Christopher Peak Photo
Richard Blumenthal and Chris Murphy, at a town hall meeting on Puerto Rico.
New Haven has already welcomed hundreds of Puerto Ricans fleeing the devastation Hurricane Maria left last September. But even more evacuees could soon arrive in the Elm City.
Senators Chris Murphy and Richard Blumenthal, back from a visit last week to Puerto Rico, communicated that message at a town hall meeting at Fair Haven School on Friday evening, in which they thanked volunteers and asked them to prepare for even more new arrivals.
The senators told the crowd of nearly 60 people, including two state representatives and four alders, that the many Puerto Ricans still lack electricity, clean drinking water, and even tarps to cover their blown-off roofs. Unable to stick it out, more are fleeing the island. As the senators left the island on Tuesday, they heard that the airport logged the highest number of passengers since before the hurricane hit, he added.
“The exodus is getting bigger, not smaller,” Murphy said. “There’s a realization that it’s not getting better; the money’s not coming. There’s not panic but a sense of despair, and that could cause a tipping point.”
Government staffers and advocates, in turn, said that their small agencies are already struggling to keep up with the evacuees’ need for housing, healthcare, and schooling here. But they said they’d welcome even more Puerto Ricans into New Haven, as they’ve done at rallies and fundraisers over the past months.
The senators said an upcoming budget resolution could provide much-needed relief, directing billions of dollars in aid to the American territory and the communities on the mainland that have stepped up to take in evacuees.
Danny Diaz and Rick Fontana.
“We’re not only dealing with what happened on the island, but also with what’s happening at home,” Daniel Diaz, the school district’s parent advocate, told the senators. “It’s affecting so many people that need help.”
A couple weeks after Hurricane Maria hit, Blumenthal visited Puerto Rico, surveying the wreckage from a helicopter. On the recent visit, he said, the island didn’t look much better.
“The first time, what we saw was whole areas destroyed, towns completely decimated, community centers wiped away and schools crushed,” he said. “There’s been some progress, but I have to tell you, as I boarded that plane to come home, I was furious and heartbroken for the people of Puerto Rico. They should be angry that, as fellow Americans, they’re treated with such abysmal and abject neglect. If this situation prevailed in New Haven, there would be an uproar. There would be riots in the street, and rightly.”
Murphy: The exodus is just starting.
In one dense neighborhood in San Juan, the capital city, the lack of electricity keeps whole blocks dark, Blumenthal said. Generators light a few homes and solar panels power a community center, but that’s it. The blackouts have shut down hotels, keeping tourists out. The lack of electricity has also shut down factories, curbing the production of medical devices, he said.
Mold is creeping through water-logged buildings, leading to a spike in asthma, Murphy said.
Raw sewage also regularly floods from a waterway blocked by downed trees and other debris that nobody’s bothered to clean up, Murphy added. Blumenthal pointed out that flooding was going on long before. “This unfair treatment of Puerto Rico predates the hurricane,” he said.
Sitting across from the senators, one recent arrival said she’d just given birth to a baby a month ago. Her husband came to visit over the holidays, but he plans to return to Puerto Rico in a week and a half. There are no resources in Puerto Rico, so his wife had to come here, the husband said in Spanish.
Led by Mayor Toni Harp, the city brought together dozens of agencies to respond to the hurricane. “It was unbelievable to see the compassion of people who were worried sick about those coming here without resources,” said Rick Fontana, the deputy director of emergency operations.
The Board of Education took in 181 new students, including several high-school seniors, Diaz said. And Junta for Progressive Action met with nearly 300 families, setting them up in local hotels and offering winter clothes and gift cards, said Alicia Caraballo, the executive director. An Amazon truck also passed out $15,000 worth of toys, bed sheets, deodorant, towels and diapers.
“Daily, we’re getting calls from Puerto Ricans there who are desperately trying to get here, she added. “We tell the families we can support and help you in many ways once you’re here, but getting from there to here is another issue.”
Blumenthal: You’re making a difference.
The senators said that financial help could come through a supplemental assistance package that they plan to fight for next month. Another $60 billion is needed, according to the government’s estimate, Murphy said. And he plans to make sure it’s earmarked for that purpose, rather than leaving it up to the Trump administration to split up the dollars with Texas.
They also want to repeal a provision in the Republicans’ recent tax bill that added a 13 percent tax on items manufactured in Puerto Rico and boost Medicaid reimbursement rates to stabilize a healthcare system that’s hemorrhaging doctors.
To get the bill passed, Republican senators, like Florida’s Marco Rubio, need to hear stories directly from Puerto Rican evacuees, both senators said, as they asked attendees to reach out to their friends in red states.
“Washington could use some lessons in leadership from New Haven,” Blumenthal said. “We’re proud of the people of New Haven and Connecticut, all those who are here and all the folks who care because you’re making a difference.”