Puerto Rico’s quagmire blamed on bureaucracy
Chris Worrell went to Puerto Rico with a disaster relief team from South Florida, but ran repeatedly into a knot of bureaucracy so tangled he told his group’s leader a week into the assignment “we need to back out.”
Frustrated by a recovery effort Worrell said was snarled with local politics, and shackled by a lack of electricity, cell service and internet at government rescue sites, the group returned to Florida this week.
“I’ve worked all over the Southeast in disaster recovery and everybody talks about how bad the Katrina response was, but Katrina isn’t even a ripple compared to the quagmire they have in Puerto Rico,” said Worrell, a 30-year veteran of the Florida Forest Service and an emergency response expert. “I was absolutely exasperated by the situation.”
Worrell’s account comes as
island officials and President Donald Trump engage in Twitter rants and social media skirmishes about the federal efforts in response to Hurricane Maria.
Three weeks after the devastating Category 4 storm crumpled the commonwealth’s infrastructure, 80 percent of the island remains without power, lines for gas and cash are still hours long and trash is piling up, adding to a public health threat already on high alert.
On Wednesday, the Environmental Protection Agency warned that there are reports of residents getting water from wells at hazardous waste “superfund sites.” By Friday, Florida Sen. Bill Nelson was pushing the Department of Health and Human Services to better “partner” with the island to ensure sick and elderly residents are getting appropriate medical care.
“There are a lot of politics involved in this little island,” said Victor Hernandez, a South Palm Beach resident who was born and raised in Puerto Rico. “I don’t think they know how to put everything together between FEMA and PREMA (Puerto Rican Emergency Management Agency). There are too many chiefs, and not enough Indians.”
‘Dumbfounded’ by challenges
Worrell, who lives in the Florida Panhandle town of Rock Bluff, was hired by West Palm Beach-based Disaster Solutions to establish a supply distribution site in the coastal town of Santa Isabel and assess the needs of local nursing homes.
Disaster Solutions, a private company owned by Palm Beach County landscaper Scott Lewis, helps cities apply for FEMA aid, which reimburses 100 percent of the costs for Lewis’ team to formally document damage, expedite assistance and coordinate recovery efforts.
Worrell said he wasn’t surprised by the devastation he saw in Puerto Rico, but considering Lewis had a satellite set up with internet access less than two weeks after arriving to the island, he was “dumbfounded” when the regional PREMA office had no phone or Internet.
Worrell described challenges ranging from outdated forms provided by cities, to local politicians’ inability to direct emergency assistance, and basic failures in logistics. He said he would drive 40 minutes to hand-deliver a city’s needs lists to the nearest PREMA office, only to have someone in that office have to drive another 2½ hours to hand-deliver the list to San Juan, the island nation’s capital.
After arranging for a distribution site in a secured area that would allow people to drive through, rather than park and walk to a cramped city office for food and water, Worrell said he was told he needed city approval to clear debris from the property.
“The mayor wasn’t even there,” Worrell said. “He was out doing something and the vice mayor couldn’t make a decision. We were there to work for the mayor but we can’t work because they won’t work with us.”
Doctor there to help resigns her post
With phone service spotty in south Puerto Rico, it’s difficult to reach local officials. But Mona Khanna, a Palm Springs, Calif., doctor who served as part of a medical assistance team in Puerto Rico, said it can be difficult for outsiders to understand why individual mayors or towns want to do things specific ways.
Khanna has worked in disaster relief for nearly 20 years. She resigned her Puerto Rico post this month when she saw medical workers hold a “spa day” in a triage area, but said disaster relief is ultimately a local responsibility.
“Outsiders bring in a fresh perspective, but the local people know their town best,” she said. “It is the prerogative of local officials to have the ultimate say-so concerning the logistics of the relief effort, as they are both responsible and accountable to the people,” Khanna said.
Still, a story published online Sunday by the Miami Herald said U.S. military officials were changing how supplies were being distributed to the island’s municipalities, “militarizing relief efforts in a significant way as some mayors stumble on the job.”
According to the story, prior to last weekend, supplies were being delivered to 10 regional staging areas, leaving mayors largely responsible for pickup and distribution.
The new strategy, as outlined by Brig. Gen. Jose J. Reyes, assistant adjutant general of the Puerto Rico National Guard, was to place 10 to 20 soldiers in each city to dole out supplies.
Worrell said the first military presence he saw in Santa Isabel was Tuesday, after he had already planned to leave.
“I told Scott, this is not going to get any better, you are not going to be able to help these people, and you need to be working on an exit strategy,” Worrell said.
‘Dirty hands all over the place’
The breaking point didn’t come until Wednesday after Lewis’ team took a video at a private nursing home in Santa Isabel where the director criticized officials for a lack of aid.
Three weeks after the storm, sheets were being used for diapers, the facility was nearly out of bleach, and the refrigerators and washing machines had to be turned off so the generator could power residents’ oxygen machines.
After bringing the issue to the city’s attention, Lewis said he and his 15-person team were asked to leave.
A spokeswoman for Florida Sen. Marco Rubio said his office has made “inquiries with FEMA” about the nursing home situation.
“There are so many ways that this is bad,” Lewis said before leaving Puerto Rico on Thursday. “There are some really good people, and we’ve met some of them, but there are also dirty hands all over the place.”