Los Olvidados Puerto Rico

On September 20, 2017, Hurricane Maria landed on Puerto Rico's shores, forcing over 135,000 people off the island within the first six months alone. In June 2018, Dan Fenstermacher and I traveled to Puerto Rico to witness firsthand the island's state and its most vulnerable communities.

With the help of Betsy Collazo (relief4pr.org), Caridad Sorondo (Puertorriqueños con Morovis), and several others, we met survivors who, nine months later, were still living without water or electricity - in most cases, both. Living without electricity means no lights, cell phones, or internet access. If you have diabetes, you cannot store life-saving insulin at the appropriate temperature.

An often overlooked and ignored crisis that occurs in the aftermath of catastrophic natural disasters is the toll on mental health, followed by the high numbers of suicides and the trauma that persists for those still trying to recover.