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Roads and bridges washed away in landslides, power lines are on the ground, and downed trees and debris clog highways for miles and miles. Entire communities are cut off without communications. Officials say more than 90 percent of the island is still without power and there is no estimate when power will be restored. All of Puerto Rico’s agricultural crops are ruined.
Immediately emergency aid and personnel started pouring in from the U.S. and neighboring islands, but the magnitude of the destruction has resulted in a logistical nightmare, causing one of the largest full-blown humanitarian/health crises in history.
The port of capitol city San Juan has more than 10,000 shipping containers full of emergency supplies that cannot be delivered around the country due to all the devastation and a lack of local truck drivers. However, news reports said the containers started leaving the port over the past several days after the U.S. Army flew in truck drivers to distribute the supplies. Helicopters are the only other means of delivery of relief supplies to people stranded in unreachable areas.
President Donald Trump will travel to Puerto Rico Tuesday. The president appointed a 3-Star general to oversee and coordinate the federal government’s response to the catastrophe. Some 7,200 U.S. military troops are on the ground along with 2,800 workers with the Federal Emergency Management Agency and more are on the way, according to the White House Press Office. But still the president’s forever critics and mainstream media are hammering away at the perceived lack of federal response.
Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rossello has been praising President Trump and FEMA for their efforts, while the Mayor of San Juan Carmen Cruz has been vocally critical and her comments have been on main stream media much more than Gov. Rossello’s. It’s easy to understand the frustration Cruz expresses in the face of this disaster, but to use this situation to bash President Trump and his team at FEMA is clearly uncalled for and unwarranted in light of the scope of this tragedy.
“I understand the (media) coverage, in some cases, is giving the appearance that we’re not moving fast enough,” Thomas Bossert, President Trump’s homeland security advisor, said to a New York Times reporter late last week at the White House. “There’s nothing that can happen fast enough, but what I can tell you is that we are mobilizing and marshaling the resources of the U.S. in a way that is absolutely professional, fast and adequate to meet the needs.”
The seeds of this calamity began long ago when Puerto Rico failed to upgrade and protect critical infrastructure such as the island’s electrical power grid and water lines — throughout the country — leaving them vulnerable on an island frequently impacted by hurricanes. Hurricane Maria, however, scored a direct hit upon Puerto Rico, the first time one has made landfall in nearly 90 years. They have been lucky in the past, but that luck ran out with Maria.
There is a lot of local blame to go around when it comes to this ongoing disaster in Puerto Rico, but now is not the time to be pointing fingers at anyone. Now is the time for action and saving lives as Mayor Cruz demands.
Due to arrive soon in San Juan is the U.S. Navy’s 900-foot-long, 1,000-bed hospital ship named “Comfort” that will be accepting patients as soon as it arrives with 12-operating rooms for the sick and injured.
This Facebook post was credited to Robert G. Miller, a resident of San Juan:
“I got online for the first time in days and one of the very first things I saw was an out and out lie about the (federal) government’s response to the crisis I am in the middle of. I don’t care if you hate or love Trump – using the crisis in Puerto Rico to spread political lies is disgusting! I am literally across the street from the airport, and the hotel I am in is where many of the first responders are staying, so here is what is going on from someone who is actually here seeing it. The government is here and has been here! Every single day plane after plane full of FEMA, FBI, Homeland Security, Army, Air Force, Marines, and extra police officers from all over the country shows up. Cargo plane after cargo plane and ship after ship full of supplies shows up. There is a hospital ship off the coast that I can see from the beach. The response was quick and it keeps coming! They are out every day from sun up until sun down. This isn’t a political issue, it is a humanitarian one. The lies being spread about the response aren’t helping the people here. It is just fueling hate based on lies! If you want to help Puerto Rico, donate money or supplies and pray. If you want to play politics find something else to argue about! … It will take time to reach everyone when conditions are as bad as they are.”
News reports claim that large-capacity cruise ships will arrive soon to evacuate thousands off the island bound for Florida and other locations which is causing controversy in Florida over accepting so many homeless evacuees indefinitely. As soon as 3,000 people arrive in Florida from Puerto Rico off one cruise ship, then what happens to them? Where do they go? Who pays? This will become a political hot potato. These reports say up to a million people may attempt to leave Puerto Rico in coming weeks.
On Tuesday, let’s hope President Trump and San Juan Mayor Cruz come together and stop the war of words and tweets, and tackle the task at hand.
Britt Nelson relocated to Costa Rica in 2011 from Florida, where he served as news editor for the Palatka Daily News, a newspaper owned by the New York Times Regional Newspaper Group (NYT-RNG) for 20 years.
Nelson served the NYT-RNG for 18 years in Tennessee, Kentucky, Virginia, North Carolina and Florida as a correspondent, reporter, staff writer, senior staff writer training new reporters, copy editor, page designer, editorial writer, editorial page editor and editorial board member.
