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Posted: 2017-10-13T00:26:15Z | Updated: 2017-10-16T19:39:57Z

WASHINGTON Water is rationed. Scabies is spreading. Grocery stores are lined with empty shelves, if theyre open at all. People are fainting as they wait in lines for hours in sweltering heat, because they have to check into a FEMA hub to get small amounts of food and supplies being guarded by armed officers. Thats if they can even make it to FEMA.

This is the jarring reality that greeted registered nurses Alicia Schwartz and Misty Richards when they arrived in Puerto Rico. They didnt know each other before last week, when they flew into San Juan from New York and Oregon, respectively, to volunteer to help with the humanitarian crisis on the island ravaged by Hurricane Maria. Now they spend every night together, camped out in a vacated baseball stadium locker room with other volunteers trying to aid 3.4 million fellow Americans in their moment of need.

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FEMA and military personnel have been leading relief efforts, but from the looks of it, something isnt working. Its been more than three weeks since the hurricane hit, and 36 percent of people still dont have drinking water, according to a government website updated daily. About 84 percent still dont have power.

And thats if you think the data are accurate. In a phone interview, Schwartz and Richards laughed as HuffPost read aloud statistics from the government site. They say its way worse.

Thats lies, said Schwartz, 54. First of all, we dont even know if the water is drinkable. Where is FEMA collecting this information? This is not what were seeing.

Schwartz said shes met people who havent had much access to drinking water for weeks, so they keep filling up containers from rivers or mountain streams. But that water isnt clean and can cause bacterial diseases, including leptospirosis, which is spread by animal urine. Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rossello said Wednesday that at least 10 people have suspected cases of leptospirosis , and four deaths may be tied to it.

Who tells them that they cannot drink this water? asked Schwartz. We had to stop people on the side of the road to Utuado, one of the places where water rushes by, and stop people from getting water there and teach them how to disinfect water.

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