Photo By Don Veitch | YABUCOA, Puerto Rico – U.S. Army Capt. Adam Shevock, 1st Lt. Brian Ojeda and Corps...... read more read more
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YABUCOA, Puerto Rico – Two separate teams of assessors visited Yabucoa Saturday to assess the needs in the municipality and in its surrounding barrios following two months of recovery efforts in Puerto Rico. The first team consisted of three representatives of the Army Corps of Engineers. They inspected the police barracks for structural defects. A pair of U.S. Army lieutenants made a separate visit to Yabucoa to interview officials and residents on their impressions of the recovery efforts.
Yabucoa is in the southeastern corner of the island of Puerto Rico. It was the site at which Hurricane Maria, a Category 5 hurricane, made landfall on September 20, 2017.
“The hurricane passed right through this town,” said Sgt. Jose Burgos, the supervisor on duty for the Yabucoa police department. “It was the worst.”
Burgos provided a personalized tour of the Yabucoa police barracks to Jennifer Ramos, David Ho and Capt. Adam Shevock, all members of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
Ramos is a civil engineer from Carolina. She is a member of the ACoE’s Critical Public Facilities team.
“We go to the field for inspections of public facilities like schools, police departments and hospitals to make temporary repairs and prevent further damage,” said Ramos. “The Corps is here to help. We are with the people of Puerto Rico and there are a lot of people from Puerto Rico that work for the Corps of Engineers.”
Accompanied by Ho and Shevock, she examined the interior and roof of the police barracks. Afterwards, Ramos concluded there were few structural defects requiring immediate repair.
Burgos, a 31-year veteran of the police is minimally concerned with the physical building.
“Our biggest problem is personnel,” said Burgos. “We need more police officers here. I think there may be some police from the mainland helping in other places, but not here.”
That subject interests U.S. Army 1st Lt. Brian Ojeda and U.S. Army 2nd Lt. Chaz Clark of Joint Task Force Puerto Rico. They also visited the police barracks and they interviewed Burgos too.
At the behest of Brig. Gen. Jose J. Reyes, dual-status commander of Joint Task Force Puerto Rico, Ojeda and Clark are touring select municipalities to determine the needs of the people living across the island.
“We are getting different points of view of the relief efforts,” said Ojeda. “We speak to the police, emergency manager, the local people, the local business owners and anyone who talks to us.”
Ojeda and Clark conduct their interviews, collect the information and then prepare reports for Reyes. They expect to do four assessments for each of 15 designated municipalities.
After visiting the police station and speaking to Burgos, Ojeda and Clark went to the town’s central plaza. There they interviewed residents about their needs.
“The mayors are usually the most helpful,” said Clark. “The mayors know everything in aggregate. They are here every day.”
Prior to driving to each municipality Ojeda and Clark coordinate with Puerto Rico National Guard soldiers familiar with the area. Ojeda is Puerto Rican and both lieutenants are assigned to Joint Task Force Puerto Rico, which is includes nearly 3,000 members of the Puerto Rico National Guard.
Both Ramos’ ACoE Critical Public Facilities team and the Ojeda-Clark duo left Yabucoa bound for other locations to continue their assessments.
“We usually do about three inspections a day, sometimes more,” said Shevock of the ACoE team.
Ojeda and Clark drove out to Guayabota and Jacana, which are barrios surrounding Yabucua. They want to measure the effectiveness of the municipal center distributing supplies like food, water and hygiene items to the remote areas.
The U.S. military and the Army Corps of Engineers are deployed to Puerto Rico in support of the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the government of Puerto Rico. They remain committed to assisting their fellow U.S. citizens at the invitation of the government of Puerto Rico.
Story by Maj. Brett Walker, Executive Officer, 65th Press Camp Headquarters.
| Date Taken: | 11.25.2017 |
| Date Posted: | 11.27.2017 14:43 |
| Story ID: | 256497 |
| Location: | PR |
| Web Views: | 275 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, REACHING AND REASSESSING IN YABUCOA, by LTC Brett Walker, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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