Six months after Hurricane Maria, blue tarps still cover homes and buildings across Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands. The number of people who lack power can be counted in the hundreds of thousands.

"The suffering continues on the islands and our fellow citizens need help," said Eric LeCompte, Executive Director of the religious development group Jubilee USA. "It's important that Congress voted for relief aid for the islands. Now we need Congress to increase the aid so that the islands can rebuild to withstand the next storms."

Efforts made by the interfaith group, Jubilee USA Network, moved Congress to pass more than billion in recovery funds and secure "better building" provisions to strengthen infrastructure on the islands. Moody's rating agency estimates that Puerto Rico needs more than billion in funds. In Puerto Rico, the majority of applications for FEMA claims are denied.

"Relief monies need to be expedited for Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands," stated LeCompte. "The situation is desperate and too many hurricane victims are still waiting for relief."

Because if we can't trust the usual gang of idiots to do anything, we're going to have to learn to aid each other!

Indy groups got the medical boat together to go to Palestine, so why can't Greenpeace or the more militant Sea Shepard group ought to be able to spearhead something like this.

What are the pros and cons?

On this and every other situation where the government is not acting accountable, I think it's high time that people informally stepped in and stepped-up their solidarity.

My brother lives in the mountain town of Aibonito, and his house was rendered unliveable by Hurricane Maria. His home and his community are almost completely rebuilt. The delay was caused by the lack of skilled craftsmen in PR.

PS. If your home is destroyed in a flood or hurricane or fire, don't expect help from FEMA. They have my brother a little over ,000 to rebuild his home. That did not go very far as you can imagine.