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Wednesday marks one year since Hurricane Maria

PR Unidos en la Distancia

This Wednesday will mark one-year anniversary of the devastation in Puerto Rico from Hurricane Maria.

Irene Sanchez is the president of PR Unidos en la Distancia or United in the Distance and says the island is still in crisis, and not much has changed in a year.

"And we here, the people in the diaspora, we feel the need to step up and try to be a voice for the people who are voiceless in Puerto Rico right now.

People gathered in Washington Square Park Saturday, reading the names of hurricane victims and sharing stories from the destruction.

Sanchez says her town lost 21 people.

"We saw people dying because of the lack of oxygen, and months after hurricane Maria a lot of these deaths were related to the lack of power."

The official death toll is almost 3,000.

She says anyone looking to help hurricane victims, should register to vote

"I think it was very clear that unfortunately the reaction from out federal government, it was not as fast any other reaction in the United States."

Recovery is not only still happening on the island, Sanchez said, but also with people displaced now in Rochester.