Please Rescue from Hurricane Damage

This message has been posted here on GoGetFunding's website as an honest attempt to hopefully find someone ( or a group of people acting together ) who can help an American citizen get back home to the United States from the hurricane-ravaged island of Puerto Rico.

More specifically, what is desperately needed is for one awesome person, or if need be, then two or perhaps three friends, that can pool their resources together and donate to this worthy cause.

As you probably already know, the commonwealth of Puerto Rico -- although an island in the Caribbean -- is a territory under the federal jurisdiction of the United States. That is why a passport is not even necessary when travelling between the mainland of the United States and Puerto Rico.

And as you’ve probably seen in the newscasts, although it’s been more than 10 months since Hurricane Maria tore through the tiny island last year on Sept. 20th ( the worst hurricane to hit Puerto Rico in more than a century ), there is still a tremendous amount of destruction and devastation visible right now throughout P.R.

Thousands of peoples’ homes are still without electricity or running water, and where their roofs used to be, now just thousands of sad-looking, dripping, blue tarps.

Hundreds of collapsed roads have yet to be repaired. Even traffic lights ( los semáforos ) at hundreds of major intersections still do not work.

What a Puerto Rico it is now, almost a whole year after Huracán Maria ripped apart the little island into millions of ravaged pieces. "La Isla del Encanto" is still just barely eeking out an existence . . . nay, a bare subsistence.

And the thousands and thousands of palm trees ( the popularly recognized symbol of the Caribbean ) that Hurricane Maria ripped out of the ground and broke into pieces like mere toothpicks now make Puerto Rico look like it received an island-wide, military-bootcamp buzzcut.

Oh, and the houses. What's left of the homes.

Even though they're mostly made of concrete cinderblocks, and the windows are fortified with horizontal metal slats, still, Maria couldn't care less. She just laughed.

And she huffed. And she puffed. And she just made mincemeat of so many thousands of people's homes.

In many instances, entire garage doors were completely ripped out from their vertical tracks, violently flipped in midair, and then savagely shoved back deep into the garage so as to take out whatever cars were parked inside, too.

And those "fortified" metal windows ? Ha !! So many of them wound up looking like they had been mercilessly punched inward by the colossal fist of some mythical giant unleashed from deep within the bowels of hell, itself.

In trying to calm the nerves of the island's population, the governor, Ricardo Rosselló, went around saying that only 64 people had died as a result of the effects of Hurricane Maria.

But later on, finding that tally highly questionable and suspiciously self-serving, both Harvard University and the newspaper Washington Post did their own studies. And they discovered that the true, overall death toll was well over 4,600.

Before Hurricane Maria struck, the economy of Puerto Rico was already in shambles. But now, hundreds of thousands of citizens are out of work. Even college-educated people with solid work histories on their resumes can’t find employment.

Just recently, New York’s governor, Andrew Cuomo, spent a couple of days visiting Puerto Rico and learned first-hand the horrific truth about how trailers filled with dozens and dozens of cadavers are still parked at the medical examiners’ ( Instituto de Ciencias Forenses ) parking lot, for many months in the broiling sun, waiting for some pathologist to finally do their job.

Let’s just say that things are really bad on the island right now. I mean, its government, “el Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico," made sure to strategically channel most of its recovery efforts into the capital of San Juan for the investment-related reason that that’s where almost all of the tourists come with their millions of dollars.

But the dozens of outlying towns throughout P.R. continue to suffer horribly day after day.

Enough with the introductory factoids.

Now I can proceed with telling you about why I wrote and posted this message : There is one person, a good, kind-hearted guy, who is currently stuck on the island of Puerto Rico.

He so very much wants to make it back to the mainland of the United States so that he can work at a simple job and live in a simple place.

This guy’s name is Bob, and he was born and raised in New York City. In fact, before arriving in Puerto Rico, he spent most of his life working in NYC ( as a librarian and math tutor ), and he received all of his formal education there, including graduating from college.

This guy has no bad habits to speak of. I mean, he doesn’t do recreational drugs, he doesn’t drink alcohol, he doesn’t gamble, and he doesn’t smoke. He doesn’t even listen to loud music.

He has the likeable attributes of being kind and gentle to others, quiet, neat and clean, well groomed, soft-spoken, respectful toward women, as well as tolerant of people's races and ethnicities and religions and orientations.

Basically, he’s an all-around decent, good guy who’s spent most of his life helping those around him whenever he could.

But this time, he’s the one who needs the help. The kind of help that might take more than one person to provide.

Maybe two ? Maybe three ?

He needs help in getting off the island of Puerto Rico and flying back to the mainland of the United States. And once he arrives there, he will need to quickly find a simple place to live as well as a simple job.

If there is one “superhero” out there that has a lot of resources that she or he can bring together to actually donate to this guy who is stuck in Puerto Rico, then great, that one person can do all that is honestly needed.

But being realistic, it will probably take two or three good Samaritans who can pool their respective resources together and donate to this guy so that he can fly back to the mainland and find himself a cheap, little place to live and a simple, little job somewhere.

Is it possible that you would be willing to help this guy out ?

Maybe, just maybe, do you know of one or two other people ( friends, relatives, colleagues, associates, contacts ? ), that you can get together with, pool your resources together, and truly help this guy out ?

Is that at all within the realm of possibility in your life and within the confines of your kind heart ?

I beg of you to search deep within yourself ( call it what you wish : your Mind, your Heart, your Soul ), and decide if you truly have the capacity to help this guy out.

And maybe you can come up with one or two other people in your life that you can form a group with that has the power to actually get the job done, in dollar amount, a bare minimum of about $2,500.

Please think about it. Maybe just you alone can help him. Or maybe you and one or two other people pooling your respective resources is what it’ll take.

This good guy is patiently waiting and hoping to be rescued. He has already spent a very long time suffering in Puerto Rico.

Specifically, he lives in the town of Humacao, which was "ground zero," that is, the first place that Hurricane Maria obliterated during her destructive path through the tiny island last year.

The help he honestly needs is urgent. His life has been devastated enough. Let's get him outta there.

Oh, and one more thing . . . this good guy is me, Bob Diaz.

Thanking you in advance, from the bottom of my heart.