Here in Puerto Rico we have been conducting medical and sawyer operations daily. These medics that have so graciously given their time and talents for this operation are making impacts on the lives and overall well being of the locals.
They have gone door to door looking for those that are still in need of medical help and relief (even 28 days into the operational period). They have conducted clinics all over the island, setting up in areas where the locals are able to come and be seen by physicians. For some people, this is the first opportunity they have has for medical care since the hurricane. In the case of some of the poverty-stricken citizens, this is the first time in months, or years, that they have been seen by anyone with any kind of medical training.
There have been multiple occasions now where a Greyshirt’s medical expertise, amazing timing, and fast thinking have saved the lives of the patients in their care. In one situation, our medical volunteers found out the hard way the 911 services on the island were nonexistent at this point. They quickly turned their vehicle into an “ambulance” of sorts and transported their patient to the hospital themselves.
As for the sawyer operations, the impact is nothing short of aw- inspiring and impressive. In the last few days of conducting saw operations in the town of San Sebastian, the cut teams have effectively completed work that the local municipalities were calculating their crews finishing in the next one to two years. The projects the teams accomplished included opening up blocked roads used by the local population, clearing massive downed trees that were preventing schools from opening, and clearing parks so that FEMA camps could be properly set up for reliefs stations for the locals.
Although Team Rubicon is very young and small in the realm of disaster response, the amount of impact in the short amount of time we are making in Puerto Rico is making a difference. When the locals see the grey shirts or red hats they know that we are here to “get shit done”. Because that is why we are here.
