PBA Locals provide disaster relief in Puerto Rico
Fanwood Local 123 officer finds misery and
optimism in Puerto Rico
Like many other visitors to post-hurricane Puerto Rico, Fanwood
Local 123 Officer Elliott Bernard says the images you see on TV and
online simply don’t capture the enormity of the damage, even two
months after the storm. Roads with giant fissures, downed utility
poles, epic food and water shortages and the lack of power make
day-to-day life exhausting.
“Every day you have to secure water, fuel for your generators. You
have to get food. It’s a daily thing,” Bernard recalled.
Bernard, a member of the Union County Emergency Response
Team (UCERT), was among five law enforcement officers from the
county to be selected for Operation New Jersey Pride, a statewide
effort organized by the New Jersey State Police to help keep law and
order in Puerto Rico in the wake of Hurricane Maria.
“We flew into San Juan, and the airport looked like a ghost town,”
he noted.
After arriving at their first assigned hotel in the town of Dorado
and discovering that it was infested with black mold, Bernard and
21 others were taken by bus to the Hilton in San Juan. It had a gener-
ator and running water. He roomed with another law enforcement
officer and joined a four-man team that would be out assisting the
Puerto Rico State Police in Caguas, a city about 25 miles southwest
of San Juan that took a direct hit from Maria.
“These officers from Caguas were working 12 hours a day since
before the hurricane. Most of them didn’t have uniforms,” Bernard
explained. “They didn’t have power, so they couldn’t wash their uni-
forms. They wore various everyday shirts and their gun belts. They
had no radios. They communicated by waving each other down or
using cellphones.”
Crime and violence are dangerous byproducts of the hurricane’s
aftermath. Bernard and his patrol team used NJ State Police marked
vehicles to help secure the town.
“There were several reports of people getting their generator, get-
ting their food and water, then walking out to their car and getting
robbed by gang members and people who were desperate,” said
Bernard, whose team spent time providing security at food and wa-
ter distribution points, each of which had its own story of misery.
“There were limited amounts of everything. There were lines
three football fields long. You were only allowed one bag of ice, one
case of water. People were extremely frustrated,” Bernard depicted.
“Before we arrived, the police in Caguas were trying to do security at
these distribution points, but they just didn’t have the manpower.”
Bernard’s lasting memories from the 14-day trip linger on the
great spirit of the people that he met everywhere and the ability to
give back to the island where his parents were born.
“What I found, which will stick with me forever, was that a lot
of people were so optimistic. They were going home to no power,
Officers participating in the Operation New Jersey Pride effort work togeth-
er with Puerto Rico law enforcement in the town of Caguas .
Fanwood Local 123 Officer Elliott Bernard recounts his disaster relief experi-
ence in Puerto Rico following Hurricane Maria.
no anything. They would see us and say ‘Thank you for being here,
thank you for helping us,’” he explained.
The experience infused Bernard with praise for the New Jersey
State Police, who organized the trip in the face of tremendous logis-
tical challenges.
“I give so much credit to the State Police, the way they were
able to put together 24 police agencies to work together,” Bernard
stressed. “They were able to be self-sufficient, getting vehicles there,
food, water, housing. The way they ran the operation was absolutely
amazing.” d
www.njcopsmagazine.com
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