When the furious winds and rain of Hurricane Laura devastated Louisiana three years ago, Javier drifted towards the disaster, cleaning homes and chopping down trees that the Category 4 storm toppled and tore apart.
“I heard that there was a disaster and that there was work. And where there is work, you go,” Javier told the Miami Herald.
The storm kicked off an unexpected round of work for Javier, an undocumented Honduran immigrant who arrived in the U.S. in 2016 and who did not want his last name used because of his immigration status. He has since helped clean up after other fierce Louisiana hurricanes, including Delta and Ida.
When there’s no hurricane clean-up to do, he works in construction. But through word of mouth, clients refer him to others who call for help when catastrophes strike. Last fall, someone reached out to him when Category 4 Hurricane Ian killed at least 149 people and destroyed swaths of southwest Florida.
Along with other disaster workers, he grabbed a suitcase, the truck, the tools and came to Florida. Javier spent two months knocking down damaged structures, tidying homes turned upside down, and repairing rain leaks and holes in the Florida Gulf. In the early stages of the recovery, the area was full of immigrants who were trudging through the floods, fallen trees, power cables and homes to start clearing the destruction, he said.
But this hurricane season, he doesn’t plan on coming to Florida, even after Hurricane Idalia made landfall in the Big...
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