Minnesota's Puerto Rican community rallies to support island after Hurricane Fiona

Minnesotans with ties to Puerto Rico gathered in south Minneapolis on Tuesday to draw attention to the devastation left by Hurricane Fiona while also remembering the five-year anniversary of Hurricane Maria, a storm from which the island is still struggling to recover.

In front of a colorful mural at El Colegio, a charter high school on Bloomington Avenue, Maria Isa Perez-Hedges told a small crowd about the ongoing damage caused by Fiona, which pummeled Puerto Rico on Sunday and Monday.

The hurricane — a Category 3 storm that brought 115 mile-per-hour winds to the U.S. territory — has left most residents without essentials like electricity and water. Extremely heavy rains are ongoing, she said.

She began by singing a song in Spanish; a drummer accompanied her.

"Puerto Ricans are suffering on the island," said Perez-Hedges, a community organizer for the Puerto Ricans in Minnesota Committee. "That's why we are here as members of the Puerto Rican community of Minnesota asking for help. We need to send funds to emergency relief ... so that we can get those basic essentials."

Hedges-Perez is an advisor for El Fondo Boricua Hurricane Relief, a St. Paul Foundation fund that helps with emergency aid, medical needs and social services. It was formed in 2017 to help Puerto Ricans recover from Hurricane Maria, which resulted in thousands of deaths on the island that 3.2 million people call home.

Several of those gathered were still waiting to hear from family in Puerto Rico. Medical directors from Minnesota recently arrived on the island to handle residents' physical and mental medical emergencies, said Perez-Hedges, who is also a musician and a candidate for the Minnesota House of Representatives.

Patients at a hospital in Cabo Rojo are jumping out of windows, she said, while people trapped in their homes are writing "SOS" anywhere they can.

Sen. Melisa López Franzen, DFL-Edina, said her family is in Puerto Rico, adding that images don't do justice to the extent of the devastation.

"The difference between Hurricane Maria and Hurricane Fiona is that they were able to communicate [this time]," she said, adding that it took weeks for some to make contact with family in 2017.

Puerto Rican Minnesotans also gathered at El Colegio five years ago, she said, collecting items to send to the island while they awaited news from family. Now, they're hearing stories of lives at risk again, she said, as generators at hospitals fail.

"It's a failure of us as people to plan, support and rebuild," she said, adding that if Hurricane Fiona had been stronger, many people would likely not have heard from their families yet.

There's action at the federal level to send help through FEMA, "but we know that that relief does not get there soon enough," she said, adding that's why the community needs to unite to raise money for relief.

"We want to make sure people understand that this was not just a little storm," she said.

While several shipments of supplies were sent to Puerto Rico during the aftermath of Hurricane Maria, this time money is being sought, said Tamara Ramirez, a teacher at El Colegio.

Ramirez said Puerto Ricans have been traumatized again and again, not just by the hurricanes but by earthquakes and the ravages of COVID-19 in the intervening years.

"We ask that you help our community so we can get back on our feet," Ramirez said.

Those wanting to help can visit https://elfondoboricua.org/.