President Trump approved a disaster declaration on Thursday for Puerto Rico after a series of earthquakes that began in late December. The measure makes “federal funds available to affected people in the municipalities of Guánica, Guayanilla, Peñuelas, Ponce, Utuado and Yauco,” according to a written press release from the White House.
“Assistance can include grants for temporary housing and home repairs, low-cost loans to cover uninsured property losses and other programs to help individuals and business owners recover from the effects of the disaster,” the White House said.
Governor Wanda Vazquez confirmed that President Donald Trump signed the major disaster declaration.
Informamos que el Presidente @realDonaldTrump firmó la Declaración de Desastre Mayor para Puerto Rico. Agradecemos al @POTUS por su compromiso para ayudar a aliviar el sufrimiento de nuestros ciudadanos. pic.twitter.com/AY0YTtY7G0
— Wanda Vázquez Garced (@wandavazquezg) January 16, 2020
There are currently 30 shelters on the south coast of Puerto Rico with 8,023 people affected by the earthquakes. Six affected municipalities will share an emergency fund of US $ 2 million and 11 additional cities will obtain US $ 250,000 each.
The municipalities of Yauco, Peñuelas, Guánica, Guayanilla and Ponce have established shelters with multiple servers for families, including water, food, toilets, showers, rest areas with air conditioning, laundry, psychological counseling and medical services.
62% of schools have been inspected so far for damages suffered as a result of almost three weeks of daily earthquakes.
Tension for funds
On Wednesday a group of organizations and citizens of Puerto Rico met in front of the offices of the Department of Housing and Urban Development in New York to demand the administration of Donald Trump to release all federal funds for the island approved by Congress over two years ago.
Until now, Puerto Rico had received only US $ 1.5 billion of assistance following the devastating passage of Hurricane Maria.
Although the government had announced on Wednesday that the island will be able to access more than US $ 8.2 billion that remained frozen for several months for suspected suspicions of corruption, protesters say it is not enough in the face of the emergency faced by the population due to recent earthquakes .
According to the seismic network of Puerto Rico, almost 1,000 movements have been recorded since December 28.
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