Mark Davis of the US Fish & Wildlife Service has been in Puerto Rico for about a week as part of the agency's disaster response efforts. He and his colleagues have been responding to various needs, such as helping to distribute water and other supplies.
Agency staff members stayed through the storm to protect endangered Puerto Rican parrots by bringing them indoors and securing them in cages in concrete cages and afterward have been making repairs to wildlife refuge structures. The parrots agents were able to bring indoors made it through Hurricane Maria just fine. The island itself still struggles. Thousands of people have been displaced, the majority of Puerto Rico still lacks electricity and many residents have neither cell service nor a steady supply of clean drinking water.
Although critters are usually the main concern at Fish and Wildlife, much of the agency's post-hurricane response has been helping people in coordination with other federal agencies and military personnel. Davis discussed his experience while he was trying to secure travel arrangements back to Atlanta.
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