Pray for Puerto Rico
@DeborahDiane (40850)
Laguna Woods, California
September 30, 2017 5:52pm CST
Two weeks after being hit by Hurricane Marie, only 5% of Puerto Rico has electricity. It could be months, possibly a year or longer, before electricity has been restored to the entire country.
About 50% of the country now has access to running water. Thousands of people are drinking from creeks as their only source of water. Sometimes they have access to spring water; other times their only water source is polluted.
Only about 60% of the hospitals are now operational, and many of those are still not operating at full capacity. At least one hospital is operating out of a triage tent.
People with diabetes, Parkinson's Disease and other chronic illnesses are having difficulty getting medication.
Only 11% of the cell phone towers are operational, which means most people are cut off from communication with people who could help them.
The vast majority of homes in the small towns and rural areas have been badly damaged, most having lost their roofs.
Many of the roads are covered by debris or been badly damaged. Bridges have collapsed and it will be months or years before some of them have been replaced.
To make matters worse, a tropical storm is hitting the island this weekend and they are expecting another 3 to 4 inches of rain, which could cause more flooding and mudslides.
In addition, if the climate continues to change, Puerto Rico is likely to face more storms like this in the future, made worse by rising sea levels.
If you can contribute to the Red Cross or another organization which is bringing supplies and helpers to Puerto Rico, please do so.
Finally, please Pray for Puerto Rico. They need it.
9 people like this
10 responses
@petatonicsca (7070)
• Japan
30 Sep 17
I pray for them and other disaster areas, such as Mexico with the big quakes. I hope the US government gets on the stick and sends help to Puerto Rico.
5 people like this
@DeborahDiane (40850)
• Laguna Woods, California
30 Sep 17
@petatonicsca - Yes, I also pray for the people in Mexico who lost hundreds of people in their devastating earthquakes. So many people are suffering right now.
@marguicha (230365)
• Chile
1 Oct 17
I feel as you do. Countries show how great they are when they overcome these problems. I hope the US spends some of the money he spends in military equipment helping the natural disasters in its own regions.
1 person likes this
@DeborahDiane (40850)
• Laguna Woods, California
1 Oct 17
@marguicha - I agree that I would rather money be spent to help suffering people than on war machines which are designed to make people suffer more.
1 person likes this
@marguicha (230365)
• Chile
1 Oct 17
I cry for Puerto Rico as I still cry for New Orleans. The US has enough water and planes to take to Puerto Rico in this moment of crisis. When there´s an earthquake in my country, the military are all working to help. The real foe in this moment is Nature: please tell your authorities to do something.
3 people like this
@marguicha (230365)
• Chile
1 Oct 17
@DeborahDiane It is a shame! That is how the greatness of a country should be measured. Not in the amount of missiles they can send to the other end of the world.
1 person likes this
@DeborahDiane (40850)
• Laguna Woods, California
1 Oct 17
@marguicha - I agree completely! We spend more money on the military than the next five largest countries combined, yet we are having trouble helping people in our own country who have been devastated by a hurricane. It is embarrassing and shameful.
1 person likes this
@DeborahDiane (40850)
• Laguna Woods, California
1 Oct 17
@marguicha - I was stunned that it took almost two weeks before our military arrived to help Puerto Rico, and then they didn't send enough people, according to the general who is organizing the troops to help people.
2 people like this
@crossbones27 (53005)
• Mojave, California
30 Sep 17
Katrina 2.0 except 2.0 is worse because have hateful President and administration that hates dark skin people. You hear what the hate monster said today.
"Such poor leadership ability by the Mayor of San Juan, and others in Puerto Rico, who are not able to get their workers to help. They....
......want everything to be done for them when it should be a community effort. 10,000 Federal workers now on Island doing a fantastic job."
Sure did not say that about Houston or Florida. Despicable behavior by our President.
Puerto Rico needs more than a prayer they need better leadership from this country.
2 people like this
@crossbones27 (53005)
• Mojave, California
1 Oct 17
@DeborahDiane Hard to do anything if all your resources are wiped out.
1 person likes this
@DeborahDiane (40850)
• Laguna Woods, California
1 Oct 17
@crossbones27 - I agree. These people need help and our government has been embarrassingly slow to help them.
1 person likes this
@DeborahDiane (40850)
• Laguna Woods, California
1 Oct 17
@crossbones27 - I agree that he seems very prejudiced against dark skinned people and that his behavior towards them has been despicable. People are dying and he complains that their government is in debt and claims unfairly that the people are not doing enough to help themselves .... as though they could put up cell towers and get the water running again by themselves. Terrible behavior!
1 person likes this
@LadyDuck (502759)
• Italy
2 Oct 17
@DeborahDiane The French and Dutch sent help to the Island of St Maarten only a few days later. The same did the UK for the British Islands. I was shocked it took so much to send help to Puerto Rico.
1 person likes this
@DeborahDiane (40850)
• Laguna Woods, California
2 Oct 17
@LadyDuck - Honestly, I was shocked that it took two weeks to get any significant amount of help to Puerto Rico ... and, according to the Washington Post, our president was playing golf the first three days after the hurricane hit, and he was not paying much attention to what was happening. It looked embarrassingly bad. I agree that some of the other islands are in even worse shape, including the US Virgin Islands which are barely being mentioned on our news.
1 person likes this
@DeborahDiane (40850)
• Laguna Woods, California
3 Oct 17
@LadyDuck - I was shocked, too, that it took our government so long to send help to Puerto Rico. Trump defended himself by saying, "Puerto Rico is an island, in the middle of a big ocean, with water all around." He said that as if the people in Puerto Rico would be surprised to learn than they were on an island. He is such an idiot.
1 person likes this
@DeborahDiane (40850)
• Laguna Woods, California
1 Oct 17
@sallypup I agree. I feel so sorry for those people!
1 person likes this
@DeborahDiane (40850)
• Laguna Woods, California
1 Oct 17
@JudyEv - Yes, I do think the smaller nations get forgotten. What is really extra sad about Puerto Rico is that it is a territory of the United States. The people who live there are American citizens. However, many Americans on the mainland do not even consider Puerto Ricans to be American citizens and it shows in the way they are being ignored. It is horrifying to me and very, very sad!
1 person likes this
@changjiangzhibin89 (17243)
• China
1 Oct 17
My heart goes out to the people of Puerto Rico.It seems as if they went back to primitive life.Can't the government there do anything for people?
1 person likes this
@DeborahDiane (40850)
• Laguna Woods, California
2 Oct 17
Puerto Rico is part of the United States and we have been embarrassingly slow to help them. Now that we are beginning to send help (two weeks after the hurricane hit), things should improve. However, they say that it will cost $100 million to make all the repairs, and I don't see our government spending that much money there. It is very sad.
1 person likes this
@changjiangzhibin89 (17243)
• China
2 Oct 17
@DeborahDiane It is said that it will be one of the largest relief efforts in U.S. history.Hope things will work out well!
1 person likes this
@DeborahDiane (40850)
• Laguna Woods, California
3 Oct 17
@changjiangzhibin89 - I hope our Congress sees it through and actually spends the money that will be needed in Puerto Rico. I would rather see that, than spend a bunch of money on a wall between our country and Mexico.
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (128840)
• Gainesville, Florida
1 Oct 17
I will not only pray for PR, but I will also contribute to relief organizations helping them.
Knowing that global warming is going to make storms like this more frequent and more damaging, part of my prayer is that as they rebuild that have enough sense to make the structures as strong as possible to withstand future calamities.
1 person likes this
@DeborahDiane (40850)
• Laguna Woods, California
2 Oct 17
@moffittjc - I agree completely! I hope they make major improvements to the infrastructure and home design in the low lying areas of Houston, on the Florida Keys, and in Puerto Rico. I hope they make the same changes in other low lying coastal areas, too. However, I'm afraid that many politicians are going to keep their heads in the sand for a while longer. I'm afraid there will be more tragedies ahead.
1 person likes this
@KristenH (33591)
• Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio
1 Oct 17
@DeborahDiane I'm sure they dod.
1 person likes this
@DeborahDiane (40850)
• Laguna Woods, California
1 Oct 17
@KristenH - I am sure the people appreciate all the prayers they can get!
1 person likes this
@JamesHxstatic (29410)
• Eugene, Oregon
3 Oct 17
Well, our President says that the response of his administration has been amazingly efficient. The officials on the ground there disagree, no surprise.
1 person likes this
@JamesHxstatic (29410)
• Eugene, Oregon
3 Oct 17
@DeborahDiane Yet, he crows even today about how successful the efforts in PR were.
1 person likes this
@DeborahDiane (40850)
• Laguna Woods, California
3 Oct 17
@JamesHxstatic - Yes, he crowed about the "miraculous" job he is doing, while the streets are damaged or covered with mud, electricity has only been restored to 5% of homes, only 1/3 of people have phone service, and most of the houses are uninhabitable. What a success.
1 person likes this
@DeborahDiane (40850)
• Laguna Woods, California
3 Oct 17
@JamesHxstatic - One of our son-in-laws was in the Navy when a major hurricane hit Haiti. We sent our Navy to help within a few days. It took nearly two weeks before our Navy reached Puerto Rico. The difference is that our leadership has changed. We are helping now, but how many people had to suffer and, in some cases, die before our military arrived?
1 person likes this
