Currents News Staff
In the town of Guanica, Puerto Rico, what used to be a community library filled with books now holds supplies of desperately needed items.
Resident Edgardo Cruz Velez now spends his time gathering supplies and seeing what help he can provide.
“The concept is people come and we ask them, ‘What do you need?’” he explained.
This is part of the new normal for those in Guanica: they’re living in tents, outside.
“I would like to stay here, but because it’s constantly shaking, you know, the ground, it’s making me sick, emotionally sick,” he said. “These are people that are afraid of going back to their houses and rightfully so. They believe that the roof of their house is going to fall over their head, that their house is going to collapse.”
They don’t know when they’ll be able to return as the earthquakes keep happening.
People who were surveying a nearby building ran into the streets when a strong 5.2 earthquake struck.
“This is their new life. let me tell you what they need, first of all, they need counseling,” Edgardo said. “In terms of material things? What we need are things like if we’re going camping for two weeks, for two months or for a year.”