One year after Hurricane Maria ravaged Puerto Rico, there a debate about whether the storm has created political winds that will prompt Connecticut’s Puerto Ricans to shed their reputation as unlikely voters.
Hurricane Maria
Posted inPolitics
Feds give Connecticut $10.6 million for districts with displaced students
The United States Department of Education has announced it will allocate Connecticut $10.6 million for school districts that took in displaced students from Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands after Hurricane Maria wreaked widespread devastation last fall.
Posted inHealth
Study pegs Hurricane Maria deaths at 4,645. Gov’t count: 64
Federal lawmakers and advocates in Connecticut are calling for action after a new study’s results indicate that the official death count of 64 in Puerto Rico “is a substantial underestimate of the true burden of mortality after Hurricane Maria.”The study’s death count: 4,645.
Posted inJustice, News
Months after Maria, relief center helps more than 1,000 arrivals
More than three months after Hurricane Maria left widespread devastation and wiped out power across Puerto Rico, Connecticut is still seeing displaced evacuees arriving from the island in search of aid and stability. MaryAnne Pascone is managing director and the director of community education at Capitol Region Education Councils Relief Center. In this Sunday Conversation she spoke about the challenges and conditions facing the islanders seeking the center’s help.
Posted inPolitics
Malloy criticizes feds in visit to relief center for Caribbean evacuees
In a visit to a temporary Hartford relief center Wednesday, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy criticized President Trump for the federal government’s response to the damage inflicted by Hurricane Maria on Puerto Rico, where half the island is without power 100 days after the storm’s landfall.
Posted inPolitics
As Trump signs disaster bill, CT senators say more is needed for Puerto Rico
WASHINGTON – Late Thursday, President Donald Trump signed into law a $36.5 billion hurricane relief bill that has touched off concerns that U.S. commitments to Puerto Rico will require significantly more funding. Connecticut’s Democratic senators are among those who say a lot more help is needed.
Posted inNews
Leaving Puerto Rico was hard, but Milagros Dávila has faith
Milagros Dávila and her husband Eddie Taveras didn’t want to abandon their lives in Salinas, Puerto Rico. But after Hurricane Maria destroyed the island, they were left, as were most Puerto Ricans, without clean drinking water, electricity, food or jobs. In this Sunday conversation she talks about leaving the place she was born for Connecticut and says she has faith she will return. She just doesn’t know when.
Posted inPolitics
Competing with Trump, a social worker speaks for Puerto Rico
Hurricane Maria announced its landfall near Yabucoa, P.R., with a terrible wailing. Sustained winds of 155 miles per hour shredded the electric grid, flattened trees, scoured gardens and ruined the back of the sturdy cement home of a retired Hartford school social worker, Janette Hernandez. “I still hear that sound in my head,” she said. Hernandez is back in Connecticut, giving voice to the stories of people she left behind.
Posted inPolitics
Blumenthal: U.S. in danger of ‘failing’ Puerto Rico
WASHINGTON — After a weekend trip to the island, Sen. Richard Blumenthal on Monday said the United States is in danger of “failing” Puerto Rico’s Hurricane Maria-struck residents and said hundreds of storm victims already are arriving in Connecticut to reunite with family.
Posted inPolitics
Blumenthal to review Trump response to Maria in Puerto Rico
WASHINGTON — Sen. Richard Blumenthal, a critic of the Trump administration’s response to the devastation in Puerto Rico caused by Hurricane Maria, will travel to the island on Saturday to get a firsthand look.
Posted inNews
Bridgeport resident weathers Maria in San Juan, but worries about recovery elsewhere
WASHINGTON — Concerned about his family and friends, Julio López Varona rushed from Bridgeport to Puerto Rico a few days before Hurricane Maria crushed the island. A day before President Donald Trump visits his homeland, López Varona says he’s disappointed by the U.S. response, and worries about the fate of millions who don’t live in the Puerto Rican capital of San Juan, which he calls “an oasis” because of its access to U.S. aid.
Posted inNews
Report: Maria death toll in Puerto Rico higher than official count
Fatalities related to circumstances created by the hurricane are still mounting, and official numbers are not counting patients who are not receiving dialysis, oxygen and other essential services, according to Puerto Rico’s Center for Investigative Reporting.
Posted inPolitics
CT Guard joins Pentagon ramp up in Puerto Rico
WASHINGTON — The Pentagon beefed up its presence in storm-ravaged Puerto Rico Thursday and shifted its mission from search and rescue to relief – providing vital supplies of food and water. But a Connecticut lawmaker says that’s not enough and wants as many as 50,000 troops sent to the island.
Posted inNews
‘Humanitarian crisis’ on island worries CT’s Puerto Rican community
WASHINGTON — Yanil Terón is one of the more fortunate members of Connecticut’s large Puerto Rican community. In the past 24 hours, Terón has learned from strangers in the Dominican Republic and Florida that her brother and sister had survived the walloping Hurricane Maria gave her island birthplace six days ago. But she and others with relatives on the storm-tossed island are increasingly concerned about a “humanitarian crisis” that’s engulfing Puerto Rico.