Anger grows as Trump adds aid to Puerto Rico
Federal response called ‘disaster’; food, water scarce.
President Donald Trump cleared the way Thursday for more supplies to head to Puerto Rico and tweeted that relief was getting through, but on the island food and water remained scarce in devastated towns where a growing number of people decried the federal response as an uncoordinated disaster.
Nine days after Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico, Trump issued a 10-day waiver of federal restric- tions on foreign shipments of cargo to the island. And House Speaker Paul Ryan said the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s disaster relief account would get a $6.7 billion boost by the end of the week.
The developments came after Trump came under sharp criticism for what critics said was a too-slow response to a humanitarian crisis among Puerto Rico’s 3.4 million residents.
“The federal response has been a disaster,” said lawmaker Jose Enrique Melendez, a member of Gov. Ricardo Rosselló’s New Progressive Party. “It’s been really slow.”
He said the Trump administration had focused more on making a good impression on members of the media gathered at San Juan’s convention center than bringing aid to rural Puerto Rico.
“There are people literally just modeling their uniforms,” Melendez said. “People are suffering
outside.”
Trump and his advisers defended the administration’s response to the hurricane, which destroyed much of the island’s infrastructure and left many residents desperate for fresh water, power, food and other supplies.
“The electric power grid in Puerto Rico is totally shot. Large numbers of generators are now on Island. Food and water on site,” Trump tweeted early in the day.
But in many cases “on site” meant stored on pallets and in containers in seaports and airports far from the towns where desperate Puerto Ricans lined up for fresh water and pre-made meals being distributed by federal officials.
“I have not received any help, and we ran out of food yesterday,” said Mari Olivo, a 27-year-old homemaker whose husband was pushing a shopping cart with empty plastic gallon jugs while their two children, 9 and 7, each toted a large bucket. They stood in line in a parking lot in the town of Bayamon on the hard-hit northern coast, where police used hoses to fill up containers from a city water truck.
“I have not seen any federal help around here,” said Javier San Miguel, a 51-yearold accountant.
Bayamon Mayor Ramon Luis Rivera said FEMA officials sent a truck with a limited amount of food Monday. Rivera said he began distributing it to hard-hit rural areas. “I don’t wait,” he said when asked whether federal officials helped with distribution.
Meanwhile, in the nearby fishing town of Cataño, authorities said they would open a distribution point over the weekend — nearly two weeks after the hurricane hit — to hand out food and water.
“We need food,” said Maritza Gonzalez, a 49-yearold government worker.
Acting Homeland Security Secretary Elaine Duke said she signed the waiver of a federal law to clear the way for foreign-flagged ships to deliver supplies between U.S. ports. The nearly century-old measure, known as the Jones Act, has bolstered the U.S. shipping industry but made consumer goods much pricier and scarcer in this U.S. territory than on the mainland.
“You are seeing devastation in Puerto Rico. That is the fault of the hurricane,” Duke told reporters in the White House driveway. “The relief effort is under control.”
Meanwhile, the U.S. military was sending a threestar general to Puerto Rico to help direct the hurricane response. Lt. Gen. Jeff Buchanan, commander of U.S. Army North, arrived Thursday to assess the situation so that the military can provide the highest level of support for the disaster, Northern Command spokesman John Cornelio said.
He said there were still problems getting supplies and aid to residents on the island, where 12 of the 29 bridges that had been assessed were closed, and another 65 were damaged.
Cornelio also said that the number of open gas stations had increased from about 400 to 676. FEMA officials said 1 million meals and 2 million liters of fresh water had been distributed in Puerto Rico and 2 million more meals and 2 million more liters of water were on the way.
White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said 10,000 government workers, including more than 7,000 troops, were helping Puerto Rico.
The Department of Homeland Security’s acting administrator for the region that includes Puerto Rico said distribution had been hampered by the destruction of roads and bridges, which made it hard to get supplies to those in need.
And FEMA Administrator Brock Long said the efforts have been hampered by damaged airports and ports.
“The question is that last mile,” Long told CNN, speaking of the difficulty of getting aid all the way to those in need.