FURY OVER PUERTO RICO RELIEF EFFORT
This is not a good news story, says mayor to Trump administration
SAN JUAN
UNITED States military and emergency relief teams ramped up their aid efforts for Puerto Rico on Friday amid growing criticism of the response to the hurricanes which ripped through the Caribbean island.
“This is not a ‘good news story’,” San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulin Cruz told CNN on Friday following oddly upbeat comments made the previous day by a top Trump administration official. “This is a people-are-dying story.”
President Donald Trump, who will travel to the US territory early next week, meanwhile, defended the response to the disaster on the island, which had been virtually without power, water and telecommunications since getting a twin walloping from hurricanes Irma and Maria.
Trump said the storms were of “historic and catastrophic severity” and a “massive federal mobilisation” was underway involving more than 10,000 federal personnel and 5,000 members of the US military.
Acting Homeland Security secretary Elaine Duke said on Thursday she was “very satisfied” with how the relief effort was going so far and that it was “proceeding very well”.
“I know it is really a good news story in terms of our ability to reach people and the limited number of deaths that have taken place in such a devastating hurricane,” Duke said.
Her remarks sparked the angry response from the mayor of San Juan, the capital of the island of 3.4 million people.
“Maybe from where she’s standing it’s a good news story,” Yulin Cruz said. “When you’re drinking from a creek, it’s not a good news story.
“If you don’t have food for a baby, it’s not a good news story.
“I’m sorry, but that really upsets me and frustrates me,” Yulin Cruz said.
“I would ask her to come down here and visit the towns and then make a statement like that, which frankly, is an irresponsible statement.”
Duke visited Puerto Rico on Friday and backtracked from her good-news-story remarks.
“The people in Puerto Rico and US Virgin Islands, I know, are suffering,” Duke told a press conference with Governor Ricardo Rossello.
“Yesterday I was asked if I was happy and satisfied with the recovery. I am proud of what is being done,” Duke said.
“I am proud of Americans helping Americans, friends and strangers alike. I am proud of the work DOD and FEMA and the territory, along with first responders, are doing,” she said, referring to the Pentagon and the US disaster relief agency.
Trump, asked by reporters if Duke’s initial comments were inappropriate, said he had not heard them. Then he added: “I can tell you this: We have done an incredible job considering there is absolutely nothing to work with.”
Praised for the federal response to hurricanes in Texas and Florida, Trump has been on the defensive over his handling of the crisis in Puerto Rico, which he will visit on Tuesday.
He lauded the relief effort on Friday and said it had been complicated by the fact that the US territory is an island.
“All appropriate departments of our government, from Homeland Security to Defence, are engaged fully in the disaster and the response and recovery effort,” Trump said.
“This is an island surrounded by water, big water, ocean water,” he said.
“Virtually everything has been wiped out and we will have to really start all over again.
“We will not rest, however, until the people of Puerto Rico are safe,” he said. “We want them to be safe and sound and secure and we will be there every day until that happens.”
Trump on Thursday eased shipping restrictions on Puerto Rico to make it easier to deliver fuel and water supplies to the island. AFP