‘Connections are important’: Richards recounts trip to DR, PR following Hurricane Fiona
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Queens Borough President Donovan Richards joined Mayor Eric Adams and other New York City officials on a trip to the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico over the weekend to survey the damage caused by Hurricane Fiona. Photo via Richards/Twitter
By Jacob Kaye
Queens Borough President Donovan Richards was talking to a man over the weekend while on a trip with the mayor and a number of other city officials to survey the damage left by Hurricane Fiona in the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico.
The man, who lived in the Dominican Republic and who had been personally affected by the storm, didn’t speak much English, but the borough president was able to make out two words: “Cafe Rubio.”
Through a translator, Richards learned that the man’s cousin owned the Queens restaurant on Northern Boulevard, less than five miles from where the borough president goes to work each day.
He may have been a world away from Queens, but the World’s Borough earned its nickname for a reason.
“Those connections are important,” Richards told the Eagle on Tuesday after returning from the trip the day before. “Folks here in Queens right now are figuring out how to help their family members and it was important, I think, to be there to show my commitment to the community here and afar.”
Alongside Mayor Eric Adams, Rep. Adriano Espaillat, City Councilmember Marjorie Velázquez, Department of Transportation Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez, officials from the city’s Emergency Management office and a number of others, Richards flew into Puerto Rico on Saturday night, traveling to a number of places on the island before flying to the Dominican Republic later in the weekend.
The goal: getting a read on what was happening on the ground following Hurricane Fiona and attempting to come up with ways the city, which is home to a sizable number of Puerto Ricans and Dominicans, can aid in the recovery efforts.
The hurricane touched down in the region a little over a week ago. The damage it left varied from island to island. In Puerto Rico, it knocked out the island’s entire already weak power grid, leaving over 3 million U.S. citizens in the dark – though electricity has returned for some, many remain without it. In the Dominican Republic, Richards said people were working to repair their damaged homes and prepare for the wave of disease that inevitably follows a devastating storm.
At least 17 people died as a result of the storm.
On Tuesday, Adams was joined by the New York City delegation that flew with him to the islands. Briefing the media on the trip, Adams said that Dominicans and Puerto Ricans he met celebrated the elected officials’ presence on the islands.
“This is the international city, this is America’s city, whether people like it or not, this is America’s city,” Adams said. “What we do is going to impact what happens across the globe and how people are going to perceive us across the globe.”
“When I walked with that polo shirt, “Mayor” on the back of it and went to those different locations, you should have looked at the faces of people,” he added. “This city was saying to people that they matter and that means so much to people outside of this country.”
Richards said that while the devastation of the storm was evident in most places he visited, he was most struck by a young boy holding a bottle of bleach, something that is needed to disinfect a home and other flooded property following a hurricane. The flooding can leave behind any number of diseases and invite disease-carrying mosquitoes.
“This baby needed food,” Richards said. “But he’s holding on to bleach.”
The borough president’s office, which has joined in with the city’s efforts to collect donations for the regions affected by the storm, will soon launch his own donation drive, he said Tuesday. Collecting bleach will be at the top of the list, Richards said.
Flooding is familiar to the borough president. He worked as then-City Councilmember James Sanders’ chief of staff when Hurricane Sandy touched down in the Rockaways in 2012. In 2013, when he was first elected to his former boss’ seat, Richards represented the area as it continued its recovery from the storm – a recovery that continues today. He also made a trip to Puerto Rico following Hurricane Maria in 2017. Most recently, he was serving as borough president when 11 Queens residents died as a result of flooding caused by Hurricane Ida a little over a year ago.
The effects of climate change have long been at the top of his policy priority list, he said.
“This is people's livelihood,” Richards said. “Especially for immigrant communities, Black and brown neighborhoods where people have put everything into homeownership…all of these things are all tied together.”
