Hamilton's Lin-Manuel Miranda Headlines Disaster Relief Drive For Puerto Rico, Mexico
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Broadway star Lin-Manuel Miranda headlined a charity telethon in Upper Manhattan to raise money for hurricane-ravaged Puerto Rico.
The phones were ringing, but you couldn't even hear it with all the activity Saturday as people from all over called in to donate money and supplies to the island.
The Hamilton creator was among the participants, and said don't let the huge number of ways to help cripple your decision to do so.
"Well, everyone needs to use what is available to them, whether that is being able to donate a packet of diapers here or whether you've got 1.6 million Twitter followers," Miranda told WCBS 880's Mike Smeltz.
The fear for many is that as the days go on, interest in helping Puerto Rico will diminish. But as State Senator Gustavo Rivera (D-33rd) said, with the island left mostly powerless, the situation is heading towards an ever more dire level.
"All sorts of reports from the island of people in refugee camps, for lack of a better term, starting to get sicknesses that happen in tropical countries without, when they don't have air conditioning," he said.
Saturday's event was hosted by the group Uptown Unidos. The group says they intended to call on New Yorkers to continue to support disaster relief in both Puerto Rico and earthquake-ravaged Mexico.