WSSU Volleyball Player writes Puerto Rico on her shoes as a tribute
Michelle Murray Garcia, a senior volleyball player at Winston Salem State team is making headlines, not because of her tremendous play but this time for a more emotional reason. Michelle hails from Puerto Rico and the recent hurricane Maria has left her family devastated, with loss of everything they ever had.
However, this does not break the spirit of the player as she is all set to face what has just happened in Puerto Rico. She embraces the grave reality with ultimate courage and says she still feels lucky that her family is still alive, unlike many others who have lost everything including their beloved family and friends.
In an emotional interview, she says, “It's the not knowing and then the only thing that I was able to see was the pictures. All I saw was the disaster. So it's like, it's just a lot of things were going through my mind like are they okay? Do they have food? Do they have water? Were they prepared?”
Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico and it was no less than Harvey and Irma that the United States has already witnessed. With intensity to rip apart everything that comes in its contact, hurricane Maria was soon nominated as ‘apocalyptic’ by the experts.
Thousands of people were left stranded while hundreds of houses were either damaged or submerged. The main hit of the hurricane was a dam, that is now seriously damaged exposing the residents to the risk of a catastrophe.
Over 10000 federal employees are offering rescue services to the residents hit by the hurricane. There are many ships and ferries running to and fro Puerto Rico with a supply of food, blankets, and drinkable water.
The dam is however in its place, but to avoid any disaster, which is quite expected at such a time, the area nearby has been evacuated.
There is no communication setup to reach the estranged people in Puerto Rico which makes their relative in another part of the country stressed and concerned of their well-being. Michelle was able to contact her brother in Puerto Rico just recently and expresses great relief to have done so.
The connectivity to the state is highly affected with roads other damaged or blocked with debris. The situation is described as ‘devastating’ by people who have seen the site recently.
The death toll luckily is limited to 15 only but damage to the property is indescribable. People are left with no houses to live, many houses have lost their roofs to Maria.
Even the hospitals are at bizarre state with fuel and medicines running out at an expedited rate. The information about damaged sites is adding in numbers with each passing days and people are now agitated to witness lack of basic facilities.
At such a time, Michelle has taken a respectable step to show her and her team’s gratitude towards the victims of the catastrophic situation. Michelle bow has ‘Puerto Rico’ written on her volleyball shoes as a tribute to the victims of hurricane Maria. She says, that she and her teammates are soon planning to start a drive to offer help to the victims.
