SACRAMENTO, Calif. — One week since Hurricane Fiona slammed into Puerto Rico, hundreds and thousands of people remain without power and water.
With people in need of help, two captains with the Sacramento Fire Department have answered the call. They said helping people in times of crisis is where their hearts are and it's also exactly what they've trained years for.
Brian Luiz and Scott Johnson said they could still be in Puerto Rico for at least another week or two, possibly more.
The Puerto Rican government's emergency portal systems said 84% of customers have their water services restored. 60% have their electricity restored, which means more than half-a-million customers are still without power.
For Puerto Ricans, storm damage like this is reminder of the catastrophe that followed Hurricane Maria five years ago. At the time, it took some areas months to regain power.
Now a week to the day Fiona hit, residents still don't know when electricity and water will be fully restored.
“Since Maria, the people here in Puerto Rico are very tough and resilient,” Luiz said.
Johnson and Luiz specialize in logistics, meaning they make sure teams have supplies to provide life-saving services.
“That can be anything down from the simplest things like food and water, all the way up to the vehicles and the equipment that they need,” Johnson said.
They said it's a desperate situation for Puerto Ricans right now.
“You hear stories of people filling their bathtubs full of cold water and laying in there for 20 or 30 minutes, and finally coming to a place - finding a place - that has air conditioning, that's running on generator power,” Johnson said.
Officials declared a Public Health Emergency in Puerto Rico, and President Joe Biden vowed to help, announcing the federal government will cover 100$ of the cost of clean up for the next month.
Johnson and Luiz are serving on a regional incident support team that's part of the California/FEMA Urban Search and Rescue Team.
"At a moment's notice, we can come out here and help people in need and try to provide some level of comfort for them and humanitarian support, whatever it may be. That's what we're here for," Johnson said.
While Fiona has moved through Puerto Rico, Johnson and Luiz's still have a mission to finish.
"There is still work to be done on the island," Johnson said. "There's a lot of aftermath, leftover from Fiona, the search and rescue... they are still doing searches."
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