Update from Rabbi Zarchi - Shana Tova

We have been receiving calls, texts and emails from friends and family from all over the world — are we ok, whats going on……..the concern, love warmth and Chizuk was so amazing it cemented the amazing reality that we Klal Yisroel are one family one unit, we share each others simchos, and setbacks as if they were our own. Not even for a single moment did we feel alone. 

We figured we would share a quick note and address all of our family and friends. 

Puerto Rico has been the one receiving and sheltering those people coming by boat and military planes from the decimated Caribbean Islands -- we at Chabad Puerto Rico were privileged to be in a position to provide shelter and essentials for dozens on a moments notice - just this Wednesday we received a frantic call from a family who finally made it out of Anguilla with a US military plane. They were at the airport in San Juan with NOTHING other the a few hand bags - this was left of their material belonging. We had them picked up from the airport and provided them with shelter food and had some community volunteers take them shopping for the essentials that they no longer had. And now Puerto Rico is In the cross-hairs:

The day was filled with intensity and urgency, word and news spread very quickly, that what was expected to be a category 1 or 2 hurricane was morphing into a category four and before this was internalized it was a historic category five currently packing 175 mile hour winds. Puerto Rico has never experienced a direct hit above category four and that was back in 1928. We cancelled our children’s tickets who were to join us for Rosh Hashanah. Water, gas and essentials were now on every ones radar. Challenge was, that Puerto Rico was still reeling from the aftermath of Hurricane Irma, where most of the island was with out electricity for almost a week, with some seventy thousand families still without power. The suppliers simply could not provide enough supplies in this short amount of time. Water was nowhere to be found

So we reached out to a Chabad friend who has a water factory to facilitate our purchase for palettes of water, our trucker waited for four hours on line for our water with an endless line continuing to build. With water secured;

We then reached out to our colleagues in Texas from Chabad Harvey Relief Campaign - Rabbi Moshe Traxler, and in the shortest time feasible they coordinated the arrival to PR of some 1,000 MRE meals available for distribution and three 6000 kw generators. We managed to run over to a few elderly residents before the onset of the storm and deliver meals  and water to their great relief and appreciation.

At just about 11:30 pm electricity has gone out in just about most of the island -- and we are grateful for the generator that arrived today just before onset of the storm allowing us some light, fan and battery charging.

 The messageage to our community is:

When it is safe to venture out, we will be waiting for you at Chabad for RH davening and warm Yom Tov meals, for lunch and dinner. We now await Maria's visit that is forecasted to be the most brutal in Puerto Rico's modern history. We hope and pray for divine compassion!

Wishing our family and friends a K'siva Vachasima Tova and Shana Tova Um'suka.

We are humbled and grateful for your concern - may HaShem reciprocate your kindness with the ultimate blessing of healing and redemption for our universe. We await the יתקע בשופר גדול

Many of you are asking what you can do:

You can say a Kapitel Tehillim, email or text a kind greeting, or empower us by contributing to the emergency fund @ chabadpr.com/donate

With gratitude and blessings,

Rabbi Mendel and Rachel Zarchi
Chabad of Puerto Rico - Serving the Caribbean

Recent ABC News update
http://abcnews.go.com/International/merciless-hurricane-maria-pummels-dominica-takes-aim-puerto/story?id=49944250