Migdalia Otero, vice president of operations at the Island Harvest Food Bank, and Rebecca Dresner, an East Meadow volunteer, flew to Bayamón, Puerto Rico, on Monday to help set up two food warehouses, two weeks after Hurricane Maria tore across the island, leaving thousands without food, shelter, drinking water or electricity.
Otero, a native of Puerto Rico, and Dresner planned to use the warehouses to help establish a distribution system for food and other necessities for those affected by the storm. Their deployment is coordinated by Feeding America, a hunger-relief organization, and is part of an effort to reconstruct a hurricane-damaged food bank in Bayamón.
“I’ve seen images on TV, so I’m somewhat prepared for what to expect once we land,” Dresner said on Monday. “But there’s always a lot of unknown going into a disaster zone.”