Trump under pressure to speed aid to Puerto Rico
Federal officials say there’s no way help can reach island as quickly as it got to Texas or Florida
The Trump administration is under pressure to speed up recovery efforts in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, where conditions in the wake of Hurricane Maria have become raw and primitive amid an intensifying fear that the worst of the crisis is yet to come.
Prominent Democrats, while not directly criticizing the Trump administration, offered pointed advice. Hillary Clinton on Twitter urged the to send in the relief ship USNS Comfort — which instead is docked in Norfolk, sidelined because the Navy does not believe the compromised ports in the islands can handle the big ship right now.
House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, Calif., said the administration “must act immediately to make available additional Department of Defense resources for search-and-rescue operations, law enforcement and transportation needs.”
The administration Monday said its response has been robust. The Federal Emergency Management Agency, which coordinates the recovery effort, said 10,000 federal employees have been deployed to the Caribbean. The Coast Guard has sent in 13 ships known as cutters. Commercial barges are arriving with relief supplies. The National Guard is being housed on barges and on a cruise ship that arrived this weekend.
However, officials leading the response and recovery admit they’re facing serious logistical challenges, starting with damage to the ports and airports. Many of those facilities have been reopened just within the past day or two, but only for daytime operations, because of safety concerns. Radar and control tower capabilities are low, limiting the pace of incoming flights.
For people on the islands, help is arriving glacially. In interviews, some have questioned why there’s so little sign, or no sign at all, of government agencies. Cellphone service is coming back in some places, but it is spotty. The lack of information, and the inability to travel on interior roads blocked by debris and fallen trees, has meant ongoing fear for the well-being of loved ones in inaccessible places.
“How are we supposed to receive help if no one knows we are here?” said Lisandra Alicea, tearing up as she carried a grocery bag filled with juice, crackers, toilet paper and batteries, hoping to make it through the debris-clogged roads to visit her mother in the small mountain barrio of Hayales. She hadn’t heard from her mother since communications failed as Maria blew in on Wednesday.
“Please, you have to tell people that we are here, that we exist,” she told a reporter. “We are like the forgotten community.”
In the small town of Morovis, Soraida Sierra Matias looked over the remnants of her wooden home, ripped to pieces by the storm. She had heard nothing, nor received any help, from local or federal officials. What she really needs, she said, is some canned food, and perhaps a little gas stove so she can cook and camp out in what was once her home.
“People are going crazy,” her husband, Wilfredo Cruz, said.
Amid news reports of horrific conditions in the U.S. island territories, President Donald Trump Monday night reeled off a series of tweets that called attention to the infrastructure problems in Puerto Rico predating the arrival of Maria: “Texas & Florida are doing great but Puerto Rico, which was already suffering from broken infrastructure & massive debt, is in deep trouble. … It’s old electrical grid, which was in terrible shape, was devastated. Much of the Island was destroyed, with billions of dollars … owed to Wall Street and the banks which, sadly, must be dealt with. Food, water and medical are top priorities — and doing well. #FEMA.”
Federal officials say there’s no way aid can reach the islands as quickly as it reached Texas or Florida after they were slammed with hurricanes in recent weeks. “Puerto Rico is an island a thousand miles away from Miami, so help just can’t physically arrive as fast it did to Florida after Hurricane Irma,” Coast Guard Rear Adm. Peter Brown said.
Adm. Paul Zukunft, the Coast Guard commandant, told reporters Monday on a flight to Puerto Rico that, because of the inability to reach the islands except by air or sea, the situation is “much worse than Harvey, much worse than Irma.”
He acknowledged that conditions could become yet more trying for those who live on the islands. “We’re not even a week into this without power. It’s hot. People don’t have roofs over their heads,” he said. “I think there is a sense of desperation, and I think with that comes a certain amount of depression.”
Federal officials say reopening of ports is key to disaster recovery because ships can carry far more cargo than aircraft. Adm. Brown said air relief often has a more dramatic appearance, but ships are necessary for a humanitarian crisis of this scale. “Ultimately the mass of response is going to come by sea, and getting the ports open is the single best thing the Coast Guard can do to get Puerto Rico back on its feet,” said Brown, who as Seventh District Commander oversees operations in the islands.