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O n sept. 29, Carmen Yulín Cruz, the mayor of San Juan, Puerto Rico appeared on CNN wearing a shirt emblazoned with the all-caps message: "HELP US. WE ARE DYING." Hurricane Maria, a Category 4 storm, had hit Puerto Rico on Sept. 20, com- pletely decimating much of the island. Millions of residents were left without access to power, food, clean drinking water, medication, healthcare, or shelter (to date, a New York Times report has challenged the offi- cial hurricane-related death toll of 64 and put the number as high as 1,052). As the days passed, without adequate federal relief, Cruz's shirt pleaded: "Is anyone listening?" The nurses were listening. Cyndi Evans, RN, was at home, when Cruz's plea for help flashed across her TV screen. "I turned to my daughter and immediately asked 'Do you mind if I go to Puerto Rico?'" said Evans, a previous volunteer with the RN Response Network (RNRN), NNU's disaster relief project. "I know RNRN has the ability to mobilize a nation of [nurses] who have a voice and eyes that can assess and tell what's needed most." To that end, Evans was not alone in her drive to be of service in the heart of a major disaster. Within a matter of days, RNRN's call for Puer- to Rico volunteers resulted in thousands of sign ups, from all 50 states. RN Terry Tate, of Louisiana, had survived Hurricane Katrina and wanted to pay her own good fortune forward. RN Sharron Esguerra, of Kelsey, Calif. felt called to mark her 65th birthday by helping hur- ricane victims. Puerto Rican RN Maria Rojas of Brandon, Fla. still had family on the island. These are just a few of the 50 RNRN nurse volunteers who each found their own reasons to leave home and family in order to deploy to Puerto Rico on Oct. 3. The RNRN relief mission was part of a two-week AFL-CIO labor deployment of more than 300 skilled workers, in conjunction with Mayor Cruz. According to RNRN nurses, what they saw on the ground more than justified the mayor's appeal for help. Even weeks after Hurri- cane Maria, entire neighborhoods of local residents that nurses encountered had yet to see a single first responder. "Many of the RNRN nurses have deployed in previous disasters, including devastating hurricanes, so they know what to expect during emergency disaster relief, but what they saw in Puerto Rico was absolutely shocking," said RNRN Director and NNU Associate Execu- tive Director Bonnie Castillo, RN. "They found in community after community that Puerto Ricans were facing a deadly lack of food, water, and shelter, several weeks after Maria struck the island. We were left asking, 'Where is our government?'" In communities across the island, RNRN volunteers reported Puerto Ricans still living in roofless houses with soaked interiors, where dangerous black mold can create respiratory distress and ill- ness. They also reported outbreaks of leptospirosis, a deadly bacteri- al disease that, at the time of the deployment, had already claimed lives. According to the nurses, many Puerto Ricans were drinking untreated water from streams. Nurses moved from municipality to municipality, desperately trying to do public health education on how to disinfect the water. Some quick-thinking nurses even walked into a couple of radio stations and managed to get on the air. "Nurses [went] out into communities, where all [the people asked] for is water and food. And when you have to make a decision of who's going to get the food today or the water—we shouldn't have to do that," said NNU vice president and lead RNRN volunteer Cathy Kennedy, RN. "The United States is the richest country in the world; Puerto Rico is part of the United States." O C T O B E R | N O V E M B E R | D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 7 W W W . N A T I O N A L N U R S E S U N I T E D . O R G N A T I O N A L N U R S E 17 The Rescuers RNRN nurse volunteers spent two weeks in Puerto Rico advocating for residents to receive the most basic of care: clean water, food, shelter, medicine. Where was our government? By Kari Jones