AMERICAN TRAGEDY
No food, no water, no power, no medical care for the dying ... Puerto Rico needs more help, Mr. President!
A week after Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico, residents of the U.S. territory like this woman forced into a shelter remain without basic essentials as relief efforts have been slow to arrive. President Trump said Tuesday, “This is an island sitting in the middle of an ocean. You can’t just drive your trucks there from other states.”
THE APOCALYPTIC destruction caused by Hurricane Maria has plunged Puerto Rico into unprecedented misery.
Two patients on life support died when a hospital generator ran out of diesel. Fuel trucks need armed security due to looting and violence.
Gunshots pierce the quiet on an island where nearly all 1.6 million households have had no electricity for five days.
Supermarkets are rationing supplies, and growing piles of garbage sit uncollected.
As the mercury soared to 90 degrees with stifling humidity Tuesday, 56% of the island’s population had no safe drinking water, the defense department said.
A growing chorus of critics has lashed the U.S. government for what they call a slow response to the crisis.
On Tuesday, FEMA admitted the situation was still far from under control. “This is a logistically challenging and very unique event that the United States hasn’t seen in a very, very long time,” Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator Brock Long (photo inset) said.
He added that Maria compounded damage left by Hurricane Irma, and Puerto Rico’s airport remained crippled, contributing to its troubles.
The dire situation caused San Juan’s mayor to break down in tears Tuesday as she spoke with CBS News.
“I know that leaders aren’t supposed to cry, especially not on TV, but we are having a humanitarian crisis,” Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz said.
In a series of interviews, she thanked federal officials for stepped-up efforts — but said everyone has to move faster.
“Every moment we spend planning in a meeting, or every moment we spend just not getting the help we’re supposed to get, people are starting to die,” she said.
Almost a week after the devastating Category 4 storm first screamed ashore, only 11 of Puerto Rico’s 69 hospitals had some form of power. Food and fuel remained perilously scarce, officials said. “I believe (it) is clear that the humanitarian crisis has been reached,” San Juan resident Sebastián Pérez told the Daily News. “I am sure the majority of us don’t feel that our President, that we didn’t elect, is doing enough to prevent a crisis no American would ever let happen to its citizens,” he said. Pérez said people are waiting up to 10 hours to buy small amounts of fuel for vehicles and generators. “Many had opted to violate curfew and stay in line overnight. Some have been forced by police to leave the stations empty-handed after waiting long hours,” he said.
“There are reports of people stealing diesel from cell phone antennas, hospitals and elderly homes,” Pérez added.
In places where running water has been restored, “this water is not fully trusted to be consumed,” he said.
Meanwhile, a power plant that had restored some electricity to San Juan went down again Tuesday, officials said.
With lives hanging in the balance, the Pentagon said Tuesday it would try to double the 2,500 active-duty military forces being sent to help.
John Cornelio, spokesman at U.S. Northern Command, said an Army brigadier general would
oversee the military response. That would include the transfer of a civil affairs unit from Fort Bragg, N.C., ready to use loudspeakers, trucks, leaflets and text messaging to get needed information to the public.
The hospital ship Comfort is expected to leave Baltimore by Saturday and take three to five days to reach Puerto Rico.
FEMA officials said 16 Navy and Coast Guard ships were already in the waters around Puerto Rico, with 10 more ships on the way.
Highly trained search and rescue experts arrived days ago and fanned out to remote rural locations.
Overall, FEMA and its partners have provided more than 4 million meals and 6 million liters of water to victims of Maria on Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, officials said. An additional 7 million meals and 4 million liters of water reportedly were en route Tuesday.
President Trump said Tuesday he will visit storm-ravaged Puerto Rico next Tuesday — arriving long after the storm hit and after taking a flood of criticism for keeping quiet about the crisis.
He said this is the earliest he can get there because of the storms damage and Puerto Rico’s geographic isolation. He also plans to go to the Virgin Islands.
Trump said the island had been “literally destroyed” by Maria, but he was confident its 3.4 million citizens will “be back.”
People who fled the island on a flight that touched down at JFK Airport Tuesday described the devastation.
“I’m 93 years old, and I have never seen the island like this,” Idelfonso Gonzalez told The News.
“All the electrical cables are on the road. The homes are destroyed. There’s water everywhere,” he said.
“The help (is) starting to arrive now. The U.S. is starting to send food and water but (if) it didn’t go faster, it’s just going to be a humanitarian crisis.”
Tourist Xavier Hernandez, 33, hugged his girlfriend as they left the airport, headed home to Brooklyn.
“When we first got there everything was green; now everything is brown,” he said. “Puerto Rico is not Puerto Rico anymore. There’s no electricity. There’s not enough food. There is no water.”