D.C. Police Officers Head To Puerto Rico For Hurricane Recovery

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Ten officers with the Metropolitan Police Department traveled from Joint Base Andrews to San Juan, Puerto Rico to assist with Hurricane Maria recovery Wednesday.

Police Chief Peter Newsham said the D.C. officers volunteered to help rebuild and recover the island, after the strongest hurricane to hit the island in over 80 years made direct landfall as a Category 4 storm Wednesday, Sept. 20.

The volunteer squad—consisting of one sergeant and nine officers—will meet with the Puerto Rican State Police in San Juan to receive their assignments. Newsham said most of the officers going on the trip have family and friends in Puerto Rico, and eight of the officers have previously served in law enforcement on the island.

“I just can’t emphasize enough how proud I am of these folks to be willing to go and to help,” Newsham said in a press conference. “They are familiar with the landscape and the people of Puerto Rico and, in fact, have family in Puerto Rico.”

Two of the officers on the trip, Officer Angel Ortiz and Officer Vimary Serrano-Fernandez, are married.

“We are very close. We have a good marriage," Ortiz said. "To have her by my side and her having me by her side is going to give us strength to deal with the situation because I know it’s going to be hard."

The officers took items and supplies with them to hand out to citizens on the island, since food, water and fuel are scarce, police said. The storm has claimed at least 16 lives so far, bringing the overall total across the Caribbean to 49.

The power is still out across most of Puerto Rico. Generators are providing power to the few who have them while they still have fuel, but nearly all the island’s 1.6 million electricity customers were still without power Tuesday. FEMA reports only 11 of 69 hospitals on the island have power or are running generators.

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Widespread flooding was also reported, with dozens of cars half-submerged in some neighborhoods and many streets turned into rivers from the storm.

FEMA officials said about 10,000 U.S. federal workers remain in the U.S. territory helping with recovery.

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Photo credit: Carlos Giusti/Associated Press