The driver of a truck that delivered supplies to Puerto Rico says he was able to deliver all the meals, water, and medications that were ordered by local government officials, even as a storm barreled toward the island.
The truck was hit by Hurricane Maria on Sunday, but its driver told CNN he was still able to provide meals and water to more than 400 residents on the island, including about 100 children.
The driver, Luis Gonzalez, said he was working as a logistics supervisor at a grocery store in the small town of Santa Rosa, in Puerto Rico’s central Caribbean island of Dominica.
“We were delivering all the supplies to the people and all the goods,” Gonzalez told CNN.
“The trucks were full of supplies.”
He said the trucks were also full of food.
He said his crew was able do so because they were given food ration cards by the local government.
“Everything was there,” Gonzalez said.
“There was nothing we couldn’t do.”
He added that they had food and water for about 40 days.
He was able even though the storm was predicted to hit the island as soon as Sunday.
“They told us it was going to hit before we arrived,” Gonzalez explained.
Gonzalez told his crew that the trucks had been ordered by the governor of Puerto Rico, Ricardo Rosselló, who ordered a mandatory evacuation of the island and all of the territory’s other territories, as well as the U.S. Virgin Islands, American Samoa, and the United States mainland. “
It was just a miracle, really.”
Gonzalez told his crew that the trucks had been ordered by the governor of Puerto Rico, Ricardo Rosselló, who ordered a mandatory evacuation of the island and all of the territory’s other territories, as well as the U.S. Virgin Islands, American Samoa, and the United States mainland.
Rossello is in the middle of a massive, weeklong hurricane response and is trying to prepare for the worst.
He is expected to call for a federal disaster declaration for Puerto Rico on Monday, which could mean the island’s only major utility, the electric grid, could be damaged or even destroyed.
Rosselos emergency declaration was announced after Hurricane Maria hit the territory on September 25, and he has said he will use his powers to help people in the island territory.
Maria’s impact on Puerto Rico and Dominica is the first hurricane to hit Dominica in more than a decade.
The U.N. Office of the Special Coordinator for the Recovery of Victims of Hurricanes and Floods has said there is still no official estimate on the death toll.
Rosso said that in the wake of Maria, the government of Dominico is working to help the people of Puerto Ricans, and to find the resources they need.
“I’m sure the people here in Dominica will not accept that,” he said.