Pastor works to resurrect Puerto Rico after hurricane

His informal disaster-relief network has filled key gaps

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico – For years, Pastor Humberto “Bert” Pizarro, head of an Assemblies of God mission in San Juan, supplied mostly spiritual guidance and prayer to his congregants.

After Hurricane Maria tore through his adopted island, his focus shifted to a more practical calling: delivering food, water, medicine and teams of volunteers to locals after witnessing the scope of the devastation and the sluggishness of the federal response.

Today, Pizarro, a New York native, runs an informal disaster-response network that stretches across the island, supplying volunteer doctors, medicine, water, roofers, food and other resources — and, in some instances, outpacing federal recovery efforts.

“I never thought I could impact an entire island,” said Pizarro, 42. “We’ve done so much. And it’s only the beginning.”

The Federal Emergency Management Agency, which is helping to lead recovery efforts in Puerto Rico, has paid out more than $125 million in individual disaster aid and distributed more than 28 million meals and 35 million liters of water. The Sept. 20 Category 4 hurricane ripped through the center of the island, killing at least 55 people and displacing thousands.

But Maria’s widespread destruction and its distance from the U.S. mainland pose unique challenges as efforts shift from emergency response to long-term recovery, said Mike Byrne, the FEMA official coordinating the federal response in Puerto Rico.

“When you go from a complete stop to moving forward on major reconstruction on an island 1,000 miles from the mainland, it’s going to take time,” he said.

Pizarro and other groups such as his have been filling key gaps left behind by federal responders.

Pizarro grew up in Brooklyn and Queens. He came to Puerto Rico 12 years ago with his wife as an Assemblies of God missionary. Pizarro later started his own church in San Juan. He worked with victims of Haiti’s earthquake, helping children and digging wells for locals there.

When Maria hit Puerto Rico, he quickly realized his mission would change to disaster relief, he said.

Through church contacts in the U.S., Pizarro raised money and bought $200,000 worth of groceries from island wholesalers and trucked them directly into neighborhoods. Days into the disaster, bags full of supplies began arriving in some of the hardest-hit areas of Puerto Rico.

“I called all of our pastors and said, ‘I’m sending you trucks with 200 bags full of goods and water. Release them to your people,’ ” he said.