it difficult for them to find work. Sanabria put together a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ebjcFd3Cp38&feature=youtu.be" target="_blank">benefit concert</a> after Maria, raising $10,000 for the <a href="https://jazzfoundation.org/jazz-foundation-america-supports-musicians-puerto-rico/" target="_blank">Jazz Foundation of America's Puerto Rico Relief Fund</a>. He subsequently produced a <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/west-side-story-reimagined-jazzy-version-iconic-score-also-helps-n909331" target="_blank">record</a> of the music of <em>West Side Story</em>, devoting a portion of the proceeds to the effort.</p><p>Elsewhere in the city, Surey Miranda and her husband, Victor Martinez, helped families fleeing the hurricane resettle in New York. She and her husband run a Spanish-language <a href="http://www.diasporaxpuertorico.org/" target="_blank">website</a> with resources for newcomers, and work closely with displaced families to help them <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/hurricane-maria-victims-scramble-for-housing-as-fema-vouchers-expire" target="_blank">secure housing </a>and apply for food stamps. Miranda said chats about how best to navigate the government bureaucracy can turn into long conversations about the trauma of living through a natural disaster. She said that, in the first few months after the hurricane, she spent around 30 hours a week helping people, sometimes staying up until 3 a.m. consoling survivors, all while working a full-time job.</p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xOTQ2MjQ4Mi9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYxMTg4NTQ4OH0._bjaSTGKW94OZCWZBA6aJujYXfyuGB3PfKG67j_vMqs/img.jpg?width=980" id="6b9f5" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="55d3c921b06d6fe7bf15ad9059ccbd14" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
Surey Miranda (left) with her husband Victor Martinez (right)
Source: Victor Martinez
<p>Miranda believes Trump has neglected Puerto Rico because people living on the island, while citizens, cannot vote for president and have no representation in Congress. However, she said, millions of people of Puerto Rican descent living on the mainland can vote, and they do have some measure of political power. "If you see the numbers, there are more Puerto Ricans stateside than on the island," she said.</p><p>Martinez believes the Puerto Rican diaspora, which proved critical in providing relief after the storm, could take Trump to task at the ballot box. "The people here on the mainland who can vote will hopefully take this into account when elections come up," she said.</p><p>Moreover, because Maria spurred so many families to <a href="https://www.citylab.com/equity/2018/03/exodus-the-post-hurricane-puerto-rican-diaspora-mapped/555401/" target="_blank">migrate</a> to the mainland, where they can vote, the diaspora is gaining power in states like Florida and Pennsylvania. Puerto Ricans displaced by Hurricane Maria now have the chance to oust a president who refuses to provide the aid the island needs.</p><p>Hernandez took some comfort in this. "It's really sad that he's such a racist," she said. "The thing is, the people who moved to … Florida or wherever, they could now go register and vote, maybe change the color of the state."</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">A group of Democratic Senators are again pushing to have Puerto Rico's debt forgiven in the wake of hurricanes that hit the island in 2017. <a href="https://twitter.com/SenWarren?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@SenWarren</a> <a href="https://t.co/RVqkWJvpvD">https://t.co/RVqkWJvpvD</a></p>— EcoWatch (@EcoWatch) <a href="https://twitter.com/EcoWatch/status/1125398847952445445?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 6, 2019</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<p><em>Reposted with permission from our media associate <a href="https://nexusmedianews.com/when-the-government-fails-after-natural-disasters-this-is-who-picks-up-the-cost-a921e92814ff" target="_blank">Nexus Media</a>.</em><br/></p>From Your Site Articles
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Warren Introduces Relief Package to Help Storm-Ravaged Puerto Rico 'Recover With Dignity'
04 May 2019
Politics
Remains of a house in the eastern part of Puerto Rico. Lorie Shaull / CC BY-SA 2.0
By Eoin Higgins
A group of Democratic Senators, led by Elizabeth Warren, are again pushing to have Puerto Rico's debt forgiven in the wake of dual hurricanes that hit the island in 2017 — an announcement that came as activists from the U.S. territory were on Capitol Hill to find a solution to the island's economic woes.
<p>The United States Territorial Relief Act of 2019, as Warren's bill is known, would offer comprehensive debt relief to the American territory. Warren was joined by fellow Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), Edward Markey (D-Mass.) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.). All but Markey, Warren included, are running for the Democratic nomination for president. </p><p>"Our bill gives Puerto Rico and other struggling territories a route to comprehensive debt relief and a chance to recover with dignity," Warren said in a statement. "It's time for Congress to pass this bill."</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Much of Puerto Rico’s debt is held by Wall Street, which is trying to squeeze out every last penny of profit. Congress had a chance to break Wall Street's grip. Instead, they passed PROMESA, imposing an oversight board which has slashed services, hindering the recovery.</p>— Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren) <a href="https://twitter.com/ewarren/status/1124001221021458432?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 2, 2019</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<p>If passed, according to an <a href="https://www.warren.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/Territorial%20Relief%20Act%20of%202019%20fact%20sheet.pdf" target="_blank">overview</a> provided by Warren's office, the legislation would forgive the island's debt, establish a fund for those who suffer losses from the debt cancellation, and create an auditing commission on the genesis of the debt and how the crisis got so out of control.</p><p>The House version of the legislation is being introduced in the lower chamber by Rep. Nydia Velázquez (D-N.Y.).</p><p>"Puerto Rico needs every tool possible to recover economically and physically from <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/hurricane-maria">Hurricane Maria</a>," Velázquez said.</p><p>The same cohort of senators and Velázquez introduced the legislation in 2018. It was ultimately unsuccessful.</p><p>Puerto Rico's debt issues are nothing new, as Common Dreams has <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2018/05/02/police-unleash-brutal-attacks-austerity-protesters-storm-ravaged-puerto-rico" target="_blank">reported</a> — but things have gotten worse since the 2017 hurricanes and the only legislation in place is outdated and insufficient to address the current problems.</p><p>A 2016 bill addressing Puerto Rican debt, the Puerto Rico Oversight, Management, and Economic Stability Act (PROMESA), was signed into law by former President Barack Obama before the storms hit. PROMESA came in for criticism <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2016/05/23/sanders-senate-dems-do-you-stand-puerto-rico-or-wall-street" target="_blank">from Sanders</a>, and others, even before the current crisis.</p><p>"Over the past several years, Puerto Rico has been living with an economic noose around its neck due to its crippling debt crisis and the devastation created by Hurricane Maria," said the Hispanic Foundation's president José Calderón in a statement supporting Warren's bill.</p><p>Puerto Rican activists confronted members of the island's Financial Oversight and Management Board (FOMB) about the predatory practices encouraged by PROMESA on Thursday. They were successful in convincing FOMB to take legal action against banks that profited off of Puerto Rican debt illegally.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">The <a href="https://twitter.com/FOMBPR?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@FOMBPR</a> has not helped <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/PuertoRico?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#PuertoRico</a> recover. It has sided with bondholders at the expense of our people. Its time for congress to hold them accountable. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/cancelthedebt?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#cancelthedebt</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/popdemoc?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@popdemoc</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/Vamos4PR?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@Vamos4PR</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/diasporaresiste?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@diasporaresiste</a> <a href="https://t.co/RDyuCxNzoW">pic.twitter.com/RDyuCxNzoW</a></p>— CASA (@CASAforall) <a href="https://twitter.com/CASAforall/status/1123935257961668610?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 2, 2019</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<p>Jesus Gonzalez, an organizer with the Center For Popular Democracy, pointed out in a statement that tougher action on predatory creditors would not have happened without "Puerto Rican families on the island and of the diaspora who have fought tirelessly for a just recovery," he said more still needed to be done.</p><p>"While the FOMB has decided to pursue legal action," Gonzalez said, "there is much information we still need to analyze to ensure that proper action is taken against every single person who profited from the illegal debt."</p><p>Sanders, in a statement, took aim at the banks and hedge funds that used the debt to make billions of dollars.</p><p>"Greedy Wall Street vulture funds must not be allowed to reap huge profits off the suffering and misery of the Puerto Rican people for a second longer," said Sanders.</p><p>The debt also created an impossible situation for Puerto Ricans struggling to recover after Hurricanes <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/hurricane-irma">Irma</a> and Maria in 2017, said Hispanic Foundation's Calderón.</p><p>"Over the past several years, Puerto Rico has been living with an economic noose around its neck due to its crippling debt crisis and the devastation created by Hurricane Maria," Calderón said. "The island government simply does not have the means to pay off its debt and prioritize the well-being of its people."</p><p>Warren echoed Calderón's callback to the difficulties faced by Puerto Ricans in their long pursuit of financial justice.</p><p>"Puerto Rican families were watching debt crush their futures long before Hurricane Maria hit," said Warren, "and this administration has failed in its response."</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Since the American government will no longer do its job! -- Oprah Winfrey Donates $2 Million to Help Puerto Rico's Recovery From Hurricane Maria <a href="https://t.co/Dt5ShuCROa">https://t.co/Dt5ShuCROa</a>. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/MAGA20?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#MAGA20</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/foxandfriends?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@foxandfriends</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/seanhannity?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@seanhannity</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/CNN?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@CNN</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/SenateGOP?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@SenateGOP</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/GOPLeader?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@GOPLeader</a></p>— Dana Ivey (@hekasia) <a href="https://twitter.com/hekasia/status/1116113647158296576?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 10, 2019</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<p><em>Reposted with permission from our media associate <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/05/02/end-crushing-debt-warren-introduces-relief-package-help-storm-ravaged-puerto-rico?cd-origin=rss" target="_blank">Common Dreams</a>.</em><br/></p>From Your Site Articles
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Oprah Winfrey Donates $2 Million to Help Puerto Rico's Recovery From Hurricane Maria
09 April 2019
Popular
Lin-Manuel Miranda and Oprah speak onstage during 'Oprah's Super Soul Conversations' at The Apollo Theater on Feb. 7, 2018 in New York City. Kevin Mazur / Getty Images
Oprah Winfrey has donated $2 million to help Puerto Rico recover from the devastation wrought by Hurricane Maria in 2017, Reuters reported.
<p>The <a href="https://hispanicfederation.org/" target="_blank">Hispanic Federation</a> and the <a href="http://flamboyanfoundation.org/" target="_blank">Flamboyan Arts Fund</a> <a href="https://hispanicfederation.org/media/press_releases/oprah_winfrey_commits_2_million_to_puerto_ricos_revitalization_efforts_and_arts_community/" target="_blank">announced in a statement Monday</a> that they had received $1 million each from Winfrey. The donation to Hispanic Federation's <a href="https://www.hispanicfederationunidos.org/" target="_blank">UNIDOS</a> Disaster Relief & Recovery Program to Support Puerto Rico will help the island meet its long term needs following the storm. The donation to Flamboyan will support arts and culture on the island.</p>
<div id="32339" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="P0AS921576663640"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1115392514662522880" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">So honored to have @Oprah join us in preserving & sustaining the arts in #PuertoRico & ensuring the island thrives.… https://t.co/M7mWK2NcdG</div> — Kristin Ehrgood (@Kristin Ehrgood)<a href="https://twitter.com/KristinEhrgood/statuses/1115392514662522880">1554765273.0</a></blockquote></div><p>Flamboyan was started by Puerto Rican writer and actor Lin-Manuel Miranda in 2018 to promote arts on the island in the wake of the storm. Miranda also brought his famous creation Hamilton to the island early in 2019, <a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/media/437933-oprah-donates-2-million-to-puerto-rico-for-disaster-relief" target="_blank">The Hill reported</a>.</p><p>"I was so moved by Lin-Manuel Miranda's commitment to bring Hamilton to Puerto Rico and support the community that served him growing up that I wanted to join in the revitalization efforts of an island so rich in culture, beauty and heritage," Winfrey said in the statement announcing the donation. "The needs of Puerto Rico and our fellow American citizens following the tragic hurricanes are still very real, and the work that has already been done by the Hispanic Federation, Flamboyan Arts Fund and other organizations on and off the island is long from over."</p><p>The Hispanic Federation has been the largest institutional contributor to recovery efforts in Puerto Rico, directing $30 million towards community groups on the island. Its UNIDOS program has coordinated hundreds of donation drives, delivered millions of pounds of food, water and other necessities and provided disaster aid to 78 severely impacted municipalities. The Flamboyan Arts Fund was founded by Miranda to make sure that literature, music, theater, visual arts, dance and arts education were all part of the island's recovery. His 23-performance run of Hamilton in San Juan in January was expected to raise $15 million for the fund.</p>
<div id="cbee0" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="EK26AZ1576663640"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1042817266574942213" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">Since Hurricane Maria hit 1 year ago, and with your support, we’ve reached hundreds of thousands of Puerto Ricans.… https://t.co/HxFFjpB0O3</div> — Hispanic Federation (@Hispanic Federation)<a href="https://twitter.com/HispanicFed/statuses/1042817266574942213">1537461985.0</a></blockquote></div><p>Winfrey's commitment comes as Puerto Rico's government continues to tussle with the Trump administration over federal aid to the island. Two weeks ago, President <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/donald-trump" target="_self">Donald Trump</a> <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/trump-puerto-rico-aid-2632936121.html?rebelltitem=1#rebelltitem1" target="_self">complained that the island had received</a> "too much" aid at the same time as more than a million Puerto Ricans faced food stamp cuts as Congress failed to secure funding. In fact, a University of Michigan <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/feds-hurricane-maria-response-2626812907.html" target="_self">study</a> found that the federal response to Maria was both slower and less generous than its response to Hurricanes Harvey and Irma the same year.</p>The September 2017 disaster <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/official-hurricane-maria-death-toll-raised-2599913746.html" target="_self">claimed the lives of nearly 3,000 people</a>. Full power was not restored to all homes on the island <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/puerto-rico-electricity-hurricane-maria-2596147659.html" target="_self">until almost 11 months after</a> the storm struck. A <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/climate-change-hurricanes-wetter-2619851055.html" target="_self">November 2018 study</a> found that <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/climate-change" target="_self">climate change</a> made Hurricane Maria five to 10 percent wetter than it would have been if the burning of <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/fossil-fuels" target="_self">fossil fuels</a> had not pumped excess carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, raising global temperatures.
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Trump Complains Puerto Rico Getting 'Too Much' Disaster Aid as More Than 1 Million Face Food Crisis
27 March 2019
Food
Petra Gonzalez, 85, spends hours of the day standing and walking on the potholed road that runs past her house. To get food to cook, Gonzalez has to hike to a refrigerator up the hill, covered only by a blue tarp,, Aug. 28 2018. Sarah L. Voisin / The Washington Post / Getty Images
By Jake Johnson
With more than a million U.S. citizens in Puerto Rico facing devastating food stamp cuts as Congress fails to provide necessary hurricane relief funding, President Donald Trump reportedly complained to Republican senators on Tuesday that the island is receiving "too much" aid — a position that was decried as both false and cruel.
<p><span></span>"The president continues to show his vindictive behavior towards Puerto Rico and he continues to make the humanitarian crisis worse," <a href="https://twitter.com/thehill/status/1110749533716140034" target="_blank">said</a> San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz. "He is ensuring that people don't have food to put on the table."</p>
<p>Trump's remarks came during a private lunch with Republicans Tuesday, during which — <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-complains-to-senators-that-puerto-rico-is-getting-too-much-hurricane-relief-funding/2019/03/26/c8c09c30-4fd3-11e9-8d28-f5149e5a2fda_story.html" target="_blank">according to</a> the Washington Post — the president <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/03/26/trump-seems-inflate-price-tag-puerto-ricos-recovery-deny-funding-puerto-ricos-recovery" target="_blank">inflated the amount of aid</a> Puerto Rico has received since Hurricane Maria and pushed lawmakers to limit funding to the island.</p><p>"At the lunch Tuesday, Trump rattled off the amount of aid that had been designated for other disaster-hit states and compared it with the amount allocated for Puerto Rico following the 2017 hurricane, which he said was too high," the Post reported.</p><p>After claiming that Puerto Rico has received $91 billion in federal aid — <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/03/26/trump-seems-inflate-price-tag-puerto-ricos-recovery-deny-funding-puerto-ricos-recovery" target="_blank">it is unclear where he got this number</a> — Trump reportedly said "one could buy Puerto Rico four times over for $91 billion."</p><p>Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rosselló responded with outrage to Trump's reported comments in a <a href="https://twitter.com/JStein_WaPo/status/1110748151407960066" target="_blank">statement</a> late Tuesday.</p><p>"People from all over the nation, and the world, have witnessed the inequalities Americans face on the island," Rosselló said. "The federal response and its treatment during these past months in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria is clear evidence of our second-class citizenship."</p><p>"Mr. President: Enough with the insults and demeaning characterizations," he added. "We are not asking for anything more than any other U.S. state has received. We are merely asking for equality."</p><p>Trump's complaint about aid to the storm-ravaged island comes as an <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/puerto-rico-faces-food-stamps-crisis-as-trump-privately-vents-about-federal-aid-to-hurricane-maria-battered-island/2019/03/25/ade500fe-4cb3-11e9-b79a-961983b7e0cd_story.html" target="_blank">estimated 1.3 million</a> Puerto Ricans — including <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/03/27/v" target="_blank">hundreds of thousands of children and elderly people</a> — have had life-saving food aid cut amid inaction and obstruction from the White House and congressional Republicans.</p><p>"We just don't have the money right now," <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/puerto-rico-faces-food-stamps-crisis-as-trump-privately-vents-about-federal-aid-to-hurricane-maria-battered-island/2019/03/25/ade500fe-4cb3-11e9-b79a-961983b7e0cd_story.html" target="_blank">said</a> Myrna Izquierdo, an administrator at a Puerto Rican health clinic that relies on food stamp funding. "It's very hard. It is so unfair. That cut is going to kill us."</p>
<div id="d1db4" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="260R401576664189"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1110515154570088450" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">The amount of reporting we have about the president's willful neglect of American citizens in Puerto Rico should be… https://t.co/W2zT6HhooN</div> — Steadman™ (@Steadman™)<a href="https://twitter.com/AsteadWesley/statuses/1110515154570088450">1553602419.0</a></blockquote></div><p>Late Tuesday afternoon, the Senate advanced a disaster relief bill that Democrats said is far from adequate to address the crises in Puerto Rico in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria. According to <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2018/05/29/harvard-study-puts-hurricane-deaths-puerto-rico-nearly-6000-people-70-times-official" target="_blank">one study</a>, the storm may have killed nearly 6,000 people.</p><p>"The lack of leadership and coordination, combined with delays in meeting the basic needs of the island, more than 18 months after receiving a presidential disaster declaration, has left far too many children and elderly citizens in unhealthy and unsafe conditions, families in severely damaged homes and communities without adequate infrastructure to sustain a decent quality of life," Sens. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) wrote in a <a href="https://www.appropriations.senate.gov/news/minority/leahy-schumer-blast-trump-administration-for-abysmal-response-to-puerto-rico-recovery-and-demand-timeline-for-correcting-its-uncoordinated-long-delayed-response" target="_blank">letter</a> to the White House on Tuesday.</p><p>Despite the island's dire situation, Trump has <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/puerto-rico-faces-food-stamps-crisis-as-trump-privately-vents-about-federal-aid-to-hurricane-maria-battered-island/2019/03/25/ade500fe-4cb3-11e9-b79a-961983b7e0cd_story.html" target="_blank">reportedly said</a> that he "doesn't want another single dollar going to the island."</p><p>"Puerto Rico is in dire need of increased food assistance funding," Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) <a href="https://twitter.com/SenSanders/status/1110275935532707841" target="_blank">wrote</a> on Twitter this week. "It's unconscionable that we've allowed our fellow Americans to suffer for so long without the full resources of the U.S. government. We must act now to end this crisis."</p>
<p> <em>Reposted with permission from our media associate <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/03/27/vindictive-behavior-trump-complains-puerto-rico-getting-too-much-disaster-aid-over" target="_blank">Common Dreams</a>.</em><em></em></p>From Your Site Articles
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Study: Feds Response to Hurricane Maria Slower, Less Generous Than Responses to Texas and Florida Storms
23 January 2019
Climate
A woman and child at a memorial of shoes displayed in front of the Puerto Rican capital in honor of those who died in Hurricane Maria. RICARDO ARDUENGO / AFP / Getty Images
Since the death toll in Puerto Rico from Hurricane Maria was officially raised to 2,975, it has been acknowledged as one of the deadliest disasters in U.S. history, and the deadliest hurricane in more than 100 years. But many have argued it didn't have to be that way, pointing to a less-than-adequate response from the federal government.
<p>Now, a study led by members of the University of Michigan (UM) School of Public Health and published in the <a href="https://gh.bmj.com/content/4/1/e001191" target="_blank">British Medical Journal Global Health Friday</a> added fuel to those suspicions by comparing the government's response to Hurricanes <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/hurricane-irma" target="_self">Irma</a> and <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/hurricane-harvey" target="_self">Harvey</a> in Florida and Texas the same year, and finding its actions in Puerto Rico both slower and less financially generous.</p>
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</p><div id="24b3c" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="SEU1B91576663285"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1087458635058429957" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">.@umichsph @umichsphglobal research: Federal response to hurricanes Harvey and Irma was faster and more generous th… https://t.co/I2kez1HJtR</div> — Michigan News (@Michigan News)<a href="https://twitter.com/UMichiganNews/statuses/1087458635058429957">1548105317.0</a></blockquote></div>
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<p>"What we found is that there was a very significant difference in not only the timing of the responses but also in the volume of resources distributed in terms of money and staffing," lead author and UM School of Public Health doctoral candidate Charley Willison said in a <a href="https://news.umich.edu/less-hurricane-aid-slower-response-to-puerto-rico-than-to-texas-florida/" target="_blank">press release</a>. "Overall, Hurricane Maria had a delayed and lower response across those measures compared to hurricanes Harvey and Irma. It raises concern for growth in health disparities as well as potential increases in adverse health outcomes."<br></p><p>The researchers compared disaster responses following the three hurricanes, accounting for the need of the survivors and the severity of the storm. They relied on Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) data, as well as congressional and media reports.</p><p>"The analysis shows that the disaster response to the three hurricanes did not align with storm severity and may affect deaths and recovery rates," Willison said.</p><p>Here are some examples of the disparities researchers discovered.</p><p style="margin-left: 20px;">1. Within nine days of the storms' landfall, Hurricane Irma and Harvey survivors had received nearly $100 million from FEMA, while Hurricane Maria survivors had received little more than $6 million.</p><p style="margin-left: 20px;"><span></span>2. Federal on-site workers peaked at 31,000 in Texas following Harvey, 40,000 in Florida following Irma and only 19,000 in Puerto Rico following Maria.</p><p style="margin-left: 20px;"><span></span>3. Texas and Florida received in two months the aid that Puerto Rico had to wait four months to get in full.</p><p>The Puerto Rican government held up the report as proof of President Donald Trump's poor response to the disaster and as an example of long-standing inequalities between Puerto Rico and the mainland U.S.</p><p>"The study released today is further evidence that the federal government dragged its feet during the biggest disaster in our recorded history, which took the lives of almost 3,000 citizens," Puerto Rico Federal Affairs Administration Executive Director Carlos Mercader wrote in a statement to <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/study-puerto-rico-received-slower-less-generous-federal-disaster-aid-than-texas-florida/" target="_blank">CBS News</a>. "We can only hope that the mounting evidence serves to improve the federal government's response during the next natural disaster. Nevertheless, as long as we remain a mere territory without any say in our government, we will always get the short end of the stick in our fundamentally imperfect relationship with the United States."</p><p>The researchers also raised the issue of political representation. </p><p>"Not only was the lack of emergency response a likely contributor to thousands of avoidable deaths, it was also a reminder of the penalties of not being fully represented in federal politics," study co-author and UM health management and policy professor Scott Greer said in the UM release. "Democracy is a public health policy."</p>
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<p>FEMA, however, defended its response to the storm, saying it had faced unique difficulties in delivering aid to Puerto Rico.<br></p><p>"An ideal response to any disaster is one that is federally supported, state managed and locally executed. FEMA's ability to provide support in disasters builds on, and is subject to, the capacity of the state, territorial, tribal & local governments," FEMA press secretary Elizabeth Litzow wrote in a statement to CBS News. "There were real challenges in Puerto Rico that had to be overcome—including aging infrastructure, a decayed power grid and liquidity issues."</p>
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2018: A Year of Deadly Climate Disasters and an 'Ear Splitting Wake-Up Call'
28 December 2018
Climate
Aerial view of Florence, Nichols, Conway and Waccamaw, South Carolina, impacted by floodwaters on Sept. 21. South Carolina Air National Guard
2018 is set to rank as the fourth warmest year on record—and the fourth year in a row reflecting a full degree Celsius (1.8° Fahrenheit) temperature rise from the late 1800s, climate scientists say.
This was the year that introduced us to fire tornadoes, bomb cyclones and in Death Valley, a five-day streak of 125°F temperatures, part of the hottest month ever documented at a U.S. weather station.
<p>2018 also brought the world's highest-ever low temperature, as nighttime temperatures fell to a sizzling 109°F in Quiryat, Oman, on June 28, smashing a 2011 record-high low.</p><p>A startling 95 percent of the oldest and thickest <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/arctic">Arctic</a> sea ice <a href="https://thinkprogress.org/scientists-shocked-that-warming-has-wiped-out-oldest-thickest-arctic-sea-ice-febe927ab619/" target="_blank">is now gone</a>—and we're losing Arctic <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/sea-ice">ice</a> at a rate of 14,000 tons <a href="https://thinkprogress.org/scientists-shocked-that-warming-has-wiped-out-oldest-thickest-arctic-sea-ice-febe927ab619/" target="_blank">per second</a>, according to recent research, three times as fast as roughly three decades ago.</p><p>It was a year notable both for its overwhelming, climate-fueled impacts as well as its gut-wrenching predictions for what <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/climate-change">climate change</a> still has in store for us if we fail to act. So much happened, frankly, that it's been hard to keep it all straight.</p><h3>Stark Warnings</h3><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xOTA0NzMzOS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY0MDkxODAxMH0.SCkSpZrEy7pCCSmMUdtqLADavs15CLFM2cUEVkCaNZE/img.jpg?width=980" id="1463d" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="13b1a588c06f29dc90a4e257f2ca2f84" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">Actively eroding coastal permafrost bluff on Barter Island, located on the northern coast of Alaska, July 3, 2018 </small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit...">Shawn Harrison, U.S. Geological Survey</small></p><p>The year delivered increasingly powerful warnings from scientists and international agencies about the need to shift away from <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/fossil-fuels">fossil fuels</a> and slash greenhouse gas emissions. In the U.S., 2018 saw a <a href="https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/411444-trump-administration-doubles-down-on-climate-skepticism" target="_blank">presidential administration</a> and Republican-controlled Congress <a href="https://www.macombdaily.com/news/nation-world-news/gop-is-falling-in-line-with-climate-skeptics/article_4c64386e-bc40-59c0-b0e0-c1c2d7420dc7.html" target="_blank">packed with politicians</a> and administrators who <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/climate-denier">refuse to recognize</a> the scientific consensus that the climate is changing because of fossil fuel pollution and other human activities.<br></p><p>(How strong is that consensus? We've <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/climate-consensus-97-per-cent/2013/sep/27/global-warming-ipcc-report-humans" target="_blank">known for years</a> that the probability that greenhouse gas pollution is causing climate change is <a href="https://climate.nasa.gov/causes/" target="_blank">more than 95 percent</a>—and that's according to a panel of 1,300 scientific experts from all over the world who were brought together by the United Nations.)</p><p>In fact, in 2018, the <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/trump-watch/">Trump</a> administration's own U.S. Environmental Protection Agency published a 1,656 page National Climate Assessment, which <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/23/climate/us-climate-report.html?module=inline" target="_blank">warns</a> of hundreds of billions of dollars in damage on the horizon from climate change.</p><p>The Trump administration <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/25/climate/trump-climate-report.html" target="_blank">sought to bury</a> that report—but it couldn't bury a UN report, published in October, which warned that <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/oct/08/global-warming-must-not-exceed-15c-warns-landmark-un-report" target="_blank">we have 12 years</a> to slash greenhouse gas emissions worldwide if we're to stave off the worst impacts of a changing climate.</p><p>"This report by the world's leading climate scientists is an ear-splitting wake-up call to the world," UN Secretary-General António Guterres wrote in a <a href="https://www.un.org/sg/en/content/sg/statement/2018-10-08/statement-secretary-general-ipcc-special-report-global-warming-15-%C2%BAc" target="_blank">statement</a>. "It confirms that climate change is running faster than we are—and we are running out of time."</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-twitter_embed">
</p><div id="e6aec" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="AEJ9J41576662435"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1049443195157966848" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">The new @IPCC_ch report is a wake-up call to the world: it confirms that climate change is running faster than we a… https://t.co/FRjtlAsCmv</div> — António Guterres (@António Guterres)<a href="https://twitter.com/antonioguterres/statuses/1049443195157966848">1539041730.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p></p><p>Greenhouse gas emissions had climbed to a <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-energy-carbon-iea/global-carbon-emissions-hit-record-high-in-2017-idUSKBN1GY0RB" target="_blank">record high</a> in 2017, after a three-year period where carbon emissions held relatively steady. Levels of <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/methane">methane</a>, another powerful greenhouse gas, <a href="https://www.climate.gov/news-features/understanding-climate/after-2000-era-plateau-global-methane-levels-hitting-new-highs" target="_blank">also broke records</a> in 2017, following a relatively steady period of recorded global levels from 1999 to 2006.<br></p><p>"We are already seeing the consequences of 1°C of global warming through more <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/extreme-weather">extreme weather</a>, rising sea levels and diminishing Arctic sea ice, among other changes," <a href="https://www.ipcc.ch/pdf/session48/pr_181008_P48_spm_en.pdf" target="_blank">added</a> Panmao Zhai, who helped prepare the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report for the UN.</p><p>Indeed, 2018 brought some of the worst natural disasters in U.S. history—many of them linked to climate change, scientists have said.</p><h3>California Wildfires</h3><p>In November, Paradise, California suffered a horrific wildfire that killed <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2018/12/03/camp-fire-death-toll-california-deadliest-wildfire/2199035002/" target="_blank">at least 85</a>, destroyed 14,000 homes and seared images of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EsVk0bJWCNQ" target="_blank">traffic jams</a> on roads surrounded by walls of fire into the minds of millions, as those fleeing posted terrifying videos of their escapes online.</p><p>The fire was hot enough to melt <a href="https://weather.com/news/weather/video/camp-fires-flames-so-hot-aluminum-wheels-melted-into-liquid" target="_blank">the wheels</a> of cars left behind—and the cars of some who escaped <a href="https://www.ijpr.org/post/harrowing-personal-account-how-camp-fire-devastated-paradise#stream/0" target="_blank">emerged</a> from the inferno with melted headlights and rear bumpers.</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-youtube">
<span style="display:block;position:relative;padding-top:56.25%;" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="afa547c0277956f50c65a858e1ec3e35"><iframe type="lazy-iframe" data-runner-src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/amUW2NrA9S8?rel=0" width="100%" height="auto" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;"></iframe></span>
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">Escaping the 'Camp Fire' in Butte County</small>
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<a href="https://youtu.be/amUW2NrA9S8" target="_blank">youtu.be</a>
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</p><p>In southern California, the Woolsey Fire near Malibu <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/southern-california-woolsey-fire-fully-contained-mudslides-rain-latest-forecast-today-2018-11-21/" target="_blank">killed three</a> and burned 1,600 buildings, including <a href="https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/nation/in-malibu-woolsey-fire-claims-celebrities-homes/" target="_blank">homes belonging to</a> Neil Young, Miley Cyrus and other celebrities, and leaving a dark scar <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2018/11/21/us/woolsey-fire-malibu-california-burn-scar-trnd/index.html" target="_blank">visible</a> from outer space in <span style="background-color: initial;">NASA</span> images.<br></p><p>"California is vulnerable—not because of poor forest management as DT (our so-called president) would have us think," Neil Young wrote in a <a href="https://www.neilyoungarchives.com/#/news/1/article?id=Big%20Winds%20Blow&_k=1d21ky" target="_blank">statement</a> calling for action on climate change after his home was destroyed. "We are vulnerable because of Climate Change; the extreme weather events and our extended drought is part of it."</p><p>The <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/paradise-lost-inside-california-camp-fire-60-minutes/" target="_blank">Camp Fire</a> was the most deadly wildfire in the U.S. <a href="https://www.mercurynews.com/2018/11/22/5714558/" target="_blank">in a century</a>, spurred by a long-running <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/drought">drought</a> and the spread of tree-killing bark beetles into <a href="http://www.climatecentral.org/news/why-bark-beetles-are-chewing-their-way-through-americas-forests-15429" target="_blank">newly warming regions</a>—which together left <a href="https://www.insurancebusinessmag.com/us/news/catastrophe/californias-129-million-dead-trees-pose-a-major-wildfire-hazard-110378.aspx" target="_blank">129 million dead trees</a> in the parched state.</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xOTA0NzM0Mi9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYzMTc3MTYwNX0.YRvG7dTgkFcc95Gw3KmbRC0n5b5uONQ1W-FdPcg1EII/img.png?width=980" id="47b50" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="de062668381d52468ecad5fc8af926f5" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">Dead trees along a mountain road in the Sequoia National Forest in November 2016</small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit...">U.S. Forest Service</small></p><p>But while some in Paradise plan to rebuild, to literally raise their town from ashes, a less-noticed piece of the <span style="background-color: initial;">U.S.</span> was more permanently wiped off the map. An 11-acre Hawaiian island <a href="https://www.sciencealert.com/entire-hawaiian-island-was-just-erased-by-hurricane-east-walaka-chip-fletcher-monk-seals-green-sea-turtles" target="_blank">virtually disappeared</a> below the waves, the victim of <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/sea-level-rise">sea level rise</a> and Hurricane Walaka.<br></p><p>California was hardly the only place to experience extraordinary <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/wildfires">wildfires</a> in 2018. The <a href="https://weather.com/science/weather-explainers/news/2018-05-12-pyrocumulus-fire-cloud-severe-thunderstorm-hail-texas" target="_blank">Mallard Fire</a> in Texas in May grew so hot that it formed its own pyrocumulous clouds, or fire clouds, which caused a supercell thunderstorm and one-inch hail north of Wheeler, Texas.</p><p>And in July, wildfires burned inside the Arctic Circle following an unprecedented drought, with locals in Sweden <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/19/world/europe/heat-wave-sweden-fires.html" target="_blank">comparing the glow</a> from the blaze to the Northern Lights. Horrific wildfires also burned across Greece in July, <a href="http://www.startribune.com/greece-wildfire-toll-now-100-as-man-dies-months-later/502842191/" target="_blank">killing 100 people</a> and forcing hundreds more to <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/greece-wildfires-athens-greeks-flee-to-sea-escape-flames-death-toll-latest/" target="_blank">flee into the sea</a> to escape the fire.</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-twitter_embed">
</p><div id="2b567" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="RQVU8Y1576662435"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1022824879840747520" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">A #firenado came dangerously close to these emergency vehicles as they battle the Carr fire near Redding, Californi… https://t.co/Ldkky1Sh3a</div> — CNN Weather Center (@CNN Weather Center)<a href="https://twitter.com/CNNweather/statuses/1022824879840747520">1532695429.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p></p><p>The year began with the Montecito mudslides on Jan. 9, which killed 27 Californians and destroyed 130 homes, after a 200-year rainstorm dumped a half inch of rain in just five minutes onto steep slopes which were stripped barren of vegetation by the <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/california-fires-update-blaze-larger-new-york-city-destroys-1000-buildings-745045" target="_blank">Thomas wildfire</a>, which in early January became—at the time—<a href="https://www.vox.com/2017/12/27/16822180/thomas-fire-california-largest-wildfire" target="_blank">the largest wildfire</a> in California's history. That one-two punch bore the fingerprints of a changing climate.<br></p><p>"It wasn't just the drought; it wasn't just the fire; it wasn't just the rain. It was the compound effect," <a href="http://www.polsci.ucsb.edu/people/leah-stokes" target="_blank">Leah Stokes</a>, a climate policy researcher at UC Santa Barbara, told The Independent in January, discussing the Montecito disaster. "Climate change causes all kinds of abnormal events—you can really think of it as 'climate disruption' or 'global weirding.'"</p><h3>Flooding and Hurricanes</h3><p>2018 saw an unusually high number of violent storms, particularly in the Pacific, which saw "the most intense hurricane season ever recorded," according to <a href="https://www.popsci.com/hurricane-season-historic-atlantic-pacific#page-2" target="_blank">Popular Science</a>, including 10 storms that reached Category 4 or 5.</p><p>Climate scientists <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/climate-scientists-mull-category-six-storm-classification-report-says/" target="_blank">proposed</a> the creation of a "Category 6" for <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/hurricanes">hurricanes</a> more powerful than any yet seen. "Scientifically, [six] would be a better description of the strength of 200 mph (320km/h) storms, and it would also better communicate the well-established finding now that climate change is making the strongest storms even stronger," climatologist Michael Mann <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/climate-scientists-mull-category-six-storm-classification-report-says/" target="_blank">told</a> CBS News.</p><p>The Atlantic coast was hit by two of the most devastating storms to hit the continental U.S., following a 2017 in whic three Category Four storms, <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/hurricane-harvey">Harvey</a>, <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/hurricane-irma">Irma</a> and <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/hurricane-maria">Maria</a>, smashed all records for hurricane damage and did over $300 billion in damage.</p><p>A year after Maria, Puerto Rico was still recovering, and the official death toll was recognized this year as 3,057 people—after Governor Ricardo Rossello <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-45338080" target="_blank">accepted</a> a report raising the number of recognized deaths from 64.</p><p>This year's worst Atlantic hurricanes, Michael and <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/2018/10/01/hurricane-florence-historic-flooding-south-carolina-climate-change" target="_blank">Florence</a>, left much of the southern U.S. underwater at points.</p><p>Michael, America's strongest-ever October hurricane, carried sustained winds of 155 miles an hour and struck the Florida panhandle, <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/2018/10/21/mexico-beach-house-hurricane-michael-trump-climate-denier-politicians" target="_blank">flattening towns like Mexico Beach</a>.</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-twitter_embed">
</p><div id="02aca" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="8DHP0F1576662436"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1051581029507575810" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">HURRICANE MICHAEL'S WRATH: Stunning drone footage shows the cleanup in Mexico Beach, Florida, after the storm ravag… https://t.co/uoPGUCly1d</div> — CBS News (@CBS News)<a href="https://twitter.com/CBSNews/statuses/1051581029507575810">1539551429.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p></p><p>Florence, meanwhile, spurred officials to <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2018/09/10/hurricane-florence-driving-life-threatening-conditions-toward-east-coast/1253945002/" target="_blank">call for</a> the evacuation of more than 1 million people, then left parts of the Carolinas flooded <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/02/us/hurricane-florence-flooding-carolinas.html" target="_blank">for weeks</a>, after it slowed to a crawl and deluged more than 8 trillion gallons of water into the region.<br></p><p>"When people say the wildfires, hurricanes and heatwaves they're experiencing are unlike anything they've seen before," Brenda Ekwurzel, director of climate science at the <a href="https://www.ucsusa.org" target="_blank">Union of Concerned Scientists</a>, said in a statement <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/nov/24/climate-change-report-trump-administration-democrats-reaction" target="_blank">in November</a>, "there's a reason for that and it's called climate change."</p><p>Even before Florence hit, one <a href="https://www.livescience.com/63571-hurricane-florence-bigger-due-to-climate-change.html" target="_blank">study</a> found that the storm would be 50 miles wider, and dump 50 percent more rain, because of the impacts of burning fossil fuels and other greenhouse gas pollution.</p><h3>Heatwaves and Noreasters</h3><p>The year started with a prolonged run of winter storms in the Northeastern U.S., including winter storms dubbed Riley, Quinn, Skylar and Toby, which some researchers warned may have been tied to climate change—showing just how inapt the term "global warming" can be. When the jet stream <a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/02022018/cold-weather-polar-vortex-jet-stream-explained-global-warming-arctic-ice-climate-change" target="_blank">began to wobble</a>, it allowed cold air that would normally be trapped over the Arctic to make its way down to the continental U.S.—making the weather warmer up north and colder farther south.</p><p>The cold spell was so pronounced in New York and southern Canada that Niagara Falls <a href="http://time.com/5084294/niagara-falls-frozen-2018/" target="_blank">froze</a> on New Year's Day.</p><p>That freezing weather was <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2018/aug/14/it-cant-get-much-hotter-can-it-how-heat-became-a-national-us-problem" target="_blank">followed</a> by a summer heatwave that prompted heat warnings for 100 million Americans in the summer, and caused 93 deaths in Montreal.</p><p>More than 30,000 people were hospitalized in Japan for heatstroke as summer temps soared there as well.</p><p>And while droughts hit hard in Germany, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/04/world/europe/rhine-drought-water-level.html" target="_blank">drying up</a> the Rhine river, Baltimore, Maryland has seen nearly <a href="https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/weather/bs-md-rain-update-20181221-story.html" target="_blank">70 inches of rain</a>. A <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-us-canada-44287175/maryland-floods-the-city-where-roads-turned-to-rivers" target="_blank">flash flood</a> in Ellicott City, Maryland, swept away cars as roadways abruptly became rivers.</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-youtube">
<span style="display:block;position:relative;padding-top:56.25%;" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="a675e1e7ac0f55a92bfe6db46a6e2bd4"><iframe type="lazy-iframe" data-runner-src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Mgs4uC3mcQ8?rel=0" width="100%" height="auto" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;"></iframe></span>
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">Flash flooding hits Ellicott City, Maryland</small>
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</p><p><span style="background-color: initial;">"</span>The evidence, if we needed any more, continues to stack up. The record-high heatwaves, record-low Arctic sea ice, above average tropical cyclones and deadly wildfires are an alarm bell impossible to ignore," Jens Mattias Clausen, who represented <a href="http://www.greenpeace.org/usa/" target="_blank">Greenpeace</a> at the <span style="background-color: initial;">UN</span> <a href="http://cop24.gov.pl/" target="_blank">COP24</a> climate talks in Poland, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/nov/29/four-years-hottest-record-climate-change" target="_blank">told The Guardian</a> this month. "It's no longer our future that is in peril; our today is at risk."</p>
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</p><div id="0ab7d" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="YHHEIF1576662436"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1078486964142247937" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">9 #Renewable Energy Highlights of 2018 https://t.co/roGl0U14Jq https://t.co/RfjHi9UkmK</div> — Clean Coalition (@Clean Coalition)<a href="https://twitter.com/Clean_Coalition/statuses/1078486964142247937">1545966304.0</a></blockquote></div>
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<p><em>Reposted with permission from our media associate <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/2018/12/28/year-deadly-climate-disasters-ear-splitting-wake-call-scientists" target="_blank">DeSmogBlog</a>.</em><br></p>
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Jaime Betancourt grows hydroponic vegetables in his Guaynabo, PR home for sale in local farmers markets. Preston Keres / USDA
A year has passed since Hurricane Maria first made landfall in Puerto Rico, destroying homes, roads and vehicles in its path—and taking thousands of lives. The island languished for months as an insufficient emergency response campaign attempted to restore basic services like water and power. After a recent independent study, the official death toll was raised from the initial 64 to 2,975; analysis done by The New York Times, citing malnutrition and other food-based ailments as possible culprits for surging mortality in the storm's aftermath, estimated that number could be more than 4,000.
<p>How could this happen? By taking out the island's infrastructure like highways, trucks, gas stations and more, the storm also wiped out its agricultural supply lines. Puerto Rico imports about 85 percent of all its food, producing just 15 percent of what's consumed on the island.<u></u><u></u></p><p>In the wake of the storm, people stood in lines for hours and walked barely-stocked aisles looking for canned, non-perishable foods. Many relied on emergency responders and Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA) <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/10/24/why-fema-sent-junk-food-to-puerto-rican-hurricane-survivors/?utm_term=.3a5dbd969a09" target="_blank">meals</a>, made of packaged and processed foods that require little to no preparation, like the beef jerky and crackers you'd expect to find in a vending machine. In harder-to-service rural areas on the island, the threat of starvation loomed large.<u></u><u></u></p><p>"They say that during Maria, Puerto Rico only had enough food for one week," said Carmen Yulín Cruz, the mayor of San Juan, who became an international figurehead after calling out President <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/trump-watch/">Trump</a> for his inadequate response to the crisis. "I hate to say anything positive about Maria. But what the hurricane did was force us to look at the realities of life here and how our dependency on the outside weakens our ability to ensure our people are taken care of. Maria made it evident that we need agricultural sovereignty."<u></u><u></u></p><p>The story of Puerto Rico's <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/food/">food</a> production is also the story of the island's own colonial history. Large-scale plantations replaced native <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/farming">farming</a> during Puerto Rico's days as a Spanish colony, resulting in the consolidation of agricultural land and landholding, as well as the number of crops being grown on it. When the U.S. took over the island in the wake of the Spanish-American War in 1898, economic restructuring meant that the remaining agricultural activity focused only on cash crops like sugarcane and coffee.<u></u><u></u></p><p>Then, in the 1940s, Congress launched Operation Bootstrap, a campaign to overhaul the Puerto Rican economy that focused on manufacturing and tourism—moving even further away from <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/agriculture">agriculture</a>. Subsequent tax breaks and economic initiatives to encourage investment in these sectors solidified these moves. Deliberately, over the course of years, an import-driven food system was put in place in Puerto Rico, and all other farming fell by the wayside.</p><p>"Puerto Rico's economy has always been categorized by being an import economy: we produce things we do not consume but then we have to import things we do consume, especially in agriculture," noted Gladys González-Martínez, a professor of agricultural economics at the University of Puerto Rico.<u></u><u></u></p><p>Still, Puerto Rican local farming had been experiencing the beginning stages of a renaissance even before the storm hit, spurred by the economic crisis of 2006. According to statistics provided by the governor's office, farm income grew 25 percent from 2012 to 2014, while the number of acres under cultivation rose by 50 percent between 2012 and 2016, generating at least 7,000 jobs.<u></u><u></u></p><p>That progress was short-lived: 80 percent of the island's crops were destroyed in the storm. But, despite those losses, the seeds of a local agricultural had taken root. Some took the storm as inspiration.<u></u><u></u></p><p>At farms like Cosechas Tierra Viva in Las Piedras, run by Eduardo Burgos and Franco Marcano, where they grow kale, arugula, green beans and eggplant for local farmers markets, the storm kicked them into high gear. Just a month after Maria's landfall, they converted the farm to run exclusively on <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/solar">solar</a> energy and shifted their irrigation system's source to rainwater. "Maria was the push we needed to execute the ideas we had to expand our production," Burgos told <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/puerto-rico-crisis/push-we-needed-puerto-rico-s-local-farmers-step-efforts-n875491" target="_blank">NBC News</a> in July.</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xODY3NjQ5MC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYzNzgxOTI2Mn0.SlNnaOFraTgV7HbNVWGTnlpV2JvoL8uW79RiRZnxcHU/img.jpg?width=980" id="d1437" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="8bc1199bc0a4077c138233d93fcb6009" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">Aerial view of the Cosechas Tierra Viva farm in Las Piedras</small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit...">Cosechas Tierra Viva / Facebook</small></p><p><span style="background-color: initial;">They're not alone. Agroecology—defined by the </span><span style="background-color: initial;"><a href="http://www.fao.org/agroecology/knowledge/definitions/en/" target="_blank">Food and Agriculture Organization</a></span> of the United Nations as both a movement and practice of socially, economically, and environmentally sustainable development—is an approach to farming that promotes diversity through crop rotation, polycultures, or livestock integration, and uses natural systems and local knowledge like planting flowers to attract insects that keep pest levels under control. Using agroecology has allowed Puerto Rican farmers to envisage an agriculture system not reliant on external inputs from chemical companies and fossil fuels. And the idea is rapidly taking hold in farms, schools and community groups across the island. Already, organizations like the <a href="https://www.americasforconservation.org/lasolidaria">Puerto Rico Resilience Fund</a> are supporting the movement by establishing sites like the student-run farm at the University of Puerto Rico's Rí<span style="background-color: initial;">o Piedras campus, while networks like the Organización Boricuá de Agricultura Ecológica de Puerto Rico are helping small farms like the Pachamama Bosque Jardín find their feet.</span><br></p><p>These projects are crucial for the island's food security, but also for its protection from storms that are likely to grow in intensity and frequency due to <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/climate-change">climate change</a>. Surveys after <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/hurricanes">hurricanes</a> in the late 1990s in countries like Nicaragua and Cuba have shown that diversified, small-scale farms suffer less damage than bigger farms practicing conventional agriculture.<u></u><u></u></p><p>Already, the movement is making a noticeable difference. The Puerto Rican Department of Agriculture is <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/puerto-rico-crisis/push-we-needed-puerto-rico-s-local-farmers-step-efforts-n875491" target="_blank">aiming</a> to have food imports down to 65 to 75 percent by the end of the year, which could represent as much as a 20 percent decrease on pre-Maria levels and a 30 percent drop from the island's post-Maria peak.<u></u><u></u></p><p>Ricardo Fernandez, CEO of Puerto Rico Farm Credit, sees signs of the transformation. People are flocking to farmers markets; university students are signing up for agricultural classes. "There's a resurgence now, because we have to re-invent ourselves," he says in a recent interview with <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2017/05/13/527934047/how-puerto-rico-lost-its-home-grown-food-but-might-find-it-again" target="_blank">NPR</a>. For an island facing serious questions about its own colonial legacy and territorial status, local food may well be the first step towards a more independent Puerto Rico.</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-twitter_embed">
</p><div id="2ec88" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="WUEH0K1576661946"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="921844822545223680" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">Puerto Rico's Revival Depends on Empowering Small-Scale Farmers https://t.co/BB9qL3tjqZ @SoilAssociation @RootsofChange</div> — EcoWatch (@EcoWatch)<a href="https://twitter.com/EcoWatch/statuses/921844822545223680">1508619907.0</a></blockquote></div>
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WATCH: Puerto Rico Planting 750,000 Trees to Defend Land From Natural Disasters
28 September 2018
Facebook Videos
Screen shot of PLN live on EcoWatch, Sept. 27, 2018. Facebook.com/EcoWatch/videos/1834878866631950/
September 20 marked the one-year anniversary of the most devastating and deadly natural disasters in 100 years of U.S. history—Hurricane Maria. Today, Puerto Rico continues to face both challenges, such as Tropical Storm Kirk landing today, and opportunities.
Many wonder how Puerto Rico is doing so EcoWatch teamed up with the non-profit Para la Naturaleza (PLN) for an interactive Facebook live experience on Thursday. Watch the video below to learn how the community of Puerto Rico—the town of Comerío—came together to revitalize the natural ecosystems. PLN is working towards the ambitious goal of planting 750,000 native and endemic trees and establishing 33 percent of Puerto Rico's lands as protected by 2033.
<p style="">"We lost over 31 million trees during both hurricanes," said director of PLN Fernando Lloveras. "And one of the things that we realized early on is that the ecological recovery was a kind of an inspiration for human recovery."<br></p><p style="">PLN is bringing a botanical garden to the students at Juana Colón Public School, their sister organization which has transformed into a Montessori curriculum.</p><p style="">The students are learning the natural sciences in the classroom and also building a forest within the school. They plant trees to hold sediments and prevent erosion, especially in future <a href="http://ecowatch.com/tag/flooding">flooding</a>. </p><p style="">Planting of native trees, such as soursop or cacao, also brings essential wildlife to the area.</p><p style="">"Trees are an easy way to help increase climate change resiliency," said senior program officer at <a href="https://cbtrust.org/" target="_blank">Chesapeake Bay Trust</a> Jeff Popp in the comments thread of the live video.</p><p style="">One student, Andrea Santana, shared her moving testimony. "It was a really difficult process, but it was really beautiful to see how we all got together to see nature recover. When I first saw this place I was shocked because there were fish all over the place," she said. "The buildings next to the river were completely destroyed and the vegetation here was just simply lost."</p><p style="">Sustainability is the main goal of PLN. Together, the communities overcame an unfathomable disaster in Puerto Rico.</p><p style=""> Santana ended her testimony with inspiring words. "We all just have to stick together and just go through it. We learned that lesson and I'm really happy [about] it."</p><div id="fbf52" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="DFMKKF1576662179"><blockquote class="instagram-media" data-instgrm-captioned="" data-instgrm-version="4" style=" background:#FFF; border:0;
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word-wrap:break-word;" target="_top">Para la Naturaleza on Instagram: “Let's get the job done! The #PLNCommunityFund is delivering immediate help to our neighboring communities. Please donate! www.pln.org”</a></p>
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