WEBVTT

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- [Paul] Puerto Rico has been fighting in American wars

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since World War I.

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Dr. Antonio Sanchez is the director of the VA hospital

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in Puerto Rico.

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- Immediately we started, prior to the heat of the storm,

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we started our contingency plan, our emergency management

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preparation.

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We lost power.

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We changed to the generator that worked with diesel,

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and since then we have been in diesel until last night,

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that we were back to general power.

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- [Paul] Power was on but water reserves were low.

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- Started to work with FEMA and other intergovernmental

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agencies to provide water in truck

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for our main research here.

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- [Paul] The VA maintains the warrior ethos,

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no vet will be left behind.

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- They don't answer by phone, we have a crew of people

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in official cars searching their houses to assure

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and we track them on daily basis.

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- We are isolated and some of the resources

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from the mainland may take days.

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So our biggest challenge is to maintain a daily

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(speaking drowned out by Paul)

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- [Paul] Mr. Cozuma Torres is the emergency manager

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for the VA.

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- And be proactive to coordinate with FEMA and other

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agencies that are here to help us and be able to continue

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serving our veterans and maintain an operational level

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of our institution.

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- The VA in the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico

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serve 65,000 veterans with one million outpatient visits

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each year.

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For FEMA Public Affairs in Puerto Rico, I'm Paul McKellips.