The Forgotten Ones: From Earthquakes to COVID-19 in Puerto Rico

Members of the Puerto Rico National Guard conducting health screenings in Muñoz Marin International Airport in Carolina, Puerto Rico in March of this year. Photo by the Puerto Rico National Guard.

While many parts of America have their hands full dealing with COVID-19, a pandemic is not the only crisis Puerto Rico faces right now. On the morning of May 2, Puerto Rico was hit by a 5.5 magnitude earthquake, part of a months-long series of aftershocks following an earthquake of 6.4 magnitude that caused major destruction in January. 

After experiencing more than 950 earthquakes in the month of January alone, Puerto Rico is no stranger to states of emergency. The island’s people are so familiar with the pitfalls of disaster relief policy that inadequate responses to catastrophic events are almost expected. Now, Governor Wanda Vázquez’s response to the COVID-19 emergency highlights the government’s failure to provide the earthquake victims with proper relief. They are still suffering from the mismanagement of public resources and the loss of basic needs such as water and electricity. The policies implemented by Governor Vázquez and her administration to combat the spread of the coronavirus have largely ignored this vulnerable subset of the population. For example, the stay-at-home order serves as a traumatic reminder for those who lost their homes in the earthquake. Similarly, online schooling exacerbates the education gap for students in towns where schools themselves have disappeared. 

In the southwestern region of Puerto Rico, particularly in the town of Guánica, the remnants of the January earthquakes are still visible. Most families in Guánica and the surrounding municipalities are still living in makeshift tents, and some are even living out in the open. In January, the community was shaken literally and metaphorically, not only by the earthquake itself but by the unwanted triggers of a post-Hurricane Maria world. Victims of the 2017 hurricane, the worst natural disaster in the island’s history, are still dealing with post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, and many other forms of leftover psychological trauma, which January’s earthquakes have only made worse. Some families are unwilling to live in their homes for fear of their collapse, while others are afraid to send their kids to school. In the face of the many obstacles families are still trying to overcome, the government has done too little to provide assistance and assuage the fears of the most vulnerable. 

With the rise of a new threat to the island in the form of the COVID-19 crisis, the government is once again being tested on its disaster response. Vázquez was swift in her initial response to combat the spread of the virus, shutting down all non-essential businesses and implementing an island-wide curfew after confirming five cases of the virus on the island. Puerto Ricans were ordered to stay home with the exceptions of grocery shopping and doctor’s visits. Since then, the governor has also ordered extensive screenings at the airport, closed all ports (except for cargo ships), and has even placed restrictions on who is allowed to drive based on license plate numbers. 

While these measures work well for mitigating the spread of the virus in the San Juan metro area, which has the greatest concentration of cases and the infrastructure necessary to adapt to social distancing measures, they neglect to account for the burden placed on areas of the island with damaged infrastructure as a result of the earthquakes. How can people follow a stay-at-home order when they don’t have homes? Of the roughly 8,300 homes that were damaged in the island’s southwest, 2,500 are still considered uninhabitable. The governor put in place one of the strictest rulings in the United States for social distancing, but in her effort to act quickly she placed an extra burden on those still coping with the consequences of the earthquakes.

As part of the COVID-19 response, the governor ordered for public schools to close, and many private schools were able to move classes online. However, it seems that the government has forgotten that five municipalities, Guánica, Guayanilla, Yauco, Lajas, and Sabana Grande, lost all of their school infrastructure during the earthquakes. Some students in these areas only began going back to school in the beginning of March. One school has relocated to a basketball court, another to a soccer field; most have set up camp in public parks or community areas. With the coronavirus-induced lockdown, their education has once again come to a halt. These students have suffered the biggest losses to their educational experience.  

Puerto Rico’s Department of Education has tried to facilitate the continuation of the semester by going online. They have released an app called EduPR that has various videos, homeworks, and practice problems for students from elementary to high school. They also uploaded onto their website all of the units for the five basic subjects for students to continue learning at home. The DE mentions that any student who does not have access to the Internet is welcome to access the material at the regional education offices. But for families in Guánica, the closest office is in Ponce, four towns over, and the governor’s stay-at-home order doesn’t make any exceptions for attending school. This goes for the four other municipalities as well. With the loss of their schools and their homes tied to frequent power outages, most students do not have access to online capabilities. Once again, policies implemented to improve the lives of those under quarantine fail to accommodate students without the necessary resources—in this case, stable internet access or places to study. The alternatives given simply aren’t feasible. In fact, they do not know the exact number of students that are stuck in this situation. Without this information, it is almost impossible for them to provide proper care for the island’s students. In fact, some students in the Southwestern region were only able to attend school in its traditional sense for a couple weeks out of the entire semester.

In response to the economic effects of the pandemic, Vázquez announced a $787 million relief package which includes a 90-day moratorium on rent but has no mention of temporary housing for the people of Guánica. Puerto Ricans are also eligible for federal unemployment relief under the CARES Act, including the $1,200 stimulus checks, in addition to local increases in unemployment benefits. However, neither the CARES Act nor the package signed by Vázquez is being distributed. People in Guánica are extremely worried and scared as they continue to face aftershocks almost every day. Considering that the Federal Emergency Management Agency is still processing emergency funding requests from those affected by the earthquake in the middle of this pandemic, it is unlikely that aid allocated for this emergency will get to the people who need it the most in time. In fact, FEMA has denied thousands of requests of individual assistance amidst the earthquake damage. Even if Puerto Ricans apply for relief from either the federal or the local government, the snail-paced rate at which they will receive such compensation will outweigh any good it’s supposed to do.

Although the issue of receiving federal resources is valid, it does not excuse Vázquez’s administration from providing Puerto Ricans with honest leadership. It cannot be ignored that due to Puerto Rico’s status as a commonwealth, federal aid during times of emergency has been more often a disappointment for the island. Between President Trump’s lack of acknowledgment during Hurricane Maria and the earthquakes in January, it’s obvious that the people are disregarded. With that in mind, the local government is still responsible for ensuring all of its citizens have equal access to housing and education amidst this global crisis. Instead of helping, it has entangled itself in corruption, engaging in murky business practices to acquire COVID-19 tests.

Anyone who believes the Vázquez government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic has been adequate is ignorant of the reality facing many Puerto Ricans. The people could not count on their government to support them in moments of need, through either the earthquakes in January or the spread of COVID-19, parts of a long history of this government failing its poorest communities. Because of this inaction, the people of Guánica and other vulnerable populations will recover economically, socially, and mentally well after normalcy has returned for the rest of the island. While this administration has had ample opportunity to learn from its mistakes, it has proven to be incapable of handling crises. With Puerto Rico’s elections coming up in November, it is more important than ever for voters to ask candidates what they will do differently when the next disaster strikes.

Serena Tsui is a staff writer at CPR and a rising senior studying Civil Engineering and Political Science at the Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. She wants to remind Puerto Ricans that racism is alive and well on the island.