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Local organizations team up to help Puerto Rico earthquake evacuees

The Hispanic Outreach Center hosted a special open house in Clearwater to connect evacuees with different local resources.
Credit: Beau Zimmer / WTSP
Yoniel, 6, and his brother Luis, 5, are loaded up with new school supplies. The brothers and their family escaped from Puerto Rico following a series of ongoing earthquakes.

CLEARWATER, Fla. — Six-year-old Yoniel and his 5-year-old brother Luis are loaded up with new school supplies. The brothers and their family escaped from Puerto Rico following a series of ongoing earthquakes.

“A lot of them come with a lot of anxiety,” says Liz Mendez of RCS Pinellas.

The Hispanic Outreach Center hosted a special open house Saturday in Clearwater to connect evacuees with a lot of different local resources.

“We’ve noticed a lot of the Puerto Ricans once they come here, they don’t really know where to go,” said Kristy Padilla, who was greeting families in Spanish as they arrived.

The biggest challenges for those arriving from Puerto Rico are finding new housing and accessing healthcare.

Rosaura Rivera was a college professor back home in Peñuelas, Puerto Rico. The continuous earthquakes left her home unstable.

“We were having to sleep outside,” said Rivera. 

Worse yet, she was having trouble accessing her prescription medication on the island. When she arrived in Florida, she found her Puerto Rican health insurance was not accepted.

“It was very shocking,” said Rivera, who is also working to get her teaching license transferred so she can keep working.

Issues like Rivera’s are what the local agencies say they’re here to help with.

“They’re very caring, very concerned and they go out of their way to help you,” said Rivera.

Many of the volunteers not only speak Spanish but have been through something similar. Liz Mendez escaped Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria in 2017.

“When they come and see someone who speaks Spanish and understands what they are saying, understands their feelings, because I came from the same situation, they can identify themselves with me,” said Mendez.

She and others here are determined to ensure these traumatized families know they’re not alone.    

“The main thing, when they leave, they know where to go, what they need, where to ask, and more than anything that someone who speaks Spanish is going to be waiting there for them to help.”

RELATED: Another earthquake hits Puerto Rico. This one was a 5.0

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