Red Cross Has Not Stepped Up in Puerto Rico

Until the diversion on Friday of kicking the Iran deal to the diplomatically sensitive US Congress and killing the Affordable Care Act, there was a great deal in the news about the slow response in Puerto Rico.  There were plenty of stories about the small number of federal employees compared to other disasters.  There were stories of how aid was not getting to the rest of the island, and how people were dying or doing horrible things to stay alive.  But I have not read much about the slow response from the American Red Cross.

There was a nice Slate story about the problems that the Red Cross faced in Texas, and we all know all the problems after Katrina.  NPR and ProPublica investigated how much of the donations from the Red Cross went to individual assistance and did not get many answers. There are a lot of stories about the Red Cross needs help or local stories of Red Cross volunteers heading to Puerto Rico, but I have yet to see much criticism of the Red Cross poor response to Hurricane Maria.

FEMA has recently said that it was not there job to provide food or water, but what about the Red Cross? I was trapped for a 12 days in Puerto Rico trying to get back to the mainland after Hurricane Maria hit the island.  I stayed in the shelter that they operated and watched them for two days at the Convention Center. The problems that I witnessed with the Red Cross include:

The Red Cross has forgotten how to administer a homeless shelter. 

They should step aside and let some other group serve this function after a disaster.  About 25 years ago, the Red Cross decided that they would not run homeless shelters anymore in most cities, but then we ask them to set up a shelter in a disaster?  From what I saw, they forgot how to run a shelter in Puerto Rico.  They were largely invisible at the facility and were not managing the comfort of the of the residents very well. 

They designed a facility that looked good on paper, but did not work in a practical way.

They were serving a fragile population and made the bathrooms too far away from the residents. They had set up a bunch of telephones that did not work.  They had set up a charging station for cell phones but did not have enough outlets for the population.  They did not cluster people together with similar issues.  It was not clear who were staff or volunteers and who were the residents of the shelter. Everything they did was done from the perspective of a person writing down how to open a shelter, but had never actually worked in a real shelter.

There was no charity on the streets distributing food and water for free.

In Cleveland, we have religious groups distributing food out on the streets to those in need every day. There was nothing in Puerto Rico to address the lack of electricity and drinkable water.  If the religious community was not able to provide this service, the Red Cross needed to step forward.  For the first five days there were little access to money, and no access to credit.  Most of the country had no access to running water and yet no one filled this need.  Even today, nearly four weeks later this is still a critical need in the rural areas of the island.  Why has the Red Cross not stepped up to serve this need?

They allowed law enforcement to be first contact for those in need and made it very difficult to access help.

The Red Cross should have asserted themselves as the lead to provide help to those suffering and trying to get help especially with food or water.  When they saw what a poor job FEMA was doing, they should have intervened to provide help.  They should not have allowed law enforcement to come between their social workers and those desperate for help. 

They did not provide comfort to those struggling with loss.

There was no clergy or religious presence inside the sleeping area comforting those without a place to stay.  No one was dealing with the trauma of the disaster.  The next day there was one clergy member sitting out front, hoping that people would come to see him if they could get beyond the law enforcement at the front door.  This is a critical need for someone who is displaced, but it was not treated with any seriousness. 

They allowed those who were in need of help to be treated as second class citizens inside the facility with time/place restrictions.

The Red Cross personnel running the shelter set up unnecessary obstacles to keep the residents contained.  When the residents staying in the Convention Center moved to a more appropriate facility, the obstacles were taken down.  The residents were behind doors and the media were not allowed to photograph inside the area where residents were sleeping.  Those staying in the shelter were not allowed to walk around the Convention Center after 6 pm. because of the “curfew.”  The curfew had been extended to 7 p.m. by the time we were in the facility, and they were not allowed outside the sleeping area after 6 p.m. or I guess they would have been arrested or fined?  I have no idea why the staff were forcing people into the sleeping area and using the curfew as the reason.  

The Red Cross was poor at managing volunteers. 

There were many bodies present, but they were not serving those in need.  There were far too many people at the Convention Center who were not necessary and yet those staying at the facility went without much food and they ran out of blankets.  There were hundreds walking around with no direction and no leadership.  It seemed as though many volunteers were taking advantage of the air conditioning, the relatively short line for the ATM, cell phone usage, and snacks that were available.  Not much activity going on within the sleeping area for the people without housing.

They wisely moved those in need to a better facility, but that took one week. 

We heard from residents on Telemundo who said that the new facility was much better than the Convention Center.  It was smaller and more manageable.  

No activities for the adults who were stuck for most of the day inside.

This is especially difficult since they made everyone stay in the sleeping area beginning at 6 p.m.  They had some computers, but not nearly enough for the need.  They had no television or anything for the adults, especially the senior citizens who were without a place to live.  The curfew also made it difficult for the volunteers to help. 

The tourists who sought help were scoffed at for being in the way. 

There was no plan and no help offered.  We were an annoyance and all the hotels left in Puerto Rico were booked by the disaster response teams from the US military and from FEMA workers.  

Never saw Red Cross workers out on the streets of San Juan.

I never saw a Red Cross volunteer or a Red Cross truck out in the community helping the 3 million Puerto Ricans with basic needs to stay alive.  We visited the poorest section of San Juan, who had not seen anyone from the Red Cross helping.  

The Homeless Shelter we visited had run out of diesel and there was no help from the Red Cross. 

With Irma having just passed Puerto Rico two weeks before, why wasn’t the Red Cross functioning at full strength to respond to the damage from the first Hurricane?

There was some damage on the island from Irma, so why wasn’t the Red Cross prepared for a hurricane two weeks later? They should have already set up in response to Irma, but they did not.  They were caught flat footed and were not prepared for the disaster.

 

I believe that Congress which chartered the Red Cross needs to examine their ability to handle disasters.  They seem fine with handling the nation’s blood supply network, but they have been repeatedly called into question over their disaster response.  If they are not regularly practicing sheltering people, why should we expect them to be able to create a shelter from scratch in a strange community?  They need to either get back in administering shelters or step aside and let real experts in the community take over.

by Brian Davis