💸Moneda Moves (44): Puerto Rico is in crisis, and how we can help 🇵🇷
We are coming to the end of the first full week of 2020, Moneda Moves readers. 📅But based on the current news flow, perhaps it feels much longer than that. Between natural disasters across the world and unsettling geopolitical concerns, there is plenty to cover. We're here to delve right into updates coming from Puerto Rico this week and how you can assist.
Our neighbors in PR are in a state of crisis following a series of hundreds of earthquakes that have rattled the island since last December, culminating to one of a magnitude of 6.4 earlier this week, the biggest earthquake it has experienced in a century. Analysts say the damage may have cost the island as much as $3.1 billion dollars.
(Source: CNN)
“We’ve never been exposed to this kind of emergency in 102 years,” said Gov. Wanda Vàzquez (NBC Latino).
Immediately following the largest earthquake, most of the island was without power and now reports cite it could take more than a year to fix one of the biggest and most damaged power plants in Puerto Rico. With the Costa Sur plant out of service, the area needs to rely on temporary generators and other power plants to meet the demand.
What's more is that when some residents tried to find flights off the island immediately following the strongest earthquake, some reported inflated costs. For some, flights back to the New York area hit as much as $6,192 dollars. Since then, several airlines have announced they are capping fares and adding flights to address demand.
Residents say they've lost homes, they've lost work, but those are only just some of the explicit costs. Costs that are not spoken about as often but equally important are health costs. The latest natural disaster to touch the island has triggered anxiety for many, while others suffer with PTSD just a few years out from Hurricane Maria, which killed at least 2,975 people. Meanwhile, "some people feel like the earthquake is some sort of divine punishment." Addressing mental health will also take center stage following natural disasters in Puerto Rico.
(Credit: Giphy)
🇵🇷All of this information leads to the natural follow-up: How can we help from the mainland? Below are a few local ways to donate and help fundraise, many of these compiled by Boriken Podcast and NYC-based labor and community activist David Galarza Santa.
El Maestro Inc x Overthrow (Manhattan): Join Overthrow Manhattan on 9 Bleecker Street at 4 PM to pack a shipping container to send to organizations in Puerto Rico. If you can't make it in person, you can donate to http://elfrentepr.org. $10-20 sliding scale.
Brigada Solidaria del Oeste: A community initiative in Puerto Rico, making spaces for social justice activism and creatives and created following Hurricane Maria.
Institute for Socio-Ecological Research: This organization has been closely involved with reconstruction efforts following Hurricane Maria.
More to come in the following week..
And if you want to keep a pulse on the latest coming from the island, there are some particularly good journalists and resources to follow. Among them: David Begnaud for CBS News and Arelis R. Hernández for The Washington Post. Meanwhile, you may find journalist and In The Thick podcast host Julio Ricardo Varela tweeting up a (highly informative) storm, Suzanne Gamboa and Nicole Acevedo covering for NBC Latino as well as Boriken Podcast as a great way to crowdsource these updates.
Thanks for joining us for the first edition of Moneda Moves of the year, mi gente. Next week, we will be back with more entrepreneurial and money content from the Latinx community. In the meantime, if you know any local Puerto Rico organizations we should add to our growing list, shoot us a note and we will share accordingly.
Con poder✊🏽,
Lyanne
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