Puerto Rico

Forever Fredi said:
I don’t think 44 would have done it. He had 8 years to do it and didn’t. Nor have any of the other predecessors. Point me to where 44 walked into ground zero of humanitarian disasters and did things like this.

Nice whataboutism though.
Click to expand...

Not really a whatabout. I agree that BO wouldn't have done it. Very few presidents have been as "presidential" as he was. My point is that the reaction wouldn't be so over the top if he had. I have no problem calling out Trump for stupidity. No one but me on this board has mentioned the stupidity of Jared and Ivankas latest private email address.

He gives us plenty of legitimate opportunities without having to resort to criticizing something that appears to be him just trying to be likeable. This is no better than all the conservatives that whined about 44 doing the ESPN bracket specials. Both were just a guy trying to relate to people, and doing no harm.
 
https://blog.usni.org/posts/2017/10/04/unit-level-leadership-lesson-from-maria

One of the side-stories from Hurricane Maria landfall on Puerto Rico is an opportunity for all leaders to pause a bit and ponder an unappreciated aspect of leadership; what happens when you find yourself the senior person and you have no orders.

Of course, most people know one of Nelson’s best known quotes;

No captain can do very wrong if he places his ship alongside that of the enemy.
…but how do you apply that attitude to any service, in any moment of crisis?

I would like to know a lot more about this;

Twenty-eight U.S. Army reservists answered the call of duty, left their families behind, and reported to an abandoned base on the eastern tip of the island. Then they waited for orders. And waited.
....
“We’ve been here for a week,” said one of the reservists, who had come from a nearby town. “There is no communication, nothing. We just came here.”
…
“We would have to send someone to San Juan to find out what is going, but there’s no gas, so we wait for someone to come to us. We’ve just been standing by,”
....
BZ to the 28 who answered the call … but did they really just wait a week? Simply because they did not have orders? Who was the senior Army officer on NSRR? Heck, the senior uniformed officer?There is a lot to say, but I’ll keep much of my commentary to myself, but everyone should ask themselves what they would do if they found themselves senior.

Is an absence of orders a sufficient reason for inaction when the enemy (in this case Mother Nature) is all around you? What should take priority, admin or mission? A padlock or the people?

It is still too early to get many lessons identified out of Maria, but this one story sure gives a discussion point for any leadership talk.
 
http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-trump-puerto-rico-debt-20171005-story.html

resident Donald Trump's budget chief said not to take literally the president's suggestion that Puerto Rico's debt would be "wiped out," even as the territory's bonds plunged to a record low on Wednesday: 32 cents on the dollar.

"I think what you heard the president say is that Puerto Rico is going to have to figure out a way to solve its debt problem," Mick Mulvaney, director of the White House budget office, said in an interview Wednesday.

After the president suggested that the debt must be erased, a benchmark general-obligation bond due in 2035 plunged 12 cents on the dollar Wednesday morning. The price later rebounded.

"We are going to work something out" on Puerto Rico's debt, Trump said.

"We have to look at their whole debt structure," Trump said. "They owe a lot of money to your friends on Wall Street. We're going to have to wipe that out. That's going to have to be -- you know, you can say goodbye to that. I don't know if it's Goldman Sachs but whoever it is, you can wave goodbye to that."

Mulvaney said Wednesday that the administration is devising an aid package to send to Congress that will deal with rebuilding and repair.

"We are not going to bail them out," he said. "We are not going to pay off those debts. We are not going to bail out those bond holders."
 
why do spokespeople have to come back repeatedly saying "I think what you heard the President say" ???

I heard what the President said
Bush 43 had the same issues.
Most times he spoke someone had to come back to clean up his mess.

Clean up his mess
 
Agreed 57. He didn't use big words or mumble, he plainly said what he meant. I'm curious to see what comes of it.
 
Marshall Cohen‏Verified account @Marshall_Cohen 9h9 hours ago

Marshall Cohen Retweeted Mark Berman

CNN has confirmed: FEMA just abruptly deleted the webpage that told the American people that 95% of Puerto Ricans still don't have power.
 
Caroline O.‏ @RVAwonk 8h8 hours ago

Caroline O. Retweeted Caroline O.

To be clear: They didn't take all the stats down. They only took down the ones they didn't like.

This is how authoritarian states function.
 
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-41524220

Renewable energy entrepreneur Elon Musk says he could rebuild Puerto Rico's shattered electrical infrastructure with his solar energy technology.
The vast majority of the island territory remains without power, weeks after it was hit by Hurricane Maria.
On Twitter, Mr Musk said his technology, which powers several smaller islands, could be scaled up to work for Puerto Rico.
The island's governor responded to Mr Musk with the message: "Let's talk".
"Do you want to show the world the power and scalability of your Tesla technologies? Puerto Rico could be that flagship project," the Governor of Puerto Rico, Ricardo Rossello, said.
 
I really enjoyed the comments section of the article below. It was nice to get the perspective of some of the residents of the island.

https://www.elnuevodia.com/noticias/locales/nota/cambialalogisticaenlaentregadeprovisiones-2363335/

Ponce - A whiteboard showed the work done to clear public roads, what remained to be done and how many soldiers were deployed per job.

Contiguous to the board, a huge map of Puerto Rico, with each of the roads, had multiple annotations and colors.

The PR-373, PR-128, PR-371 and PR-372 highways were the main course of the military assigned to the Ponce National Guard armory. All these roads were not yet completely cleared, and it is necessary to take help to areas distant from Las Marías and the Castañer community in Lares.

Lieutenant General Jeffrey S. Buchanan - charged with military operations in Puerto Rico - went to the armory to oversee the distribution of supplies. The 11 armories of the National Guard have been used for the delivery to the municipalities of water and food provided by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The mayors are supposed to go to the armories to look for supplies, a logistics that, so far, had not produced accurate results since more than a dozen mayors had not been able to get there, Governor Ricardo Rossello said.

"The response I got from mayors through the Governor's Office is that it is more difficult for them to get their trucks to the distribution centers to pick up the supplies. So what we are going to do with the military is that, from each of the 11 distribution centers, we are going to take them to each of the 78 municipalities, "revealed the three-star general who, on his visit, showed himself affable with the military. He did not hesitate to ask them which town they came from and what damage - if any - received his house.

"We are going to send soldiers on trucks. We send (the supplies) to the municipalities so that they distribute them, "he added.
 
Jaw said:
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-41524220

Renewable energy entrepreneur Elon Musk says he could rebuild Puerto Rico's shattered electrical infrastructure with his solar energy technology.
The vast majority of the island territory remains without power, weeks after it was hit by Hurricane Maria.
On Twitter, Mr Musk said his technology, which powers several smaller islands, could be scaled up to work for Puerto Rico.
The island's governor responded to Mr Musk with the message: "Let's talk".
"Do you want to show the world the power and scalability of your Tesla technologies? Puerto Rico could be that flagship project," the Governor of Puerto Rico, Ricardo Rossello, said.
Click to expand...

I think they'd be smarter to let the government handle this... the private sector can't do a better job
 
  • Like
Reactions: Jaw
Carmen Yulín Cruz‏Verified account @CarmenYulinCruz 6h6 hours ago

Power collapses in San Juan hospital with 2 patients being transferred out. Have requested support from @FEMA_Brock. NOTHING! @POTUS
 
David Begnaud‏Verified account @DavidBegnaud

David Begnaud Retweeted Carmen Yulín Cruz

In response, @FEMA_Brock responded: "We filtered out the mayor a long time ago. We don't have time for the political noise" (1/2)

.@FEMA_Brock also said: "a couple thunderstorms passed through" knocking out progress that was being made to the Puerto Rican power grid
10 replies 92 retweets 89 likes
 
JE McManus Hall‏ @ruraldogs 20m20 minutes ago

Since when does a governmental support organization "filter out" the actual elected officials they interface with? UNACCEPTABLE!
 
as he is in every disaster, trump is REAL victim in puerto rico! not enough praise for the little guy!

"Do I need to be liked? Absolutely not. I like to be liked. I enjoy being liked. I have to be liked. But it's not like a compulsive need to be liked. Like my need to be praised."
 
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2017/10/09/puerto-rico-aid-hurricane-maria/741739001/

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — The Auxilio Mutuo Hospital here can’t figure out how to get specialized medical supplies from the nearby airport. A Puerto Rican in Tampa found the quickest way to deliver help to her hometown was to do it in person. And shipping containers filled with emergency goods are piling up at the Port of San Juan.

Nearly three weeks after Hurricane Maria devastated this U.S. territory in the Caribbean, individuals and charities on the U.S. mainland trying to send supplies to the island are facing a series of bottlenecks that are keeping help from reaching those most in need.

The barriers range from a lack of communication to blocked roads to a shortage of vehicles and drivers to make deliveries.

As a result, one Port of San Juan terminal is storing 3,400 containers — more than double the usual number, said Jose “Pache” Ayala, vice president and general manager for Puerto Rico at Crowley Maritime Corp.

Because of tangled power lines across roads, washed out bridges and highways and knocked out cellphone towers and radio antennas across the island, materials are leaving the Crowley terminal gate at 70% the normal rate before the storm, Ayala said.
....
Trucker Ricardo Carbonell, 42, said damaged roads, downed trees and low-hanging power lines form another obstacle to get goods to those in need. And his company won’t deliver if dispatchers can’t get ahold of the recipient in advance.

“If there’s no communications, they call and call, nobody answers the phone, and we don’t bring them anything,” he said.

Another trucker, José Vasquez, 46, of Toa Baja, described how he took a container last week from San Juan to Rio Piedra, unloaded it and brought the empty container back to Crowley. Usually he’d reload immediately, but since Maria knocked out the radio antennas between San Juan and his home base, he had to drive an hour to Toa Baja to get an order for his next load.

Normally, “I’d be gone in 10 minutes,” he said. “Now I have to go there, one hour, and come back, another hour, to get another load out.”
 
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-10-09/fed-s-dudley-sent-puerto-rico-a-cash-filled-jet-as-money-ran-low

New York Fed President Sent Puerto Rico a Jet Filled With Cash

Less than a week into the massive blackout that followed Hurricane Maria and essentially turned Puerto Rico into a cash-only economy, one top local banker became so concerned about the supply of bills that he called the Federal Reserve.

William Dudley, the New York Fed president, put the word out within minutes, and ultimately a jet loaded with an undisclosed amount of cash landed on the stricken island, according to Richard Carrion, the Popular Inc. executive chairman who made the call. He and Chief Executive Officer Ignacio Alvarez reflected on the chaotic early days of the crisis in an interview Friday at their office in San Juan’s Hato Rey financial district.

“We thought the cash was going to be a problem,” said Carrion, 64, whose bank is the biggest in Puerto Rico by deposits. “The magnitude of this is something we haven’t experienced.” Suzanne Elio, a New York Fed spokeswoman, declined to comment on the money shipment.

The executives described corporate clients’ urgent requests for hundreds of thousands in cash to meet payrolls, and the challenge of finding enough armored cars to satisfy endless demand at ATMs. Such were the days after Maria devastated the U.S. territory last month, killing 39 people, crushing buildings and wiping out the island’s energy grid. As early as the day after the storm, the Fed began working to get money onto the island, according to a person with knowledge of the matter, who asked not to be named discussing the Fed’s preparations.
 
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/weather/hurricane/article177771811.html

As some Puerto Rico mayors stumble, U.S. militarizes relief campaign

Responding to the evolving crisis, U.S. military officials spelled out Sunday how they will alter the distribution of food, water and fuel to many of the island’s 78 municipalities, militarizing relief efforts in a significant way as some mayors stumble on the job.

Prior to this weekend, relief supplies were delivered to 10 regional staging areas on the island, and mayors were largely responsible for arranging pick-up and distribution.

But Brig. Gen. Jose J. Reyes, assistant adjutant general of the Puerto Rico National Guard, said in an interview that a new strategy calls for placing 10 to 20 soldiers in each municipality, providing them with vehicles and logistical support, and tasking them with delivering relief to each neighborhood.

The commander of relief efforts, Army Lt. Gen. Jeffrey S. Buchanan, acknowledged that distribution of aid on the municipal level has not always gone smoothly.

“We’re relentless in looking for areas that are bottlenecks,” Buchanan said at a San Juan airfield before boarding a helicopter for Aguadilla, some 80 miles to the west of the capital.
....
Told that some residents complained Sunday that it was the first delivery of any food or water to the district, Mayor Carlos Mendez disputed that.

“They’ve received it. I’ve come here three or four times before,” Mendez said.
 
Conrad Hackett‏Verified account @conradhackett 18h18 hours ago

Puerto Rico status today
43% lack water access
88% lack electricity

https://www.fema.gov/hurricane-maria

Improvements over last Monday's report
.................................................................

New reports on Elon Musk offer ?
 
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/puerto-rico-governor-ricardo-rossello-hell-to-pay-supplies-hurricane-maria/

Puerto Rican governor says there will be "hell to pay" for mishandling supplies

Puerto Rico's governor says he's ordered an investigation into food and water distribution and promised there would be "hell to pay" for those mishandling supplies after Hurricane Maria devastated the U.S. territory.

Rossello spoke with CNN on Monday, saying that 65 to 70 percent of drinking water has been restored to the island. He said there is "one area north" that has around 20 percent of its water restored.

"We're still, obviously, needing to do more. So, for example, we know we're delivering food to all of the municipalities, and water. There were some complaints that that water in some places was not getting to the people so I ordered an investigation," Rossello told the network. "If there is a place, a locality that is not delivering food to the people of Puerto Rico that need it, there's going to be some hell to pay."

Rossello also tweeted on Monday that he has ordered prosecutors to "investigate irregular indications in the handling of supplies."
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top