In the days after Hurricane Harvey flooded Houston, hundreds of millions of dollarsâ worth of donations poured into disaster relief agencies. But that level of aid is nowhere to be found for victims of Hurricane Maria, even though itâs been weeks since the storm knocked out clean water and power to much of Puerto Rico and nearly leveled the islandâs infrastructure.So far, the American Red Cross has received $350 million in donations and pledges to rebuild after Harvey, dwarfing the $9 million collected for Hurricane Maria. And while the private sector has donated $271 million to Harvey and Irma relief efforts in cash and other quantifiable donations, according to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation Corporate Citizenship Center, theyâve given only $32.9 million toward Maria relief.âWeâre seeing a trickle of funds still coming in, but itâs a trickle,â explained Bob Ottenhoff, who heads the Center for Disaster Philanthropy, which seeks to improve how people give to disaster relief. âItâs in part because the news cycle has moved onto other things. So now thereâs a new hurricane that people are paying attention to ⊠thereâs guns, thereâs been Las Vegas. So all of that just kind of hastens the normal end of the giving pattern.âItâs hard to say why, exactly, Maria recovery efforts have received relatively little cash. Itâs possible, that after a string of natural disasters, donors were feeling tapped out. But Ottenhoff doesnât blame so-called âdonor fatigue,â explaining that Puerto Rico simply lacks the so-called âpersonal connectionsâ that drive people to donate.Thanks to Puerto Ricoâs decade-long economic crisis, there are few deep-pocketed employers remaining on the island who are invested in rebuilding. Plus, since many Puerto Ricans have left the island in search of economic opportunity, there are relatively few people left on the island. And without friends and family living on the island, many Americans on the mainland may not feel compelled to contribute to restoring it.The fact that most reporters had trouble getting to the island also didnât help; by the time they did arrive, the 24-hour news cycle had moved on.
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Itâs possible that other corporations have donated â the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation tracks corporate aid based on publicly available information and data submitted directly by the companies. But the disparity between the two disasters â one on the mainland U.S. and one largely off â is striking.READ: Puerto Rico is in such dire shape international charities are sending aidThe Foundation lists nearly 300 companies that donated either money or services to Harvey recovery efforts. For Maria, that number is far lower: Just 38 companies have contributed so far.Plus, not every dollar of those companiesâ contributions will exclusively go to rebuilding after Maria. Many of the donations were earmarked for multiple âhurricane reliefâ or âdisaster reliefâ efforts. Only 16 companies specifically direct money or services toward rebuilding Puerto Rico. And because many of the donated services â which include Delta flights carrying supplies and free stays at Airbnb homes â donât come with an estimated cost, the listed dollar amounts for donations devoted to only Puerto Rico adds up to just $8.75 million.“We’re seeing a trickle of funds still coming in, but it’s a trickle.”
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âPuerto Rico was virtually not accessible for a few days. And so the lack of attention, I think, also helped contribute to a lack of contributions,â Ottenhoff said. In comparison, during Harvey, âbecause there was no mandatory evacuations, there was lots of coverage of people having to be rescued. Dramatic pictures, you know, dramatic stories being told of people being rescued.âTony Morain, the communications director for the disaster aid agency Direct Relief, says itâs possible that some corporations may be holding back on giving until later on. Individualsâ donations to a disaster tend to peter out after a week, he said, but companies and foundations often wait longer before they give.READ: Trump spent the week pointing fingers at Puerto RicoâA lot of [those] donations are thoughtful and patient, and waiting to see what needs arenât being addressed by contributions that are immediately following the emergency,â Morain said.So far, Direct Relief has received $1.4 million in online donations directed exclusively toward helping Puerto Rico, compared to about $6.8 million for Harvey relief. (That includes both online donations and mailed checks; Direct Relief hasnât yet counted all the checks itâs received for Puerto Rico relief.) But Morain says more money is coming in â and when it does, Puerto Rico may be better off for having waited for it. Only about 5 to 10 percent of all disaster relief money ends up going toward long-term recovery, Ottenhoff said.âUltimately, one thing you can do is not forget about Puerto Rico,â Ottenhoff said. âYour dollars next month or a year right now will be just as critical as the dollars you give today.â“Puerto Rico was virtually not accessible for a few days.”