Puerto Ricans face struggles without work
Unemployment soars after storm
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — Waiting in line at the unemployment office, Pedro Ferrao listed all the things he had lost in the hurricane.
“My kitchen, my carpet, my bed, my couch, my clothes. My personal stuff. My shoes. Everything,” he said.
But the most devastating loss has been his job at a San Juan grocery store, which closed after Hurricane Maria wiped out Puerto Rico’s power grid. Without his regular income, Ferrao has been unable to buy enough food and water for his family or find formula for his daughter, who was born 10 days after the storm.
“I don’t have food in my house, nothing,” he said. “Please, I need help.”
Like thousands of Puerto Ricans who have suddenly found themselves without work, Ferrao’s only options are to leave the island or apply for a meager unemployment check — at most $133 a week.
Since the Department of Labor reopened its offices Oct. 6, at least 10,000 people have applied for unemployment benefits. That number is expected to keep growing.
Even more Puerto Ricans have left the island. In Florida alone, more than 73,000 people have arrived from Puerto Rico through the Miami and Orlando airports and Port Everglades.
With hundreds of the island’s businesses expected to shutter permanently — and countless others to remain closed until electricity is restored — it’s unclear if, or when, Puerto Ricans will be able to return to work.
“We knew that one of the effects that hurricanes have in any jurisdiction is a potential effect on jobs,” said Carlos Saavedra Gutierrez, Puerto Rico’s Secretary of Labor. “But Maria is a whole other ballgame. This doesn’t compare with anything.”
In the first few days after the Department of Labor reopened, officials saw between 800 and 1,000 people a day, said Carmen Morales Rivera, director of the unemployment insurance department.
By the end of October, five weeks after the storm, the lines in San Juan had shortened. On a recent morning, there were roughly 30 people waiting to apply for unemployment benefits or pick up their checks.
Julio Vallejo Gonzalez had spent the weeks following the storm trying to repair his home while he waited for the restaurant where he worked as a line cook to reopen. On Oct. 26, when the restaurant still hadn’t managed to get a generator, Vallejo Gonzalez filled out an application for unemployment benefits. His family — an elderly grandmother, an autistic uncle, his now unemployed partner and two children — had been surviving on his grandmother’s monthly $490 Social Security check.
Analia Rios had been one of the lucky few who was able to return to work after the hurricane. The dermatology clinic where she worked as a nurse had a generator. But a week after the storm, the diesel ran out and the clinic decided to close.
Now, Rios was collecting $229 unemployment checks every two weeks. But it wasn’t enough, she said, and she was burning through her savings.
Saavedra Gutierrez acknowledged that unemployment benefits aren’t a sub-
stitute for a regular salary. “Even though it’s help that’s available, it’s still an economic crisis for people that lost their livelihoods,” he said. Unemployment benefits are “designed as sort of a stop-gap measure” until the recipient “hopefully” finds another job, he added.
With 70 percent of the island still in the dark, however, finding another job is proving nearly impossible.
Before Puerto Ricans can go back to work, businesses have to reopen. And for that to happen, they need electricity.
“Without a doubt, the majority of small businesses have had to close,” said Gov. Ricardo Rossello, speaking last week outside a newly reopened elementary school. “We’re looking for mechanisms to help small and medium-sized businesses survive during this crisis. But the reality is that there’s going to be no greater help than getting electricity back in Puerto Rico.”
That is proving much easier said than done. Nearly six weeks after Hurricane Maria, Puerto Rico’s power company announced that it was canceling a $300 million contract with Whitefish Energy Holdings, a small Montana company hired to restore electricity to the island. The contract has drawn scrutiny in part because it was awarded to a company from Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke’s hometown that had just two fulltime employees.
Although Puerto Rican officials announced last week that the governors of Florida and New York have pledged crews to help restore electricity, Rossello’s goal of restoring 95 percent of the island’s power by mid-December is looking more and more challenging.
In addition to the lack of power, some companies have struggled to find supplies since the hurricane. Others have limited their hours of operation because of the high costs of running generators.
“There are some businesses that are hanging on by a thread,” said Alicia Lamboy, president of Puerto Rico’s Chamber of Commerce.
Local and federal agencies are also attempting to keep the island’s businesses afloat. There are low-interest disaster loans available to help cover the costs of repairing storm damage, and small business owners who don’t qualify for regular unemployment benefits can apply for Disaster Unemployment Assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
But while businesses decide on their next steps, thousands of Puerto Rican employees remain in limbo.