WASHINGTON—Nurses returning from disaster-relief work in Puerto Rico charged Oct. 26 that the federal government is
“delaying necessary humanitarian aide to its own citizens and leaving them to die.” “We cannot be silent while millions of people continue to endure these conditions,” said Bonnie Castillo, associate executive director of National Nurses United, one of about 50 members who described the situation on the island to Democratic members of Congress. They said they’d seen doctors perform surgery with only the light from their cell phones, a continued lack of running water, some towns not receiving food or water, toxic black mold infesting whole villages, and an outbreak of leptospirosis that had killed four people. California nurse Olivia Lynch said that the Federal Emergency Management Agency was asking residents for copies of utility bills and bank routing numbers before they could get food, water, or disaster assistance, and promising to respond by text or email—on an island where three-fourths of people still don’t have electricity.
