A special episode of Bar Rescue features star Jon Taffer and special guests heading to Puerto Rico to help business owners recover from the damage caused by last year’s Hurricane Maria.
Paramount Network released a trailer for Bar Rescue: Operation Puerto Rico, which begins with Taffer evaluating the damage the hurricane caused to a family-owned bar. But Taffer realized that more than just a bar needed help, so he called in his friends to to assist in helping the family rebuild.
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Taffer called in Mark Cuban, J.J. Barea, actor Luis Guzman, former baseball player Bernie Williams, reality star Bethenny Frankel and Chef Jose Enrique to help rebuild a baseball field and basketball court at a community center.
“This literally is my first time to Puerto Rico. I couln’t think of a better opportunity than to work with John and work with J.J.,” Cuban said in the trailer.
“We have to fix this. We have to get your bar open,” Taffer tells the owners of the bat El K’Rajo in the trailer. “And we have to get the kids back here. And I’m going to do everything I can to try to help.”
Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico in September 2017 and the island is still recovering from the damage. When it made landfall, it was a Category 4 and left nearly the entire island of 3 million American citizens without electricity.
The exact death toll remains a mystery. Although the government’s official death toll is 64, studies from last month show the number might be much higher. The New York Times estimates that 1,052 people more than usual died in Spetember and Octob However, a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine estimated that more than 4,600 deaths were linked to the storm.
This is not the first time Frankel has taken part in Puerto Rucio relief. Just weeks after the storm hit, Frankel chartered four planes filled with 20,000 pounds of medical supplies, water, baby food, diapers, insulin, canned goods and other supplies.
“This is a forgotten island,” Frankel told PEOPLE. “People have been living on their roofs for 13 days. It is like nothing I have ever seen. People’s entire homes and cars are immersed in mud, the likes I’ve never seen.”
Frankel’s B Strong also teamed up with Delivering Good for her disaster relief efforts. According to Delivering Good, they have handed out more than 5,000 gift cards to disaster victims, distributed $47,500 worth of supplies to communities and sent 75 containers of emergency supplies to Puerto Rico using funding from B Strong.
Bar Rescue: Operation Puerto Rico will air on Sunday at 10 p.m. ET on the Paramount Network.
Photo credit: Paramount Network
