Puerto Rico
- Thread starter Jaw
- Start date
57Brave
Well-known member
In mid-October, a month after Hurricane Maria, most of Puerto Rico remains
without electricity or safe drinking water, and still has serious food shortages, due to a combination of insufficient disaster response from the federal government and the sheer magnitude of
the storm. Unfortunately, too much of the discussion about how to help Puerto Rico recover was focused on whether to waive the Jones Act, which became a strange cause célèbre and social
media favorite
among critics of the President’s response to the hurricane. The mistaken view that a temporary waiver of the Jones Act, which did occur, was based on an incomplete understanding of the
actual problems facing the island and what exactly the Jones Act seeks to accomplish.
http://www.chopcountry.com/forums/showthread.php?t=7468&page=11&p=439181#post439181
without electricity or safe drinking water, and still has serious food shortages, due to a combination of insufficient disaster response from the federal government and the sheer magnitude of
the storm. Unfortunately, too much of the discussion about how to help Puerto Rico recover was focused on whether to waive the Jones Act, which became a strange cause célèbre and social
media favorite
among critics of the President’s response to the hurricane. The mistaken view that a temporary waiver of the Jones Act, which did occur, was based on an incomplete understanding of the
actual problems facing the island and what exactly the Jones Act seeks to accomplish.
http://www.chopcountry.com/forums/showthread.php?t=7468&page=11&p=439181#post439181
57Brave
Well-known member
The conditions that the nurses described are nothing short of horrific. They detail arriving to help in towns that still haven’t received water, food or assistance from FEMA. It’s as if FEMA has completely abandoned its mission in Puerto Rico, under the guise that this is really just “too hard.”
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/20...aving-them-to-die-because-its-job-is-too-hard
The Federal Emergency Management Agency, citing unspecified “potentially sensitive information,” is declining to release a document it drafted several years ago that details how it would respond to a major hurricane in Puerto Rico.
The plan, known as a hurricane annex, runs more than 100 pages and explains exactly what FEMA and other agencies would do in the event that a large storm struck the island. The document could help experts assess both how well the federal government had prepared for a storm the size of Hurricane Maria and whether FEMA’s response matches what was planned. The agency began drafting such advance plans after it was excoriated for poor performance and lack of preparation in the wake of Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/20...aving-them-to-die-because-its-job-is-too-hard
The Federal Emergency Management Agency, citing unspecified “potentially sensitive information,” is declining to release a document it drafted several years ago that details how it would respond to a major hurricane in Puerto Rico.
The plan, known as a hurricane annex, runs more than 100 pages and explains exactly what FEMA and other agencies would do in the event that a large storm struck the island. The document could help experts assess both how well the federal government had prepared for a storm the size of Hurricane Maria and whether FEMA’s response matches what was planned. The agency began drafting such advance plans after it was excoriated for poor performance and lack of preparation in the wake of Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
57Brave
Well-known member
his is now going on over 6 weeks:
from Atlantic October 4:
...................................
Timeline
Wednesday, September 6
The eye of Hurricane Irma, then a powerful Category 5 storm, skirts north of San Juan. Puerto Rico experiences a deluge and 100-mile-per-hour gusts, but it avoids the worst of the storm’s effects.
Irma kills four people. It cuts off power to about two-thirds of the island’s electricity customers, and about 34 percent of its population loses access to clean water.
from Atlantic October 4:
...................................
Timeline
Wednesday, September 6
The eye of Hurricane Irma, then a powerful Category 5 storm, skirts north of San Juan. Puerto Rico experiences a deluge and 100-mile-per-hour gusts, but it avoids the worst of the storm’s effects.
Irma kills four people. It cuts off power to about two-thirds of the island’s electricity customers, and about 34 percent of its population loses access to clean water.
Jaw
It's OVER 5,000!
Yeah, the debate and uproar about the Jones Act was simply ignorant. Supplies were always getting to the port faster than they could be distributed so there was no need to make it easier to get them to the port.
Jaw
It's OVER 5,000!
So Trump was in an uproar that Trump hadn't suspended the Jones Act? You should do more research on this issue. The answer is not what you think it is.
I've posted dozens of links, with excerpts, detailing the answer to that question, in this very thread.
The simple answer is "It's hard to distribute supplies across a large landmass over roads that are flooded, choked with debris, and sometimes completely washed away. Especially when the majority of the truck drivers on that landmass are unavailable to get to the port."
Again, you should do more research on this issue. The answer is not what you are implying it is.
57Brave
Well-known member
a) had Trump rescinded or suspended the Jones Act with no fanfare -- there wouldn't have been an uproar
b) it is either the victims fault or it is too hard. Right ? That is what you are saying,have been saying and continue to hold the administrations water
That assessment may have flown up to 2-3 weeks in. This is , including Irma, going on 8.
c) That is a serious question. Who at FEMA,the agency charged with emergency management (the E and the M in FEMA) , is in charge. Until last week there was no director of FEMA . Who's head would roll over this ... resonse.
you fill in the blank.
If a pothole on your street-in front of your house took this long to fix, who would you call?
I'm sure 6-8 weeks wouldn't be an acceptable time
b) it is either the victims fault or it is too hard. Right ? That is what you are saying,have been saying and continue to hold the administrations water
That assessment may have flown up to 2-3 weeks in. This is , including Irma, going on 8.
c) That is a serious question. Who at FEMA,the agency charged with emergency management (the E and the M in FEMA) , is in charge. Until last week there was no director of FEMA . Who's head would roll over this ... resonse.
you fill in the blank.
If a pothole on your street-in front of your house took this long to fix, who would you call?
I'm sure 6-8 weeks wouldn't be an acceptable time
Jaw
It's OVER 5,000!
https://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/p...celed-immediately-n815396?cid=sm_npd_nn_tw_lt
Puerto Rico Power Authority Moves to Cancel Whitefish Contract After Plea From Governor
The head of Puerto Rico’s power authority moved on Sunday to cancel a controversial contract with Whitefish Energy, the small Montana company under scrutiny for the deal worth hundreds of millions to help restore power to the hurricane-ravaged island.
The announcement of the upcoming cancellation came just a few hours after Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rosselló asked the board of Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA) to cancel the contract with Whitefish during a news conference on Sunday morning.
....
Ramos said he will follow the governor's suggestion and will move to cancel the contract. Ramos said that the move to cancel the deal comes after the controversy over the contract, but did not signal that there was anything "outside of the law" with the agreement.
He added that Whitefish had been doing a great job but that political distractions had snowballed.
Ramos said the cancellation will not stop any work the company currently has in progress, but could delay other grid-restoration efforts by 10 to 12 weeks. He also said it would cost PREPA additional money to demobilize the contract.
....
The company said it was proud of the work it had done and that in less than a month, it had "brought 350 workers with specific expertise in this task and were on track to have more than 500 linesmen on the island by this week if allowed to continue."
Puerto Rico Power Authority Moves to Cancel Whitefish Contract After Plea From Governor
The head of Puerto Rico’s power authority moved on Sunday to cancel a controversial contract with Whitefish Energy, the small Montana company under scrutiny for the deal worth hundreds of millions to help restore power to the hurricane-ravaged island.
The announcement of the upcoming cancellation came just a few hours after Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rosselló asked the board of Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA) to cancel the contract with Whitefish during a news conference on Sunday morning.
....
Ramos said he will follow the governor's suggestion and will move to cancel the contract. Ramos said that the move to cancel the deal comes after the controversy over the contract, but did not signal that there was anything "outside of the law" with the agreement.
He added that Whitefish had been doing a great job but that political distractions had snowballed.
Ramos said the cancellation will not stop any work the company currently has in progress, but could delay other grid-restoration efforts by 10 to 12 weeks. He also said it would cost PREPA additional money to demobilize the contract.
....
The company said it was proud of the work it had done and that in less than a month, it had "brought 350 workers with specific expertise in this task and were on track to have more than 500 linesmen on the island by this week if allowed to continue."
57Brave
Well-known member
It’s hard to imagine that it can get any worse—but sadly, it does. On Tuesday, San Juan mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz was scheduled to meet with FEMA in order to discuss recovery efforts. She made it all the way to Washington, DC, only to have her meeting “suddenly” cancelled.
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/20...lp-only-to-be-snubbed-by-FEMA-and-Republicans
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/20...lp-only-to-be-snubbed-by-FEMA-and-Republicans
57Brave
Well-known member
This morning I learned that yes, 9 days after Maria hit the USS Comfort, a hospital ship equipped with dialysis machines, over 800 beds, a staff of hundreds, arrived in PR.
What I learned was it wasn't in port. It was anchored off shore where it saw 9 patients per day.
Earlier this week it was brought to dock and is seeing hundreds per day.
Who made these decisions?
My guess was that would have been a coordinated FEMA - DOD decision.
Who ?
Brownie ?
What I learned was it wasn't in port. It was anchored off shore where it saw 9 patients per day.
Earlier this week it was brought to dock and is seeing hundreds per day.
Who made these decisions?
My guess was that would have been a coordinated FEMA - DOD decision.
Who ?
Brownie ?
Jaw
It's OVER 5,000!
Comfort was coming out of a long overdue yard maintenance when the hurricanes hit. Her crew wasn't even aboard, she was manned by a skeleton crew from the shipyard and maintenance techs who were inspecting and signing off on the yard work. The Navy had to scramble to rush her back into service on short notice. My opinion is that hurricane season is a poor time for a hospital ship to be in maintenance, but the entire fleet maintenance schedule is a mess right now because there simply aren't enough ships for the assigned missions.
Jaw
It's OVER 5,000!
The Navy. For routine maintenance. The design of these ships (and their budgeted life cycle) plans for about as much time in port as at sea. We don't have as many port locations capable of doing this type of maintenance as we used to have due to the post Cold War base closures (naval bases were hit especially hard, due to being oceanfront real estate), so scheduling of the maintenance is a bear. Combat ships are also serving a far higher operation tempo than they should be, meaning more intensive maintenance is required.
The culmination of all of that is that ships get maintenance whenever they can, not always when they should or when it would be most convenient.
Things are so bad that the destroyers that had recent collisions in the Pacific have been sent back to the builder's yard, simply because the Navy doesn't have the capacity to fix them at this point. Our military readiness is not currently a strength.
The culmination of all of that is that ships get maintenance whenever they can, not always when they should or when it would be most convenient.
Things are so bad that the destroyers that had recent collisions in the Pacific have been sent back to the builder's yard, simply because the Navy doesn't have the capacity to fix them at this point. Our military readiness is not currently a strength.
57Brave
Well-known member
Who anchored the ship inaccessible off Puerto Rican shores ?
The ship was ready to go week or so before. Check earlier in the thread for the link.
The maintenance story is a bit revisionist.
When do you stop believing what these people tell you about Puerto Rico ?
They /you haven't gotten anything right so far
The ship was ready to go week or so before. Check earlier in the thread for the link.
The maintenance story is a bit revisionist.
When do you stop believing what these people tell you about Puerto Rico ?
They /you haven't gotten anything right so far
Jaw
It's OVER 5,000!
The people who didn't want to wreck it on debris clogging the harbor. I mentioned that here, on page 2 of this thread, over a month ago:
I also posted an interview with naval Captain Jerry Hendrix on page 4 (over a month ago), where he talks about the challenges in using the Comfort in PR:
Was it revisionist when I brought it up on page 2 of this thread, over a month ago?
Their/my track record is looking pretty good.
57Brave
Well-known member
The Trump Administration's decision to send the Navy hospital ship, the USNS Comfort, to Puerto Rico seven days after Hurricane Maria struck, stands in sharp contrast to the speed with which which it was detached to Haiti after the 2010 earthquake.
The mammoth ship was docked Tuesday in its home port of Norfolk, Virginia, with a minimal crew, requiring up to five days to stock up and get underway. When reached by phone Tuesday afternoon, the commanding officer of the ship's hospital, Capt. Kevin D. Buckley, said, "The Comfort is ready to go, if the call comes."
Now that the orders have arrived, the goal is to stock the ship with personnel, food, water and medical supplies within 96 hours and get underway Friday. "There's a whole slew of equipment that has to be brought on board to accommodate the mission, primarily medical supplies," says the ship's spokesman, Bill Mesta, of the Military Sealift Command, the civilian maritime agency that runs the ship, while the Navy commands its hospital facility.
Without running water on the island, he said, "cholera is an issue."
The Comfort's orders came after days of increasing pressure on the Trump Administration to help the more than 3.4 million American citizens in the United States Commonwealth, who are desperate for food, clean water and shelter. On Monday, Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo A. Rosselló called on Congress to send supplies and relief workers, warning that the U.S. territory faced an impending "humanitarian crisis."
"To avoid that, recognize that we Puerto Rican's are American citizens," he reminded Congress. "When we speak of a catastrophe, everyone must be treated equally."
On Sunday, Hillary Clinton urged the President, then focused on the player demonstrations in the NFL, to ratchet up its response to the disaster. "President Trump, Sec. Mattis, and DOD should send the Navy, including the USNS Comfort, to Puerto Rico now. These are American citizens," Clinton said in a morning tweet, referring to the Department of Defense and Secretary James Mattis.
When the orders were issued, the ship immediately was placed in "role 5" mode, readying to depart within five days. Critical intervening days between getting orders and stocking and preparing the ship could mean the difference between a cholera outbreak that's contained and one that verges on an epidemic. It means that residents suffering from injuries sustained in the storm and its aftermath may not get proper treatment for days.
Floods have damaged local hospitals and other medical facilities. Twenty of the island's hospitals are in working order, the rest are crippled. In the city of Aricebo, all five of the hospitals are closed, the New York Times reported today.
Haiti's earthquake occurred on January 12, 2010. The next day, the ship was ordered to prepare to depart. Four days later, the Comfort — which had been on shore power for painting and repairs — was fully stocked with food, linens and enough medical gear to supply the ship's 10 operating rooms and set off from Baltimore and passed under the Chesapeake Bay Bridge en route to Haiti.
Towering cranes worked through the night, stacking pallets of supplies on the ship's flight deck, as the ship's merchant marine crew stowed them below. The ship's hospital had been all but dismantled for maintenance, with beds shoved aside. Surgical instruments were packed in cases that needed to be unpacked.
The Comfort arrived on Jan. 20, and docked in about 90 feet of water a mile from Port-Au-Prince. A powerful aftershock that jolted the 70,000-ton ship the morning of its arrival jarred the ship's full-sized CT scanner off its moorings, disabling it for days until a repairman could be flown in to fix it.
In the days following its arrival, US military and civilian medical personnel treated 871 patients, many of them with crush injuries and tropical infections after days of surviving under concrete rubble. During the height of the emergency response, helicopters flying round the clock ferried in a patient every six to nine minutes. Nine babies were born aboard the ship.
The Comfort — at nearly 900 feet in length, just shorter than an aircraft carrier — carries berths for 1,200 patients and crew. The ship has an emergency room, 12 operating rooms, an 80-bed intensive care ward and radiological and laboratory facilities
The mammoth ship was docked Tuesday in its home port of Norfolk, Virginia, with a minimal crew, requiring up to five days to stock up and get underway. When reached by phone Tuesday afternoon, the commanding officer of the ship's hospital, Capt. Kevin D. Buckley, said, "The Comfort is ready to go, if the call comes."
Now that the orders have arrived, the goal is to stock the ship with personnel, food, water and medical supplies within 96 hours and get underway Friday. "There's a whole slew of equipment that has to be brought on board to accommodate the mission, primarily medical supplies," says the ship's spokesman, Bill Mesta, of the Military Sealift Command, the civilian maritime agency that runs the ship, while the Navy commands its hospital facility.
Without running water on the island, he said, "cholera is an issue."
The Comfort's orders came after days of increasing pressure on the Trump Administration to help the more than 3.4 million American citizens in the United States Commonwealth, who are desperate for food, clean water and shelter. On Monday, Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo A. Rosselló called on Congress to send supplies and relief workers, warning that the U.S. territory faced an impending "humanitarian crisis."
"To avoid that, recognize that we Puerto Rican's are American citizens," he reminded Congress. "When we speak of a catastrophe, everyone must be treated equally."
On Sunday, Hillary Clinton urged the President, then focused on the player demonstrations in the NFL, to ratchet up its response to the disaster. "President Trump, Sec. Mattis, and DOD should send the Navy, including the USNS Comfort, to Puerto Rico now. These are American citizens," Clinton said in a morning tweet, referring to the Department of Defense and Secretary James Mattis.
When the orders were issued, the ship immediately was placed in "role 5" mode, readying to depart within five days. Critical intervening days between getting orders and stocking and preparing the ship could mean the difference between a cholera outbreak that's contained and one that verges on an epidemic. It means that residents suffering from injuries sustained in the storm and its aftermath may not get proper treatment for days.
Floods have damaged local hospitals and other medical facilities. Twenty of the island's hospitals are in working order, the rest are crippled. In the city of Aricebo, all five of the hospitals are closed, the New York Times reported today.
Haiti's earthquake occurred on January 12, 2010. The next day, the ship was ordered to prepare to depart. Four days later, the Comfort — which had been on shore power for painting and repairs — was fully stocked with food, linens and enough medical gear to supply the ship's 10 operating rooms and set off from Baltimore and passed under the Chesapeake Bay Bridge en route to Haiti.
Towering cranes worked through the night, stacking pallets of supplies on the ship's flight deck, as the ship's merchant marine crew stowed them below. The ship's hospital had been all but dismantled for maintenance, with beds shoved aside. Surgical instruments were packed in cases that needed to be unpacked.
The Comfort arrived on Jan. 20, and docked in about 90 feet of water a mile from Port-Au-Prince. A powerful aftershock that jolted the 70,000-ton ship the morning of its arrival jarred the ship's full-sized CT scanner off its moorings, disabling it for days until a repairman could be flown in to fix it.
In the days following its arrival, US military and civilian medical personnel treated 871 patients, many of them with crush injuries and tropical infections after days of surviving under concrete rubble. During the height of the emergency response, helicopters flying round the clock ferried in a patient every six to nine minutes. Nine babies were born aboard the ship.
The Comfort — at nearly 900 feet in length, just shorter than an aircraft carrier — carries berths for 1,200 patients and crew. The ship has an emergency room, 12 operating rooms, an 80-bed intensive care ward and radiological and laboratory facilities
57Brave
Well-known member
Public pressure is forcing the White House to respond to the crisis in Puerto Rico
Updated by Alexia Fernández Campbell@AlexiaCampbellalexia@vox.com Sep 29, 2017, 8:30am EDT
To say the White House has been slow to respond to the massive humanitarian crisis happening in Puerto Rico right now is an understatement.
A week after the Category 4 storm devastated the island, more than half of its residents still have no drinking water or cellphone service, and nearly all private homes and businesses have no power. Meanwhile, President Trump has authorized only the minimal response to help the US territory through the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Since then, any extra steps he's taken have come largely in response to massive public pressure — from the press, social media, petitions, and members of Congress.
Initially, the voices of concern came from Puerto Ricans living in the United States, who couldn't communicate with their relatives back home. They shared panicked messages on Facebook seeking updates from family members.
As the days passed, news reports began to describe mass hysteria on the island. Entire communities had run out of food and water. The pressure grew stronger. Americans asked the president to do specific things: A finance administrator in Colorado launched a social media campaign to urge the military to send a naval medical ship to the island. A law student in Florida got nearly 500,000 signatures on a letter asking Trump to waive restrictions on ships delivering goods to Puerto Rico.
Trump eventually gave in to the repeated requests. The ship, the USNS Comfort, is scheduled to arrive next week. Trump temporarily waived the Jones Act, a 97-year-old law that makes it expensive to ship goods from the mainland to Puerto Rico.
These moves show how powerful public opinion can be in persuading political leaders to take action. They also highlight how dysfunctional the White House has become in responding effectively to major crises — even when it’s a matter of life or death for millions of US citizens.
"People should keep putting pressure on their elected officials to make sure Puerto Rico is not forgotten," said Rick Trilsch, who created a petition asking the military to send the USNS Comfort to Puerto Rico. "Democracy only works if you take part of it."
The campaign to send a naval hospital ship succeeds
Trilsch, a finance administrator from Colorado, had heard about the USNS Comfort naval ship after reading about its humanitarian work in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina and in Haiti after the earthquake. The 1,000-bed naval ship has a trauma unit and X-ray machines.
Trilsch said he had been waiting since the hurricane hit to hear news that the ship was headed to Puerto Rico.
"I assumed the order would be given at any moment and that it would be on its way to help our fellow citizens in Puerto Rico," he said from his office in Boulder.
That news didn't come. On Saturday, Trilsch decided to started a petition on Change.org, asking the Department of Defense to send the ship to the island, where hospitals are overwhelmed and barely functioning. He also created a Facebook page for the cause and launched the Twitter hashtag #SendtheComfort. The next day, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton joined the call:
On Wednesday, the Defense Department said the Comfort would depart Friday for Puerto Rico. There was no explanation about why it took so long to activate. The ship was sitting at the naval base in Norfolk, Virginia.
The saga shows how frustrated the public has become with the basic FEMA disaster response in Puerto Rico: Americans are starting realize that only the military is equipped to handle a disaster of this magnitude.
Members of Congress have also been pushing the White House to send more military support to the island.
On Wednesday, Reps. Luis Gutierrez (D-IL) and Joseph Crowley (D-NY) sent a letter to Secretary of Defense James Mattis, requesting a meeting to discuss how to get the military more involved.
"We believe the US Military is best positioned to save lives, meet the immediate needs of the people with food and water, set up a functioning telecommunications system and establish medical triage and emergency medical services," they wrote.
In recent days, the DOD has promised to double the number of military personnel responding to the disaster and is sending more ships and planes.
Without the public outcry, it's unclear whether the administration would have made the same decisions.
Pressure to lift shipping restrictions in Puerto Rico succeeds too
As the Defense Department announced that the USNS Comfort was headed to Puerto Rico, pressure was mounting for the administration to temporarily suspend a law that makes it expensive to ship goods to Puerto Rico.
As Vox's Matt Yglesias explains, the Jones Act requires items shipped between American ports to be transported on a ship that is American-built, American-owned, and crewed by US citizens or permanent residents. The law makes everything Puerto Ricans buy unnecessarily expensive compared to goods purchased on the mainland or other Caribbean islands. It also drives up the cost of living.
The law will create major problems for Puerto Rico as it rebuilds its wrecked infrastructure. Over the weekend, Jessica Penovich created a petition on Change.org asking the Department of Homeland Security to waive the law for 12 months. By Tuesday, it had garnered nearly 500,000 signatures. A spokesperson for Change.org said it was the eighth most popular petition of the year.
"I never imagined it would generate so much support," said Penovich, a law student of Puerto Rican heritage who lives in the Tampa Bay area. She said she created the petition because she wanted to raise awareness about how the law exploits Puerto Rico.
Another foe of the law is Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), who also spent the past few days criticizing it and urging the White House to waive it:
Then there was a searing op-ed in the Wall Street Journal on Tuesday. The editorial board lashed out at the administration's refusal to waive the law in the aftermath of Maria. They pointed out that Trump lifted it after Harvey in Texas and Irma in Florida. Not doing the same for Puerto Rico meant the president was treating islanders as “second-class” citizens:
The aftermath of Hurricane Maria is an even more urgent emergency. The Category 4 storm shut down electricity, destroyed crops, and has residents scrambling to obtain food and potable water. Many of the island’s 3.4 million residents may not have power restored for weeks. At least 10 people have died, and rescue operations will be needed for months. Allowing Puerto Ricans to import cheaper petroleum, equipment and bulk supplies would help.
On Wednesday, the administration announced that it would suspend the law for 10 days. That's hardly long enough.
The White House needs to ask Congress for more relief money
The next battle mounting is for the White House to ask Congress to draft a relief package to help Puerto Rico in the long term. Trump did that about a week after Harvey hit Texas, but he has yet to do the same for Puerto Rico.
Puerto Rico will need billions of dollars to rebuild hospitals and homes and repair its electric system. The island doesn't have the money, and it's up to Congress to pass a bill. They passed an $8 billion initial relief package for Texas after Harvey, and now FEMA's disaster relief fund is dwindling.
So far, the White House has not said when it will send a relief package request to Congress. It may take more public outcry to make that happen.
Updated by Alexia Fernández Campbell@AlexiaCampbellalexia@vox.com Sep 29, 2017, 8:30am EDT
To say the White House has been slow to respond to the massive humanitarian crisis happening in Puerto Rico right now is an understatement.
A week after the Category 4 storm devastated the island, more than half of its residents still have no drinking water or cellphone service, and nearly all private homes and businesses have no power. Meanwhile, President Trump has authorized only the minimal response to help the US territory through the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Since then, any extra steps he's taken have come largely in response to massive public pressure — from the press, social media, petitions, and members of Congress.
Initially, the voices of concern came from Puerto Ricans living in the United States, who couldn't communicate with their relatives back home. They shared panicked messages on Facebook seeking updates from family members.
As the days passed, news reports began to describe mass hysteria on the island. Entire communities had run out of food and water. The pressure grew stronger. Americans asked the president to do specific things: A finance administrator in Colorado launched a social media campaign to urge the military to send a naval medical ship to the island. A law student in Florida got nearly 500,000 signatures on a letter asking Trump to waive restrictions on ships delivering goods to Puerto Rico.
Trump eventually gave in to the repeated requests. The ship, the USNS Comfort, is scheduled to arrive next week. Trump temporarily waived the Jones Act, a 97-year-old law that makes it expensive to ship goods from the mainland to Puerto Rico.
These moves show how powerful public opinion can be in persuading political leaders to take action. They also highlight how dysfunctional the White House has become in responding effectively to major crises — even when it’s a matter of life or death for millions of US citizens.
"People should keep putting pressure on their elected officials to make sure Puerto Rico is not forgotten," said Rick Trilsch, who created a petition asking the military to send the USNS Comfort to Puerto Rico. "Democracy only works if you take part of it."
The campaign to send a naval hospital ship succeeds
Trilsch, a finance administrator from Colorado, had heard about the USNS Comfort naval ship after reading about its humanitarian work in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina and in Haiti after the earthquake. The 1,000-bed naval ship has a trauma unit and X-ray machines.
Trilsch said he had been waiting since the hurricane hit to hear news that the ship was headed to Puerto Rico.
"I assumed the order would be given at any moment and that it would be on its way to help our fellow citizens in Puerto Rico," he said from his office in Boulder.
That news didn't come. On Saturday, Trilsch decided to started a petition on Change.org, asking the Department of Defense to send the ship to the island, where hospitals are overwhelmed and barely functioning. He also created a Facebook page for the cause and launched the Twitter hashtag #SendtheComfort. The next day, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton joined the call:
On Wednesday, the Defense Department said the Comfort would depart Friday for Puerto Rico. There was no explanation about why it took so long to activate. The ship was sitting at the naval base in Norfolk, Virginia.
The saga shows how frustrated the public has become with the basic FEMA disaster response in Puerto Rico: Americans are starting realize that only the military is equipped to handle a disaster of this magnitude.
Members of Congress have also been pushing the White House to send more military support to the island.
On Wednesday, Reps. Luis Gutierrez (D-IL) and Joseph Crowley (D-NY) sent a letter to Secretary of Defense James Mattis, requesting a meeting to discuss how to get the military more involved.
"We believe the US Military is best positioned to save lives, meet the immediate needs of the people with food and water, set up a functioning telecommunications system and establish medical triage and emergency medical services," they wrote.
In recent days, the DOD has promised to double the number of military personnel responding to the disaster and is sending more ships and planes.
Without the public outcry, it's unclear whether the administration would have made the same decisions.
Pressure to lift shipping restrictions in Puerto Rico succeeds too
As the Defense Department announced that the USNS Comfort was headed to Puerto Rico, pressure was mounting for the administration to temporarily suspend a law that makes it expensive to ship goods to Puerto Rico.
As Vox's Matt Yglesias explains, the Jones Act requires items shipped between American ports to be transported on a ship that is American-built, American-owned, and crewed by US citizens or permanent residents. The law makes everything Puerto Ricans buy unnecessarily expensive compared to goods purchased on the mainland or other Caribbean islands. It also drives up the cost of living.
The law will create major problems for Puerto Rico as it rebuilds its wrecked infrastructure. Over the weekend, Jessica Penovich created a petition on Change.org asking the Department of Homeland Security to waive the law for 12 months. By Tuesday, it had garnered nearly 500,000 signatures. A spokesperson for Change.org said it was the eighth most popular petition of the year.
"I never imagined it would generate so much support," said Penovich, a law student of Puerto Rican heritage who lives in the Tampa Bay area. She said she created the petition because she wanted to raise awareness about how the law exploits Puerto Rico.
Another foe of the law is Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), who also spent the past few days criticizing it and urging the White House to waive it:
Then there was a searing op-ed in the Wall Street Journal on Tuesday. The editorial board lashed out at the administration's refusal to waive the law in the aftermath of Maria. They pointed out that Trump lifted it after Harvey in Texas and Irma in Florida. Not doing the same for Puerto Rico meant the president was treating islanders as “second-class” citizens:
The aftermath of Hurricane Maria is an even more urgent emergency. The Category 4 storm shut down electricity, destroyed crops, and has residents scrambling to obtain food and potable water. Many of the island’s 3.4 million residents may not have power restored for weeks. At least 10 people have died, and rescue operations will be needed for months. Allowing Puerto Ricans to import cheaper petroleum, equipment and bulk supplies would help.
On Wednesday, the administration announced that it would suspend the law for 10 days. That's hardly long enough.
The White House needs to ask Congress for more relief money
The next battle mounting is for the White House to ask Congress to draft a relief package to help Puerto Rico in the long term. Trump did that about a week after Harvey hit Texas, but he has yet to do the same for Puerto Rico.
Puerto Rico will need billions of dollars to rebuild hospitals and homes and repair its electric system. The island doesn't have the money, and it's up to Congress to pass a bill. They passed an $8 billion initial relief package for Texas after Harvey, and now FEMA's disaster relief fund is dwindling.
So far, the White House has not said when it will send a relief package request to Congress. It may take more public outcry to make that happen.
57Brave
Well-known member
Quote Originally Posted by Jaw View Post
Sigh. It wasn't "reported", it was stated in commentary by a writer at a highly partisan website. The two things aren't the same.
The commentator thinks the hospital ship should have been first on the scene. Actual naval leadership disagrees.
The commentator doesn't mention what the hospital ship's op tempo has been recently, whether necessary resupply was underway for perishable goods or medical supplies, whether the crew was in mandatory training, whether the ship was undergoing mandatory inspection, or a slew of other factors that impact a ship's ability to deploy at any given time.
.......................................
I have looked high and low for the maitenance schedule. Did I miss the link ?
"it was stated in commentary by a writer at a highly partisan website."
In light of recent events predicted and spelled out by " a highly partisan website " as opposed to officials or .FEMA spokespersons one would think you would give a little longer look at those " highly partisan website(s) "
....................................
Looked high and low for links describing the debris issue. Wonder why it took 6 weeks to clean that up
Again, you should be looking at alternative news and current event sources because your current ones are leaving you with pie on your face
Sigh. It wasn't "reported", it was stated in commentary by a writer at a highly partisan website. The two things aren't the same.
The commentator thinks the hospital ship should have been first on the scene. Actual naval leadership disagrees.
The commentator doesn't mention what the hospital ship's op tempo has been recently, whether necessary resupply was underway for perishable goods or medical supplies, whether the crew was in mandatory training, whether the ship was undergoing mandatory inspection, or a slew of other factors that impact a ship's ability to deploy at any given time.
.......................................
I have looked high and low for the maitenance schedule. Did I miss the link ?
"it was stated in commentary by a writer at a highly partisan website."
In light of recent events predicted and spelled out by " a highly partisan website " as opposed to officials or .FEMA spokespersons one would think you would give a little longer look at those " highly partisan website(s) "
....................................
Looked high and low for links describing the debris issue. Wonder why it took 6 weeks to clean that up
Again, you should be looking at alternative news and current event sources because your current ones are leaving you with pie on your face