Panel touts federal Hurricane María response
Gathered inside the Gaylord Palms Resort in Kissimmee on Friday, Puerto Rico officials praised the federal response to the island’s humanitarian emergency.
But outside, a group of Hurricane María survivors protested in tents on the eve of a federal housing aid deadline that could force hundreds of displaced Puerto Ricans to move out of the motels where they’ve been living since the storm.
At the annual Florida Republican Sunshine Summit, four officials — including state Rep. Bob Cortes, R-Altamonte Springs, and Puerto Rico’s resident commissioner Jenniffer González — took part in a discussion dubbed the “Puerto Rico Rising Panel.”
Even the panel’s name proved divisive.
“Rising from where? What Puerto Rico are they talking about? Because if it’s the same Puerto Rico that we lived in and the same Puerto Rico that they see right here, we’re not rising. We’re in the streets,” said Bethzaida Crespo, 36, who has been living at a Holiday Inn in Kissimmee with her husband and two children.
She was one of about a dozen activists, displaced families and local officials who stood outside in a “tent city installation” organized by the advocacy group Vamos4PR, who shouted “Rick Scott, ¿dónde estás?” — translated to English, “Rick Scott, where are you?”
Inside the hotel, the panel painted a different picture, deflecting criticism against Scott and President Donald Trump’s approach to Puerto Rico in the aftermath of the storm.
“Do we all wish that it would’ve been quicker? Yes. But the reality is that the logistics hampered the effort,” said the island’s former Attorney General Jose Fuentes during the presentation. “So we have to learn from the experience to make sure that next time ... they have the resources there on the island as fast as they can.”
He said the infrastructure on the island made it difficult for the federal government to deliver aid where it was needed in the first few months, “but the response, under the circumstances, was very good.”
González, the non-voting representative for Puerto Rico in Congress, said she was thankful to Scott, whose campaign for U.S. Senate she endorsed last month, and thanked Trump for what she said was an unprecedented amount of federal funds for the island.
“Never before [have] we had FEMA and the Army Corps and all the agencies to get ahead of the hurricanes, with lots of members on site, before the hurricanes, during the hurricanes,” she said.
“This is the first time a Republican Congress and a Republican president are assigning more than $30 billion” in aid, González said. “… In our history, we never received that kind of allocation funds. Of course, it has been a huge damage to the island, and we will need more.”
Activists are asking for a lastminute reprieve for the hundreds of families that were displaced to Florida and are staying at motels under FEMA’s Transitional Sheltering Assistance program, most of whom are living in Orange and Osceola counties.
While many families have returned to the island or found apartments in the region, hundreds are still struggling to find affordable homes.
State Sen. Victor Torres, DKissimmee, stood with the protesters.
“We have sent letters to [Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo] Rosselló because every time that we turned around and would tell Rick Scott … that we needed help here, they would refer us to the Puerto Rican government,” he said. “It’s a game. Back and forth. Who’s in the middle of this game? Our people … I point the finger at them. They’re responsible.”
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio’s office said this week the city expects to house at least 600 Puerto Ricans affected by Saturday’s deadline, prompting Vamos4PR to urge Scott to follow suit with a similar plan.