Las Vegas non-profit raising money for victims of Hurricane Fiona in Puerto Rico

LAS VEGAS, Nev. (FOX5) - The Puerto Rican Association of Las Vegas is raising money to help people affected by Hurricane Fiona in Puerto Rico.

The money raised will be used to buy disaster relief items, according to Edward Rodriguez, the association’s president.

Hurricane Fiona slammed into Puerto Rico nearly a week ago wiping out the power grid and cutting off water to most of the island. Some areas got up to 34 inches of rain and up to a million homes and businesses remain without power.

Rodriguez says his family is safe, but they’ve had to get creative to deal with the power issues.

“The only way they even have power for a while, the next-door neighbor had a big enough generator that allowed them to run an extension cord to their house to even power their refrigerator, so at least their food would stay fresh,” he said.

Rodriguez plans to travel to Puerto Rico in two weeks and will work with local churches to distribute supplies.

“No one really knows how bad it is right now in some of the areas, or in the mountains because those areas are so bad, the roads, a lot of them have collapsed, down to one lane just to even get different resources up and down,” Rodriguez said.

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