IN SOLIDARITY WITH THE ARCHIPELAGO
PUERTO RICO, VIEQUES AND CULEBRA
MILAGROS RODRIGUEZ in The Conversation ... and REFORMA, PUERTO RICO CHAPTER AND OTHER INFORMATION ASSOCIATIONS COLLABORATIVE EFFORTS RESPONDING AT DISASTERS
In 1990, Israel Matos, the National Weather Service Forecast Officer in San Juan, told me that, “The tropics are unpredictable.” That comment only increased my interest in storms. Now, with the people of Puerto Rico still reeling from Hurricane Maria more than a month after it hit the island, his words seem prescient. Today I have – if not the honor, then the duty – to describe, firsthand, what it is to live through the aftermath of the worst storm of this brutal hurricane season.
Starting on Sept. 20, 2017, Hurricane Maria swamped Puerto Rico with 20 inches of rain and battered it with 150 mph winds for over 30 hours.The resulting humanitarian crisis has been widely reported worldwide: 80 percent of the island is still without electricity and there is not enough drinking water. Communications – radio, television, telephones and internet – are now recovering slowly, after weeks of near nonexistence. [Evelyn Milagros Rodriguez in The Conversation. Retrieved from http://theconversation.com/im-a-librarian-in-puerto-rico-and-this-is-my-hurricane-maria-survival-story-86426 ]
Led by REFORMA, PUERTO RICO Chapter, presided by Elizabeth Borges-Ocasio, member libraries and information associations in the archipelago have joined efforts responding at disasters in information units after hurricanes Irma and Maria. Puerto Rico is an archipelago made up of Isla Grande (Puerto Rico), Vieques and Culebra, plus many uninhabited islands.
The first joint effort being conducted is the survey http://uprm.libsurveys.com/Needs, under the aegis of the University of Puerto Rico’s General Library, Mayaguez Campus, administered by Hilda Teresa Ayala and other collaborators, to identify damages and needs of educational and cultural institutions in the archipelago. Deadline to submit information is December 11, 2017.
A special meeting was held on Friday, 10 November 2017, at the Historical Archives of the Fundación Luis Muñoz Marin, in which representative Jennifer Growan, of the Heritage Emergency National Task Force Liason / FEMA Surge Capacity Force oriented participants on the opportunities available for support responding at disasters for information units. Documentation, by language, is available on: https://www.fema.gov/media-library/resources-documents#{%22type%22:[%22DocumentContainerAsset%22],%22sort%22:%22taken_on%22,%22direction%22:%22desc%22}
The Hazard Mitigation Assistance (HMA) Grant Resources can be found in https://www.fema.gov/hazard-mitigation-assistance-hma-grant-resources
Important to note is also the opportunity given by the Laura Bush Foundation to submit proposals for disasters impact in libraries during 2017: http://www.laurabushfoundation.com/how-to-apply/index.html
ASSOCIATION OF CARIBBEAN UNIVERSITY, RESEARCH AND INSTITUTIONAL LIBRARIES
Email: executivesecretariat@acuril.org
Website: https://acuril.org
Location: San Juan, Puerto Rico
Phone: (787)612-9343
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Twitter: @cybernote