Many RGV Residents Feel Ignored By National Hurricane Relief Response – So They Created Their Own

Before Hurricane Hanna made landfall last week, President Donald Trump approved an emergency disaster declaration for the Rio Grande Valley. It makes it easier for the region to get funding if needed. But some in the RGV aren’t betting that aid will arrive soon.

As Victoria Guerrero, creator of RGV Mutual Aid Fund told the Texas standard, people in the region often believes it is neglected and ignored by the rest of the nation.

“A lot of people, when they think of South Texas, they think of San Antonio and they don’t realize that there is 1.4 million people living beneath San Antonio. There’s a very large populous region called the Rio Grande Valley that has thriving communities.”

“And when we don’t receive media coverage on these important things that are happening in a region, it doesn’t give us any aid, doesn’t help us provide for these families whose homes were destroyed. It doesn’t help us get FEMA down here faster.”

“So RGV Mutual Aid Fund is a collective that a group of community organizers located in the Rio Grande Valley started post Hurricane Hanna after we realized that one, our region is often neglected by the state and even sometimes local government. We realize that now it’s almost a week later in hurricane relief efforts have not come to our region. They have not come to our counties.”

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