Issue link: https://nnumagazine.uberflip.com/i/927372
While the federal government claimed, throughout October, that everything was going well in Puerto Rico, nurses described a Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) presence on the island that was sparse at best, and many times, ineffective. People often stood in line for hours in blistering heat, waiting for desperately needed water and food, only to finally see federal disaster officials with paperwork "to collect data," rather than handing out critical supplies. "FEMA set up a place where people impacted by the hurricanes could fill out an application to start the process to get money. The wait was four and a half hours, and at the end, they got one water bottle and a snack-sized Cheez-Its," said Evans. Nurses are duty bound to protect their patients. So it's perhaps no surprise that in light of such extreme need on the ground in Puerto Rico, the RNRN volunteers went to sometimes heartbreak- ing lengths to help provide relief. Nurses described giving dehydrated local residents their own water, from their own backpacks. Kennedy described how one RNRN nurse, Vanessa Soldo, actually camped out to keep watch over supplies, sleep- ing next to 20 cases of bottled water that were sitting, waiting to be delivered to needy communities desperate for clean drinking water. "After being told at one Costco there wasn't any water yet, they found large flats of water they were willing to sell. Finally they were able to purchase water [at another store]," said Kennedy. "Water is gold for the people of Puerto Rico, and I [asked] myself, where is FEMA?" "Puerto Ricans are starving, and now dying from their water source. It's up to us to help them," said RN Randee Litten, of Eureka, Calif., in an update on a Go Fund Me page that she had established before she 18 N A T I O N A L N U R S E 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 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 Bearing Witness RNRN nurse volunteers describe what they saw in Puerto Rico "These communities are at great risk of water-borne illness epidemics. They need clean water that is safe to drink. These conditions would not be tolerated in the 50 states. It is outra- geous that we [left] our fellow Americans with essentially no aid." —Erin Carrera, RN "We couldn't believe this is part of the United States. We did home visits in a low-income community with the public health liaisons who identify those in need and help them do basic blood pressure checks, blood sugar checks, refill their meds, etc. They have already had chronic diseases going on and now their environment is full of hazardous materials and sanitation is so poor." —Hau Yau, RN "[Nurses] went to a man's home. He had no roof, all his belong- ings were soaking wet due to the rain and no tarp. There's black mold built up in most of the houses, which can cause upper respiratory infections, renal failure, and scarring of the lungs. There is a lack of supplies to even clean the black mold…and no FEMA in sight." —Kent Savary, RN RNs managed to get on air of WUPR radio with public health education about disin- fecting drinking water. OPPOSITE: RN Cathy Kennedy, lead coordina- tor of RNRN deployment to Puerto Rico, testified before Congress about the island's dire public health situation.