ADA National Network Learning Session: One year after Hurricane Maria, how is Puerto Rico faring and how are they planning for the next disaster?

Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico about one year ago. In this presentation, members of the Puerto Rico Disability Community Relief Network (PRDCRN) will review the impact of the hurricane on people with disabilities and how this experience moved them to create a disability network that is involved in disaster planning, response, and recovery issues for people with disabilities in the future.

Learning objectives:

• Discuss what happened during Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico.
• Identify the impact the hurricane had on people with disabilities in PR and the lacking response and recovery efforts by state and federal governments.
• Learn the efforts the PRDCRN conducted during the immediate aftermath of the hurricane and continue to carry out one year later to improve inclusive emergency preparedness in Puerto Rico.

Presenters:

Betzaida Ramos is a licensed social worker in Puerto Rico with 20 years of experience with socially marginalized populations including children, adolescents, adults and people with disabilities. She has been the Executive Director of Movimiento para el Alcance de Vida Independiente (MAVI for its spanish acronym), the largest independent living center in the Caribbean that serves over 2,000 people with disabilities. Since hurricane Maria, Mrs. Ramos has been actively participating with the response, recovery and mitigation efforts of Puerto Rico by participating in many work groups in Puerto Rico and the US.