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Bluelight Crew
San Juan mayor slams Trump administration comments on Puerto Rico hurricane response
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — The mayor of Puerto Rico’s capital sharply criticized a senior Trump administration official Friday for calling the government’s disaster response “a good-news story,” comments that came amid mounting criticism of the federal reaction to the disaster here.
Trump administration officials have defended the federal effort, with acting Homeland Security Secretary Elaine Duke telling reporters outside the White House on Thursday that the relief effort “is proceeding very well considering the devastation that took place.” She called the federal response “a good-news story in terms of our ability to reach people and the limited number of deaths that have taken place in such a devastating hurricane.”
After watching Duke’s comments, San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz appeared taken aback during an interview on CNN, calling the remarks “irresponsible” and saying they upset and frustrated her.
“Maybe from where she’s standing, it’s a good-news story,” Cruz said. “When you’re drinking from a creek, it's not a good-news story. When you don't have food for a baby, it’s not a good-news story.”
Cruz praised the federal government for getting “boots on the ground,” and she thanked President Trump for calling the capital. But she said the situation in Puerto Rico has worsened as people have struggled to get basic supplies such as food and water.
"Dammit, this is not a good-news story,” Cruz said. “This is a people-are-dying story. This is a life-or-death story. … When you have people out there dying, literally scraping for food, where is the good news?”
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Cruz said it is critical to find an immediate solution: “People will die. People have died.”
As many as seven people are believed to have died in their homes because of lack of oxygen or dehydration, Cruz said. The municipality rescued 11 people from a nursing home with severe dehydration.
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She said there were 3,000 shipping containers in the San Juan port that had not been moved because the gates could not be opened electronically, adding: “I’m sorry, you open the gates and by hand you push everything out.”
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Other than water, fuel remains perhaps the most valuable commodity on the island. Daniel Delgado, a longtime resident of Santurce, a San Juan neighborhood, spent four hours in a line to get one 20-pound propane tank so he could cook dinner for his family.
Delgado doesn’t agree with anyone who chooses to steal, but he sees the logic behind it.
"There’s no help for the poor people, here in San Juan or out in the country,” he said. “If there were help, if someone brought water and fuel, then there wouldn’t be any crime at all. What would you do if you couldn’t work and had no food and your child looks up at you in the evening and said ‘Papi, I’m so hungry.’ ”
Another resident, Liza Rosado, said she was worried about what would happen the longer the outages linger.
"When you take the comforts of life away, people get uncomfortable,” Rosado said. “Then there’s the gas, the water, eventually people are going to get desperate. Even me, I can’t explain it, but I was in the line at Walgreens and I saw a couple walk out with two cases of water. I got jealous, I wanted to know why or how they got so much water.”
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Based on reading and basic disaster response, this is a partial list of what Puerto Rico needs now, particularly due to Trump's delayed response in lifting shipping restrictions, which were quickly lifted to respond to hurricane damage in Houston and Florida:
•clean water for drinking and cooking
•food for adults, children, and infants, and diapers
•shelter (canopies)
•electricity
•fuel for cooking, operating emergency vehicles
•portable lights
•portable phones with emergency numbers programmed already and staffed call centers to deploy resources as needed or direct individuals to public health services
•medical supplies such as oxygen, supplies for diabetes testing and injections, prescription medications (e.g., insulin, medications for blood pressure and thyroid, antibiotics, asthma inhalers, basic first aid, epipens for severe allergic reactions)
•generators for hospital equipment such as dialysis machines
•skilled manpower for clearing dangerous debris, including downed power lines
•safety as law enforcement structures are increasingly scattered and ineffective, particularly in case of shortages
•identify humanitarian health workers who speak the local Spanish dialect to ensure that essential safety procedures are followed for unusual and difficult situations such as appropriate storage of dead bodies to prevent outbreaks of disease.
•health workers can also provide instructions regarding usage of potable and non-potable water, distribution of portable equipment for boiling water and/or chlorine pills for water purification, immediately responding to outbreaks of water-borne disease such as cholera and dysentery by establishing treatment centers and alerting the public to symptoms and location of the centers.
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — The mayor of Puerto Rico’s capital sharply criticized a senior Trump administration official Friday for calling the government’s disaster response “a good-news story,” comments that came amid mounting criticism of the federal reaction to the disaster here.
Trump administration officials have defended the federal effort, with acting Homeland Security Secretary Elaine Duke telling reporters outside the White House on Thursday that the relief effort “is proceeding very well considering the devastation that took place.” She called the federal response “a good-news story in terms of our ability to reach people and the limited number of deaths that have taken place in such a devastating hurricane.”
After watching Duke’s comments, San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz appeared taken aback during an interview on CNN, calling the remarks “irresponsible” and saying they upset and frustrated her.
“Maybe from where she’s standing, it’s a good-news story,” Cruz said. “When you’re drinking from a creek, it's not a good-news story. When you don't have food for a baby, it’s not a good-news story.”
Cruz praised the federal government for getting “boots on the ground,” and she thanked President Trump for calling the capital. But she said the situation in Puerto Rico has worsened as people have struggled to get basic supplies such as food and water.
"Dammit, this is not a good-news story,” Cruz said. “This is a people-are-dying story. This is a life-or-death story. … When you have people out there dying, literally scraping for food, where is the good news?”
----------------
Cruz said it is critical to find an immediate solution: “People will die. People have died.”
As many as seven people are believed to have died in their homes because of lack of oxygen or dehydration, Cruz said. The municipality rescued 11 people from a nursing home with severe dehydration.
----------
She said there were 3,000 shipping containers in the San Juan port that had not been moved because the gates could not be opened electronically, adding: “I’m sorry, you open the gates and by hand you push everything out.”
----------
Other than water, fuel remains perhaps the most valuable commodity on the island. Daniel Delgado, a longtime resident of Santurce, a San Juan neighborhood, spent four hours in a line to get one 20-pound propane tank so he could cook dinner for his family.
Delgado doesn’t agree with anyone who chooses to steal, but he sees the logic behind it.
"There’s no help for the poor people, here in San Juan or out in the country,” he said. “If there were help, if someone brought water and fuel, then there wouldn’t be any crime at all. What would you do if you couldn’t work and had no food and your child looks up at you in the evening and said ‘Papi, I’m so hungry.’ ”
Another resident, Liza Rosado, said she was worried about what would happen the longer the outages linger.
"When you take the comforts of life away, people get uncomfortable,” Rosado said. “Then there’s the gas, the water, eventually people are going to get desperate. Even me, I can’t explain it, but I was in the line at Walgreens and I saw a couple walk out with two cases of water. I got jealous, I wanted to know why or how they got so much water.”
----------
Based on reading and basic disaster response, this is a partial list of what Puerto Rico needs now, particularly due to Trump's delayed response in lifting shipping restrictions, which were quickly lifted to respond to hurricane damage in Houston and Florida:
•clean water for drinking and cooking
•food for adults, children, and infants, and diapers
•shelter (canopies)
•electricity
•fuel for cooking, operating emergency vehicles
•portable lights
•portable phones with emergency numbers programmed already and staffed call centers to deploy resources as needed or direct individuals to public health services
•medical supplies such as oxygen, supplies for diabetes testing and injections, prescription medications (e.g., insulin, medications for blood pressure and thyroid, antibiotics, asthma inhalers, basic first aid, epipens for severe allergic reactions)
•generators for hospital equipment such as dialysis machines
•skilled manpower for clearing dangerous debris, including downed power lines
•safety as law enforcement structures are increasingly scattered and ineffective, particularly in case of shortages
•identify humanitarian health workers who speak the local Spanish dialect to ensure that essential safety procedures are followed for unusual and difficult situations such as appropriate storage of dead bodies to prevent outbreaks of disease.
•health workers can also provide instructions regarding usage of potable and non-potable water, distribution of portable equipment for boiling water and/or chlorine pills for water purification, immediately responding to outbreaks of water-borne disease such as cholera and dysentery by establishing treatment centers and alerting the public to symptoms and location of the centers.
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![:\](https://bluelight.org/xf/BL_Images/Orig_Emoji/wrygrin.gif "wry grin :\")
