Almost a month after Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico, the island is still devastated and struggling with inadequate disaster response from the federal government. Time rounds up the numbers:
- More than a third of Puerto Rican households, or about 1 million people, still lack running water according to CNN.
- FEMA says it has distributed 23.6 million liters (6.2 million gallons) of bottled and bulk water in Puerto Rico. That figure includes water for hospitals and dialysis centers
- These deliveries equate to only 9% of the island's drinking water requirement, going by the World Health Organization's (WHO) assessment that each person needs at least 2.5 liters (2/3 of a gallon) per day. Some residents are so desperate for drinking water they have broken into polluted wells at industrial waste sites. [...]
- FEMA says 60,000 homes need roofing help. It has delivered 38,000 tarps.
- According to CNN, FEMA has deployed 1,700 personnel in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, which were also ravaged by Hurricane Maria. That's 900 less that the 2,600 FEMA personnel reportedly still in Texas and Florida, but the agency told CNN that around 20,000 other federal staff and military have been deployed in response to Maria.
A FEMA officer told CNN he doesn’t need reinforcements because too much food and water aid might stop people from shopping at local stores—not that local stores are necessarily stocked with food and water. Armando Valdés Prieto, a former director of Puerto Rico’s Office of Management and Budget writes about the government response, reporting that:
Last week, I interviewed the Aqueduct and Sewer Authority president on San Juan radio station NotiUno. He informed me that of 150 backup generators he had requested from the Federal Emergency Management Agency on the day of the storm to keep potable water flowing into homes, only 17 had been installed in the 20 days that followed. So never mind Trump’s statement on Monday that “Puerto Rico now has more generators, I believe, than any place in the world. There are generators all over the place.”
Related, 20 out of 51 sewage treatment plants are still not functioning, not that your relatives and friends in Puerto Rico can call to tell you about that, since 40 percent still don’t have a cell phone signal.
Rallying with hundreds of people who marched from the Capitol to FEMA on Wednesday,
“We have not forgotten you,” said Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), speaking about Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands as she addressed the crowd outside the Capitol. “You are our brothers and sisters. You are our fellow U.S. citizens. And you are part of our hearts.”
If only the man in the Oval Office agreed.
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