Puerto Rico: 100 days in
Ahundred years have passed since President Woodrow Wilson signed the Jones-Shafroth Act, granting U.S. citizenship to the inhabitants of Puerto Rico, a Caribbean territory that the United States seized from Spain in 1898 during the Spanish-American War. And it’s hard to think of a more disgraceful way to mark this centennial than with the Trump administration’s passive response to the U.S. commonwealth’s desperation since being slammed by Hurricane Maria in September.
Thursday marked the 100th day since the storm pounded the island, but unlike similarly hurricane-hammered parts of Texas and Florida, life has never returned to normal for many residents. An astounding half of Puerto Rico’s 3.3 million people are still without power, and concerns about the safety of water supplies are only growing because steady power supplies are crucial to water treatment plants. An analysis in The Washington Post last week detailed the health risk from tap water with high rates of bacterial contamination.
In another wrenching story, the Associated Press detailed the hardships facing the town of Morovis in central Puerto Rico, which was just visited by Federal Emergency Management Agency crews this month. In Morovis and “hundreds of neighborhoods and towns without power this holiday season, people are alternately despairing, furious, resigned and sometimes in disbelief that the United States remains unable to help restore power to its citizens more than 90 days after a natural disaster,” AP reporter Danica Coto wrote. The Army Corps of Engineers expects full power won’t be restored until May — eight months after Hurricane Maria hit.
Yes, there are reasons why FEMA and local recovery efforts have been hampered. Even before the storm hit, much of Puerto Rico’s power and water infrastructure was in decrepit shape after decades of poor maintenance stemming from chronic budget problems, and the local communities that have received the least help are often in mountainous areas that are difficult to access. Puerto Rico’s government also has been unimpressive. It’s credibly accused of both grossly exaggerating its residents’ access to clean water and of grossly underestimating the number of lives lost by the disaster. A story by The New York Times this month detailed how Maria-related deaths were likely to be at least 15 times greater than the official estimate of 64.
Nevertheless, it is impossible to compare the U.S. response to the ravages of Hurricane Harvey in the Houston area and Hurricane Irma across much of Florida to its response to Puerto Rico’s storm disaster and not see disparities. There was an urgency to FEMA’s actions with the American states that hasn’t been on display with the American territory. Yet on Oct. 19, President Donald Trump — after a White House meeting with Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rosselló — rated his administration’s response to Hurricane Maria a “10 out of 10.” While Rosselló praised the federal response, he also urged Trump to “treat us equally.” It’s not too much to ask.
While Caribbean historian Carrie Gibson and TV host John Oliver have attributed Trump’s response to a nativist president’s disdain for the Spanish-speaking Latinos who constitute nearly all of Puerto Rico’s population, plenty of Latinos were helped in Texas and Florida. Whatever the reason, the U.S. failure to adequately help suffering Americans in Puerto Rico has been shamefully appalling.
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