BUFFALO, N.Y. — "At least 85 to 90% of our clientele here at the center is Hispanic and especially from Puerto Rico," noted Lucy Candelario, Executive Director of the Belle Center, a community center on Buffalo's lower west side.
"There's a lot of buzz about what's going on in the island right now in terms of the devastation from the hurricane. People are scared for their family members," she said.
Candelario has offered the Belle Center as a place for leaders of the local Hispanic community to hold both in-person and virtual meetings, in order to plan an appropriate response after Hurricane Fiona dumped more than two feet of rain on Puerto Rico and left many without power and water.
While nowhere near as devastating as Category Five Hurricane Maria which struck Puerto Rico five years ago, killing 3,000 and wiping out the island's infrastructure, Hurricane Fiona, despite being a comparatively mild Category One storm, was still strong enough to damage a still delicate system.
It is estimated that 80% of Puerto Rico was left without power after the storm moved through.
"In terms of a corrective action plan I don't think they really had one," said Candelario. "They have worked on it, but in terms of fixing the problem it has not been fixed."
"When I was down there not too long ago there were still areas of the island that didn't have any power," said Rayza Serrano, who described public utilities as being rustic at best in certain areas despite the passage of 5 years since Hurricane Maria.
Serrano works alongside her mother, Esther Montes, who hails from the island and who operates Montes, a Puerto Rican deli and grocery on Swan Street.
"My mom sent water and funds down to the island to our family and our family friends. She tries to do as much as she can right now," Serrano said.
According to Serrano, several of the cooks working at Montes came to Buffalo after Hurricane Maria.
"If anybody would like to help the people who are in Puerto Rico I'm pretty sure the people of Puerto Rico would be very appreciative of it," said Serrano, who believes New York State's offer to send up to 100 state troopers to the island will be particularly useful as the island moves to recover.
"The police down there are different than here," said Serrano. "if there is something going on the police won't get there right away compared to the way they respond here."
A Targeted and Measured Response
"We're very passionate about that island and we all want to help. But this time around we want to think before we react," said Candelario, predicting a more measured response than the one five years ago following Hurricane Maria.
"This time it may be monetary donations that we are looking for, rather than hard goods. We don't know yet, but we're going to study the problems, strategize, and then we're going to move as quickly as possible and try to remedy that situation," she said.
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