(WTNH) — Two Connecticut photographers are doing their part to get clean water to the three million people on the island of Puerto Rico.
The hurricane hit some seven weeks ago.
Chelsea and Tony Northrup just returned where they saw for themselves how islanders are suffering.
Related Content: Hurricane sets off fierce debate about leaving Puerto Rico
Chelsea has relatives on the island and she knew she had to find some way to help people, so she did a lot of research and found a portable water purification kit. She set up a crowdfunding site and raised more than $50,000.
With that money, they bought the Water One kits. They are just two people who took it upon themselves to help, and it worked in so many ways.
“Just picked up Tony and Chelsea. We’re headed to UPS to pick up the water filters that just arrived,” explained “Michael the Maven” with the Salvation Army in a video. “A bunch of them today. The UPS facility has been destroyed basically so we have to drive around to this back parking lot to try to pick them up.
“You can see everything is just ripped apart. This whole building is ripped apart,” said Chelsea.
Related Content: Much of Puerto Rico loses power once again
“These are from Connecticut. Photographers from YouTube because they care about you guys,” One person explained in the Northup’s video.
“One of the challenges with the water filters is making sure that the people who need them most get them,” explained another. “We saw people at a water oasis on the side of the road and we pulled over to see if we could convince them to use the filters.”
“These are the kits that you saw us giving out,” explained Chelsea. “This is the filter here and you can see that the water goes in this end and the clean water comes out this side, so you can use it as a pouch and squeeze out the water. We should point out that the water was this color which is dirty and comes out clean.”
Related Content: Gadgets helping photographers capture new perspectives
“All the vegetation was pretty much falling over and dead. It’s staggering. Absolutely staggering. Almost all the telephone polls are down on the ground and power lines just running across the street,” Chelsea explained.
“Nobody wants to worry about when water’s coming or when their power will be back on or if their kids will go back to school so they feeling I was getting was desperation and they still feel forgotten,” she said.
Because of the duo’s work on the island, government officials ordered tens of thousands of the kits that the couple found on their own.
