‘Should be outrage’ at feeble fed aid, he says on visit

GOV. CUOMO during a trip to hurricane-ravaged Puerto Rico on Thursday called the federal response five weeks after the storm “wholly, wholly unacceptable.”

“It would not be acceptable if any of the 50 states went through this,” Cuomo said about the federal response during a joint press conference with Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rosselló.

“It wouldn’t even be a question,” Cuomo said. “There would be immediate outrage from everyone. And you should have the same outrage for the people of Puerto Rico. They are Americans. It’s not OK it’s five weeks and people don’t have water or don’t have power.”

Cuomo said there seems to be a different standard from the federal government when it comes to Puerto Rico than there was after storms hit Texas and Florida. Much of Puerto Rico remains without clean water or power.

Cuomo had visited the island shortly after it was devastated by Hurricane Maria and said he was surprised by the lack of progress five weeks later.

Cuomo on Thursday traveled with a delegation to deliver needed water-filtration systems and pledged another $1 million from the Empire State Clean Water fund toward the effort. Cuomo also began distributing 27,000 additional bottles of water.

But the governor, who has been mentioned as a possible 2020 Democratic presidential candidate, and Rosselló also discussed the long-term help Puerto Rico will need to rebuild in a way that strengthens the island’s infrastructure to better withstand future storms.

Likening the situation to Hurricane Sandy, which ripped through New York five years ago this weekend, Cuomo predicted years and billions of dollars of work ahead for Puerto Rico once the emergency operation is over. He vowed, “New Yorkers are with you every step of the way down this road.”

Cuomo criticized President Trump and others who have questioned how long the emergency response will go on. Trump had tweeted that “We cannot keep FEMA, the Military & the First Responders, who have been amazing (under the most difficult circumstances) in P.R. forever!”

Cuomo told reporters at Kennedy Airport shortly before leaving for the island: “We never talk about leaving before the job is done and we never talk about leaving Americans in a critical situation. So this emergency operation is far from over. And I don’t know how the President or anyone else can be talking about leaving when it’s been over a month and we still haven’t made the kind of progress that we need to make and you still have millions of people who need urgent help.”

Rosselló is slated to soon send staff to New York to see the work done post-Hurricane Sandy. Rosselló said he also plans on making a trip to New York in the near future, Cuomo said that could be as early as next week.