The National Hispanic Media Coalition and Free Press Call for Better FCC Disaster Recovery and Preparedness in Puerto Rico

The National Hispanic Media Coalition (NHMC) and Free Press filled joint comments with the Federal Communications Commission calling on the agency to increase efforts to help Puerto Rico fully recover from Hurricanes Irma and Maria, which devastated the island’s communication infrastructure.

NHMC and Free Press lifted up the voices of Puerto Ricans living on the island and in the states, who conveyed in their own words how the loss of communications services has impacted their lives. NHMC and Free Press also called on the FCC to take action by directly engaging Puerto Ricans across the island in the island’s predominant language, Spanish, to learn more about what happened and how to better prepare the telecommunications network to withstand natural disasters in the future. The organizations also called on the FCC to abandon efforts to destroy the Lifeline program, which would cause more harm to Puerto Ricans struggling to recover. Approximately 60 percent of eligible program recipients on the island currently receive Lifeline, which subsidizes access to essential communications services. NHMC and Free Press call on the FCC to:

• Host roundtables, field hearings and town hall events in Puerto Rico in collaboration with NGOs, government officials, humanitarian organizations and local media. These events should focus on building the essential relationships across sectors to ensure the island fully recovers from the hurricane and to build resilience for future crises;
• Create a collection story tool in English and Spanish to hear directly from Puerto Ricans and conduct extensive outreach to ensure this tool is utilized;
• Significantly increase transparency around the Hurricane Recovery Task Force;
• Terminate its Lifeline proceedings that will destroy the program;
• Publish a detailed report on the impact of Hurricanes Maria and Irma on Puerto Rico and lessons learned; and
• Reopen and adequately staff a field office in Puerto Rico.