Safe landings
Pol seeks airport welcome centers for P.R. vics
A MANHATTAN city councilman is asking the Port Authority to open centers at city airports to help Puerto Ricans fleeing Hurricane Maria.
Transportation Committee Chairman Ydanis Rodriguez (photo) said Kennedy and LaGuardia Airports should host welcome centers for those expected to travel to New York after the devastating storm.
“Tens of thousands of Puerto Ricans are expected to continue coming to the mainland escaping the dire situation in Puerto Rico. Many of them will be children, elderly, and persons in need of medical attention. New York must welcome them with open arms,” he wrote in a letter to Port Authority Chairman Kevin O’Toole.
Florida has already opened disaster centers for storm victims at the Orlando and Miami airports and the Port of Miami.
There, reps from the state, Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Red Cross and others are on hand to direct people to medical care, food or even to help finding a job.
“New York City should replicate this model and welcome Puerto Ricans by connecting them with the help they need most,” Rodriguez wrote. The Port Authority declined comment.
Affected students are getting one break in New York — the CUNY board of trustees voted unanimously on Monday to allow students from Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands to pay in-state tuition for the 2017-18 academic year. That means affected fulltime students will pay $6,350 in tuition rather than the $17,400 paid by students from outside the state. In Washington, the Senate Monday gave a preliminary OK to a $36.5 billion hurricane relief package that would provide Puerto Rico with a much-needed infusion of cash and keep the federal flood insurance program from running out of money to pay claims. The 79-to-16 procedural vote set the stage for a final vote, most likely on Tuesday. The measure also provides $18.7 billion to replenish FEMA’s rapidly dwindling emergency disaster accounts.
On Monday, FEMA announced more than $500 million in aid to Puerto Rico, including $285 million to help restore power and water services to the devastated island.
An additional $16 billion would permit the financially troubled federal flood insurance program to pay an influx of claims from Hurricane Harvey, which made landfall in Texas in August.
More than one-fourth of Puerto Rico’s residents are without potable running water and only 17% have electricity, according to FEMA. Just 392 miles of Puerto Rico’s 5,073 miles of roads are open. Conditions in the U.S. Virgin Islands are bad as well, with widespread power outages.