Whatever It Takes

Mercilessly battered by Hurricane Maria, Puerto Rico is looking at months without power. It’s simply not acceptable to leave 3.5 million Americans in such straits. “The San Juan that we knew yesterday is no longer there,” that city’s mayor, Carmen Yulín Cruz, told MSNBC. “We’re looking at four to six months without electricity.” Indeed, the head of the commonwealth’s power authority says the entire system’s been destroyed.

With trees blocking roadways, catastrophic flooding, no running water and cell service down across much of the island, Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rosselló says Maria was the most devastating storm to hit the island since San Felipe II in 1928.

“We need cleanup, water, food, and generators,” announced Angela Magaña, a UFC fighter who lives in Puerto Rico. “There are a lot of old people here who are going without necessities. We need to rebuild and restructure, and we need prayers. Any kind of help we can get, because it’s a mess right now.”

President Trump got the ball rolling Wednesday night by declaring the island a major disaster area and ordering that federal funding be made available to provide aid and clean up damage.

But the Federal Emergency Management Agency is already feeling the strain in the wake of earlier storms. Washington’s going to have to get inventive to get the people of Puerto Rico, and those of the also-hard-hit US Virgin Islands, the help they need.