For Maria evacuees, ship is their lifeline
3,336 Caribbean refugees (and 120 pets) get a fresh start in South Florida thanks to cruise line
A mix of emotions filled the air at Port Everglades on Tuesday as hurricane refugees from the eastern Caribbean hugged loved ones, burst into tears of joy and flashed broad smiles after reaching a safe haven from the storm-devastated islands they once called home.
Arriving aboard the Royal Caribbean cruise ship that dropped anchor were 3,336 evacuees from Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands — weary but relieved — many with pets in tow.
The Adventure of the Seas arrived at the Broward County seaport after concluding a humanitarian relief mission that delivered essential supplies to residents in U.S. territories ravaged by hurricanes Maria and Irma. The cruise ship then was used to transport many island residents with medical and special needs to the U.S. mainland for treatment and better living conditions.
Some evacuees traveled with their last worldly possessions stuffed into a single suitcase. Some were accompanied by four-legged companions: 120 cats and dogs, a hamster, and a guinea pig made
the trip.
When Ingrid Fernandez of San Juan walked through the doors of the port’s Terminal 18, she and others were welcomed with chants from fellow Puerto Ricans. Some of the greeters — mostly friends and relatives — held aloft signs with encouraging words such as “Puerto Rico is rising,” while others waved flags in solidarity and a show of island pride.
“I had to leave, and I love that island,” said Fernandez who spoke amid tears. “I’m hoping to heal soon.”
When asked if she would go back, Fernandez replied: “I don’t know how soon that island can be my Puerto Rico again.”
In the U.S. Virgin Islands, priority was given to high risk pregnant women, the elderly and those with urgent medical needs, Governor Kenneth E. Mapp said. Many other passengers had commitments from family members to stay with them in the U.S.
Michael Bayley, the cruise line’s president and CEO, said there was little question whether the company would deploy the massive ship on its extended relief mission.
“We’ve been in the Caribbean for over 50 years, we have thousands of Caribbean employees ... and when one of our neighbors gets hit this way, we just wanted to help... It was the right thing to do,” he said. “We thought, ‘Let’s use these ships, they’re fully provisioned, they’re fully fueled, we’ve got all of our crew members on board [so] let’s go help people.’ ”
The company dispatched the ship at no charge to the passengers, said spokesman Owen Torres. Meals, non-alcoholic drinks and the entertainment were all free.
Laura Berrios, 30, who arrived with her two children aged 3 and 8, was among the 1,791 people from Puerto Rico on board. Berrios said the well-being of her children was the most important reason to leave her San Juan home.
“There is no power and although we had some water, it’s not potable because the treatment plants are not working.” Berrios said. Her motherin-law, who lives in South Florida, was scheduled to pick them up and drive them to Tennessee to stay with family there.
Miami retiree Lili Huerta came to pick up her son, his wife and her parents from Puerto Rico.
“Where they live in the small town Rincon, on the northwest side of the island, help has not reached them yet,” said Huerta, who could only communicate with them with a friend’s satellite phone. “They have no means of communication, they’re without power, water and cash. There’s nothing, no basic necessities, so it was very important to bring them here.”
Others were thankful for Royal Caribbean’s lifeline to help move the elderly and at-risk family members to safety and available healthcare.
“It was a fantastic, amazing humanitarian service, so we’re very grateful to them and how they actually were treated onboard,” Miami resident Nivea Ribas said. She came to meet her 85-year-old mother, who was evacuated from a San Juan suburb. She’s a diabetic, insulin dependent and has other disabilities, which meant she had to travel in a wheelchair, Ribas said.
“They have no electricity, no communications and no water,” Ribas said of her mother’s neighborhood. “We decided that the best thing to happen is for her to come here to Miami and stay with us until all the utilities and commodities for patients and our daily people are fixed so she can go back to the country she loves so much.”
Carl Fleming, 24, a cook from St. Thomas, lamented the current state of his island home as he waited to transfer to Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport for a flight to Austin, Texas, his final destination.
“We’re down right now,”
Ingrid Fernandez, San Juan
he said. “We have no power, we have nothing. There isn’t much to do back home right now because we don’t have any tourists to provide the money. The only thing making money right now is the gas stations and food places.”
Joshua Ledesma, 23, of St. Croix said the recent hurricanes left people without roofs on their homes and without any sense of how to start rebuilding their lives.
“It isn’t like only St. Croix got hit, all the islands got hit,” said Ledesma, who was headed to Atlanta to stay with friends. “We don’t have an island to rely on, so it made sense to come to the mainland to [recoup] until the islands get back up.”
Royal Caribbean’s Torres said 864 people were evacuated from St. Croix and 681 from St. Thomas/ St. John, bringing the total brought over from the U.S. Virgin Islands on this relief mission trip to 1,545.
Overall the Adventure of the Seas’ relief trip brings the number of people evacuated from the U.S. Virgin Islands on “mercy cruises” to about 3,000 since hurricanes Maria and Irma, said Beverly Nicholson-Doty, the territory’s commissioner of tourism, in a news release Sunday.
Other islanders — close to 1,500 — were also able to escape the harsh living conditions created by the storms on mercy flights sponsored by airlines such as Delta, United and JetBlue.
“These gestures go a long way … to help the people of the Virgin Islands get back on our feet and get our economy moving again,” said Nicholson-Doty.
Adventure of the Seas’ regular Sept. 30 cruise was canceled to facilitate the relief mission. On Friday, the cruise ship will sail to its home port of San Juan to prepare for its next scheduled sailing the following day. That sailing, however, will operate, on an amended itinerary, which will replace St. Croix with Martinique, Royal Caribbean said.
Four or five Caribbean destinations frequented by cruise ships were badly hit by the massive storms. The rest, more than 40 destinations, were spared, with little to no damage, Bayley said.
Ongoing assistance from cruise industry partners and neighboring islands is critical to help the affected destinations to recover, he said.
“But as soon as we possibly can we need to start bringing people back to these islands because taxi drivers and florists and restaurateurs and tour guides — they need employment and we need to bring their economy back.”
“I had to leave, and I love that island. I’m hoping to heal soon.”
Staff photographer Amy Beth Bennett contributed to this report.