Puerto Ricans on the island and in the diaspora are still coping with trauma from Hurricane Maria in September 2017. The flurry of earthquakes are laying bare the reality that the government is still utterly unprepared to meet the needs of its citizens. The most likely scenario is that the quakes will diminish in force over the next month. But the United States Geological Survey has not ruled out the possibility that another earthquake of magnitude 6.4 or higher could strike.

In these uncertain days, I have been thinking a lot about my tatarabuela, and how she sought to rescue her daughter from the shuddering earth. I have seen her reflected in the private citizens and nonprofit groups that have come to the aid of our brothers and sisters in the municipalities of the southwestern coast.

Puerto Ricans are traversing mountainous roads in danger of collapse, to get to areas where help has not yet arrived. Some, like a volunteer team from a hardware store, have come to build temporary housing for children. Others have created a website to efficiently identify provisions and distribute them evenly among municipalities. A midwife set up shop in the back of a truck. So many people have come to help that there have been traffic jams to enter the disaster zone.

Puerto Ricans in the diaspora are raising funds from afar in order to support the residents of Guayanilla, Guánica, Yauco, Ponce, which have been hardest hit, as well as other affected towns. They are also organizing politically: Boricuas Unidos en La Diáspora, a Puerto Rican advocacy group based in Washington, D.C., convened a protest on Wednesday in front of the central offices of the Department of Housing and Urban Development to demand funding to recover from both Hurricane Maria and the new earthquakes.

The outpouring of support, beyond demonstrating the deep compassion and resilient character of Puerto Ricans, is a reflection of a grimmer reality. Many do not trust the federal and local governments to do their job.