Puerto Ricans say US relief efforts failing them

SAN

JUAN, Puerto Rico -- The Trump administration declared Thursday that its relief efforts in Puerto Rico are succeeding, but people on the island said help was scarce and disorganized while food supplies dwindled in some remote towns eight days after Hurricane Maria devastated the U.S. territory of 3.4 million people.

President Donald Trump cleared the way for more supplies to head to Puerto Rico by issuing a 10-day waiver of federal restrictions on foreign ships delivering cargo to the island. And House Speaker Paul Ryan said the Federal Emergency Management Agency's disaster relief account would get a $6.7 billion boost by the end of the week.

Acting Homeland Security Secretary Elaine Duke declared that "the relief effort is under control."

"It is really a good news story, in terms of our ability to reach people," she told reporters in the White House driveway.

Outside the capital, San Juan, people said that was far from the truth.

"I have not received any help, and we ran out of food yesterday," said Mari Olivo, a 27-year-old homemaker whose husband was pushing a shopping cart with empty plastic gallon jugs while their two children, 9 and 7, each toted a large bucket. They stood in line in a parking lot in the town of Bayamon near the hard-hit northern coast, where local police used hoses to fill up containers from a city water truck.

"I have not seen any federal help around here," said Javier San Miguel, a 51-year-old accountant.

Trump tweeted later: "FEMA & First Responders are doing a GREAT job in Puerto Rico." He also took issue with media coverage of the administration's response, writing: "Wish press would treat fairly!"

Sen. Bill Nelson, a Florida Democrat, called for the U.S. military to immediately provide security and distribution of aid in remote areas. "As was said after Hurricane Andrew: 'Where the hell is the cavalry?'" he said in a statement.

Earlier in the day, Presidential spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said 10,000 government workers, including more than 7,000 troops, were helping Puerto Rico recover.

The U.S. military was sending a threestar general to Puerto Rico to help direct the hurricane response. Lt. Gen. Jeff Buchanan, commander of U.S. Army North, was set to arrive Thursday to assess the situation so that the military can provide the highest possible level of support, Northern Command spokesman John Cornelio said.

In the town of San Lorenzo, about 40 miles west of the capital, people walked through calf-high water to get supplies because the bridge over the Manati river outside town was washed away in the storm.

San Lorenzo residents are collecting spring water to drink and taking turns cooking food for each other because residents are running low on basic supplies.

At least 344 people died in the Sept. 19 earthquake, including 205 in Mexico City. For days, rescuers who tunneled into huge mounds of debris and selfless volunteers who threw themselves into work around the city were lauded for their efforts.

But no individual captured the hearts of Mexicans and those watching the efforts from afar like Frida.

Clad in goggles and neoprene booties, Frida with nose to the ground and clambering over crumbled buildings became a symbol of hope.

"In social terms, this dog functioned like a transitional object because maybe she didn't help us in anything real or concrete — meaning she didn't rescue anyone — but she let us feel like there was hope and that there were things that could help us," said Fatima Laborda, a psychoanalyst and director of Casa Grana, a psychological assistance and research organization.

Laborda said Thursday that in traumatic situations, whether war or natural disaster, people tend to seek refuge in something real or symbolic as they try to regain confidence and a feeling of safety. A rescuer literally removing rocks to free you is one way to feel helped, but someone can also "feel supported by merely seeing people in the street, because that way I feel the solidarity of everyone else and that is symbolic and also can give me psychological relief."

The Sept. 19 earthquake that shook Mexico City and nearby states was not even Frida's first in September. She was dispatched to Juchitan, a town in Oaxaca state that sustained much damage in the magnitude 8.1 quake that struck southern Mexico on Sept. 7.

Over the course of a six-year career, Frida — 8 years old, 65 pounds and trending internet topic — has found 41 bodies and 12 people alive. She has worked quake disasters abroad as well, including in 2010 in Haiti and 2016 in Ecuador.

But she didn't reach celebrity status until Mexico's most recent disaster when the Mexican navy — Frida's employer — released a video of her at work on its Twitter account.

Frida's star rose just as another symbol of hope dissipated. For two days eyes were glued to search efforts at a collapsed school where including 19 children and seven adults died. Word spread that a girl named