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After aiding in Hurricane Irma relief efforts in Florida, Simon Mitchell, a driver for the Crown Point-based fuel oil company Avery Energy, will head to Puerto Rico on Monday to aid in Puerto Rico’s emerging humanitarian crisis caused by Hurricane Maria.
WESTPORT — As Puerto Rico digs out after Hurricane Maria slammed the island last week, killing at least 16 people and wiping out the electricity grid, a local resident is preparing to ship out to aid in recovery efforts.
Simon Mitchell, a driver for the Crown Point-based fuel oil company Avery Energy, will travel to Puerto Rico on Monday.
Mitchell’s truck is already on route: A barge containing vehicles, food, water and temporary housing for relief workers left from the Port of Jacksonville in Florida earlier this week on a six-day trip to the U.S. territory.
Mitchell will fly to the Atlantic island on Monday from Virginia.
“There’s quite a bit of uncertainty involved,” Mitchell told The Sun on Friday. “But it’s a once-in-a-lifetime experience the way I look at it. I’m nervous, but excited at the same time."
Mitchell recently returned from Florida, where Hurricane Irma made landfall earlier this month.
The Westport resident made it as far as the central part of the state, where he was a part of a fleet of drivers tasked with setting up a temporary depot to fill emergency response vehicles, including police cars, ambulances and fire trucks.
Damage there was minimal, he said, mainly blown-down tree limbs.
But others in his crew went to Key West where they saw the extent of the Category 5 hurricane's damage firsthand.
“There was boats capsized, RV parks with campers tipped over on their sides, roofs blown off — everything you can imagine was torn up,” said Mitchell.
Avery Energy has longstanding ties to the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
As the series of storms began to gather momentum in late-August, owner Will Deyo just wanted to slip away from work for two days to go camping.
But it wasn’t meant to be, and he found himself in the campgrounds office doing FEMA paperwork.
Within eight hours, one of his trucks was on the way to Florida. Two more followed on Sept. 13.
“They were looking for trucks and people, and we jumped at the chance to help,” Deyo said in a phone interview.
Mitchell was told to expect to spend at least 45 days on Puerto Rico, which is home to about 3.4 million people.
“When they hit the ground, it's going to be a rough situation,” Deyo said. “We don’t expect to have much contact. It’s 45 days, and could be longer.”
Mitchell, Deyo said, is making a big sacrifice — especially considering how much time he’s already put in.
Since Hurricane Maria slammed into the island on Sept. 20, a humanitarian crisis has emerged as millions remain without water, food and access to basic health services.
President Donald Trump on Thursday authorized a 10-day waiver of the Jones Act, a federal law that limits shipping to U.S. ports by foreign vessels.
Doing so will expedite relief efforts, officials said.
"We will not rest, however, until the people of Puerto Rico are safe,” Trump said. “These are great people. We want them to be safe and sound and secure and we will be there every day until that happens.”
New York has also played a leading role in recovery efforts, deploying the national guard, state police and shipments of supplies as part of Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s Empire State Relief and Recovery Effort — including a deployment of 72 Port Authority personnel Friday morning.
The Empire State is home to about 1.2 million Puerto Ricans, and the governor visited the island earlier this week.
“We are responsive both as Americans and in this state,” Cuomo said. “In Puerto Rico, they are American citizens we have to remember. Virgin Islands, they are American citizens. So we respond as Americans, and in New York, we respond as New Yorkers.”
Deyo has long been involved in state and local charitable efforts.
“We love to be a part of anything we can do to help in the community, and in this case, the world,” he said.
