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Help an ER Customer in Puerto Rico

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Please join us in helping  ER Customer, Firefighter Winfrid Melendez of Fort Buchanan, Puerto Rico. His community is in need of power inverters to run mini-refrigerators to keep insulin cold. The inverters are about $79-$99 each. 

From Winfrid...

At this moment, the situation in Puerto Rico is very chaotic. The magnitude of the damage is so huge that it has made the movement of life saving goods virtually impossible. About 80% of the power infrastructure has been severely damaged. There is still a lot of debris on secondary roadways, which makes travel very dangerous and in most instances, prevent drivers and repair personnel from being able to pass through.

Cell phone service is only available in very few areas near the Metro area. The rest of the island is still without the ability to make contact with the rest of us or their loved ones in the U.S.

On top of that, we are dealing with a heat wave that is accompanied by dust from the Sahara Desert.

It's this heat wave that is causing concern among citizens that have medical conditions. For example, I have an Aunt that uses insulin every day. My mother who is 75 takes care of her, and in order to ensure that my Aunt is well, I travel across the island to give them my share of ice that we are allowed to take from work (one bag that is already melting by the time I get there).

I also live very near a poor neighborhood called "Puente Jobos" in the town of Guayama. There are a lot of elderly people and children in this neighborhood who have lost their belongings, the roofs of their homes and are struggling to survive because the aid that was promised has not arrived yet. Very few people have generators and along with the rest of us, they have to stand in very long lines for hours without end for just a few gallons of fuel.

I'm worried about the children and those people who need to refrigerate their medicine. So I figured If I could set them up with an inverter, they could use it to power a refrigerator or a fan using their car battery. And if I can add a battery charger to that equation it would be even better. It's a cheaper solution until power comes back. The Governor has already said that it could take months to get the power back on again.

The USPS has started to provide limited service thought 9 Post Offices located in different parts of the island. Fed-Ex is already bringing in goods to a certain extent, and I believe the rest will come (UPS, DHL, etc.) Can you help me get this word out to the masses? Thank you!

On behalf of myself and the community of Puente Jobos I say thank you and God bless you all!

Winfrid Melendez
Firefighter Hazmat Tech/EMT
Fire & Emergency Services
Fort Buchanan, Puerto Rico
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Donations 

  • Anonymous
    • $100 
    • 6 yrs
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Organizer and beneficiary

Tom Louis
Organizer
Tucson, AZ
Winfrid Melendez
Beneficiary

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