Remember Puerto Rico?

TWO months after Puerto Rico was devastated by Hurricane Maria, a sense of desperation seems to be yielding to resignation at best.

It has been weeks since US President Trump visited to jovially toss rolls of paper towels to needy fellow Americans and brag about how successful the recovery was. But evidence of progress has been hard to come by. Even the simplest symbols of government, like traffic lights, remain useless.

The storm’s official death count of about 55 may eventually be hundreds higher. Tens of thousands of jobs are gone. Thousands of small businesses remain closed, and even some hospitals remain on emergency generators.

Islanders’ morale has hardly been lifted by a scandal centred on the power authority. Its executive quit this month as details emerged of a $300 million contract with a small Montana company. It eventually was cancelled as irate islanders learned the authority had agreed to pay $319 an hour to visiting linemen while other contractors were paid as little as $42.

An estimated 2,000 islanders have been leaving each day, many intent on resettling among relatives in Florida. “It’s a stampede,” a migration expert told the Times’s Lizette Alvarez of the more than 168,000 who have landed in Florida, with 100,000 more due by December 31.

The question is what leadership role the federal government will play. Governor Ricardo Rosselló has asked for $94.4 billion in aid. Congress has approved almost $5 billion, but a plan for the island’s recovery is needed. Trump is unfortunately remembered on the island for his scornful critique of local leaders “not able to get their workers to help”, but he has a responsibility to offer the support Puerto Ricans deserve as American citizens in a dire emergency.