HARTFORD -- Senators Chris Murphy and Richard Blumenthal announced today they plan on traveling to Puerto Rico on Tuesday and Wednesday. They plan on building first hand evidence of the ongoing devastation from Hurricane Maria as they fight to secure comprehensive aid to the island.
Blumenthal said in a statement:
“This trip will shine a glaring light on Puerto Rico’s continuing humanitarian and economic crisis. We are building a compelling, fact-based case for expanded disaster relief—evidence of the need for both an immediate supplemental disaster relief package and the major rebuilding plan I have introduced with Senator Sanders. Since I last visited the island in October, the federal response has been shamefully inadequate. Across Connecticut, I have heard heartbreaking stories from families who have recently arrived and other families still on the island. We cannot allow this Administration to abandon fellow Americans and declare mission accomplished while half of Puerto Rico remains in the dark, clean drinking water is unavailable, and thousands of people are living in temporary shelters.”
Murphy said in a statement:
“While the national media coverage of the disaster has long since waned, the situation in Puerto Rico remains dire. But Connecticut has not forgotten. It's been one hundred days since Maria made landfall, and huge swaths of the island don't have power--a situation that would be unfathomable on the mainland. We have a lot more work to do. We will be meeting with local officials and seeing firsthand the work left to do. Congress and the administration have failed Puerto Ricans, and I won’t let Washington lose focus of the fact that Puerto Rico needs and deserves more help.”
While they are they, they plan on meeting with the Governor of Puerto Rico and visit a local hospital that had been receiving donated supplies from a coalition of Puerto Rican physicians in Connecticut.
They will also visit the Johnson & Johnson manufacturing facility in Las Piedras to hear how the hurricane had harmed the island's economy. They will also take a tour of the town of Las Piedras with the mayor to witness the ongoing humanitarian crisis.