On Dec. 31, a 4.2 magnitude earthquake struck the American territory of Puerto Rico, followed by a 4.5 earthquake on Jan. 3 of this year, according to CBS News. According to CNN, a deadly aftershock of a magnitude of 6.4 hit Puerto Rico on Tuesday, Jan. 7. This series of events continued for civilians on Saturday, Jan. 11, when a 5.9 magnitude earthquake jolted the island, resulting in powerful tremors that toppled already damaged buildings and left thousands without electricity. 

 While tremors have been plaguing Puerto Rico, civilians await relief from the United States. According to the Atlantic, the Trump administration initially restricted the release of congressionally authorized aid, including impeding the use of money to repair Puerto Rico’s power grid; however, after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi urged the administration to release all withheld aid, the Department of Housing and Urban Development announced the “access of more than $8 billion in blocked disaster aid, ending a months long hold by the Trump administration” states Politico.

Until this aid actualised, the Spaniard chef José Andrés has been in Puerto Rico working with his nonprofit World Central Kitchen to serve free meals to those left without electricity. World Central Kitchen, according to NPR, served more than 3.5 million meals in Puerto Rico in 2017 after Hurricane Maria and has performed similar work at other disaster sites around the world. Not only is Andrés working to feed the victims, but he is working with the Hispanic Federation to distribute solar lamps to civilians in the wake of power outages.

While in Yauco, Puerto Rico, on Jan. 16, Andrés posted on Twitter, “Today we felt some tremors still. So imagine, if you’re living in a place where you feel afraid that your house may go down you don’t want to sleep inside, you want to sleep outside. And this is what it is — relief from people being afraid of their home falling on top of them.”