The Mayor was having none of it.
San Juan’s mayor said there’s “no time for politics” in Puerto Rico’s recovery efforts from Hurricane Maria, hours after getting blasted by President Donald Trump on Twitter.Yep. Say anything critical of Trump and you get a tweet-storm of insults.
“I have only one goal, and it is saving lives,” Carmen Yulin Cruz, mayor of Puerto Rico’s largest city, said in an interview with Bloomberg. “I will say whatever needs to be said or done to be able to do that. There should be no distractions. There’s no time for anything else.”
Earlier on Saturday, Trump said on Twitter that Cruz and others in Puerto Rico had displayed “such poor leadership ability” in being “not able to get their workers to help.”
“They want everything to be done for them,” Trump said. He also suggested that Cruz had been told to criticize the president by “the Democrats” after earlier praising the relief efforts.
Puerto Rico's electrical grid and telephone networks were demolished. Which means that people can't use the internet or make calls. But if they need to apply for help from FEMA, guess how that has to be done.
Puerto Rico was hit by two Cat 4/5 hurricanes in short order. Even a place with the best infrastructure would be demolished by such a double-tap. Puerto Rico, like a lot of places, had problems. Whether governmental or private, utilities always seem to skimp on the maintenance that would make them more resilient.
If you live in an area where trees grow, go around some time and pay attention to the trees growing near utility lines. Are the limbs growing through the lines? Are there very old trees that are not in good health right next to the lines? If any of that is true, then a strong storm, be it a thunderstorm, a blizzard or a hurricane, will bring the lines down. A blizzard or even a tropical storm can result in people not having power for a week or more. Two major hurricanes, nearly back-to-back, wreak devastation.
Such devastation isn't repairable by a bunch of snarky tweets from the World's Oldest Toddler. Recovery after such a massive scale of destruction will require dedication and concentration, two qualities that Trump does not have to any appreciable degree. And when the people who are suffering are not of his base (wealthy or white), then expect Trump to not bother to even give an impression of caring.
On another note, this is probably the first hint of adult-grade behavior from any Trump official:
The U.S. is communicating with North Korea about its nuclear program and testing Pyongyang’s appetite for negotiations, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said in the first public acknowledgment by a senior administration official of direct contact on the matter.What would help somewhat would be if Trump grew up. But that's never going to happen.
...
In a mild rebuke to Trump, Tillerson said the most important thing at this point is to ease the rhetoric and tension on the peninsula, because the situation is “a little overheated right now.” Asked if Trump should tone down his comments, Tillerson didn’t answer directly.
“The whole situation is a bit overheated right now,” he said. “Everyone would like for it to calm down. Obviously it would help for North Korea to stop firing off missiles. That would calm things down a lot.”
When the stories of avoidable deaths start coming out and getting laid at Donnie's feet, maybe he'll see his absurd statements about how great FEMA is doing in Puerto Rico weren't such a good idea, but I doubt it.
ReplyDeleteWithout diesel, the trucks that could be used to repair some of the power grid can't go anywhere. Ditto the tree clearing crews. I fail to believe we can't get diesel to Puerto Rico when we get it to Afghanistan.
ReplyDeleteAnd right on cue, Fergus tweeted that Tillerson shouldn't "waste his time talking to little rocket man."
Whether the state department will ignore said tweets and keep doing its damn job remains to be seen.
-Doug in Oakland
Without roads you can't drive the damned trucks. Where are the helos?
ReplyDeleteFirst like other have pointed out its a 100 hour sail for most boats to get there
ReplyDeleteand over 1200 miles to fly from florida who also got hit and is not at capacity.
That its finally there and going is something in itself.
OK, helos can't land everywhere. They are legion for being weight limited. Hand but they also require fuel (JP4) and they burn a lot of it (figure 800 pounds per hour per engine or about 140 gph).
So what they need is the D-Day style and scale of Corps of engineers making roads and bridges and infantrymen clearing the roads. Once you can move then fuel trucks beyond what's needed to supply the bridge builders and road clearing gangs can come through. Then there needs to be a what to dispense fuel to the needed services (police, fire, power, sanitation utilities). Once there is transport system is working then food and water can be delivered and dispersed. While that is happening a system using easy technologies for AM radio (information to the masses)
and collecting information (ham radio, GMRS, MURS, MIL radio) and getting it routed so the needy and the supply are connected. Its my understanding there are 10,000
troops there now and more likely to arrive and Corp of Engineers too. They need a little time to organize figure out whats working and what is not and take action to make stuff happen. People that fight wars understand the logistical issues when that many people, machines, and the unknown tasks are involved.
Right now the airports are overstocked with stuff and limited ability to move it out... same for the docks but that required clearing the harbors and marking the channels to be able to bring in ships.
Communications is flat out broken save for a few AM stations that are running on '
whatever fuel they can find a few PR hams. ARRL (Hams) put out a call for 50 to go there and setup packaged stations (radios, digital interfaces, gensets, Solar panels, batteries, antennas, computers, paper and pencils) to create and connect a local network to move information.
It is a massive task, and it starts with the locals making plans to start that up
and figure out what happens if something like this should happen. Its not limited to the Mayor its a larger group of people that know what to do, who to contact, and maybe even how, if SHTF. That requires training and to the level of people in the street. The plan can assume they are not doing it alone but the result are better and faster if there is a plan to try and follow. One thing they could have is SAT-phones as they work if people are trained to have them and how best to use them.
The double tap is unusually bad but they are far from immune from tropical storms and hurricanes. A plan for the worst make the usual events possible to manage and gives a structure for those left after the rare one. It may very well happen again why not plan and build for it.
If I were younger I'd be there myself trying to help.
Eck!
Doug, Trump is not quite right in the head.
ReplyDeleteFor choppers, a few LPD's could provide bases for distribution. Surely there are a few on the East coast, that should have been underway almost immediately (just checked, 4 LPD's on the East Coast). Then you stage the supplies out of the International Airport perimeter area with helos to the stationed ships. Surely we could fly a couple of KC-10's in there and defuel to storage to provide critical mission fuel?
ReplyDeleteAs Lt. Gen Honere said, deploying Special Forces the day after it passed would have alllowed instant communications with all the major population centers, and establishment of base points with supplies. The locals can help clear/repair the roads once they know they have food and water, until then, survival in the heat and humidity means doing little during the day, and a lack of electricity means the same at night.
Eck, are you a ham? You're saying things in a tongue I understand and have experienced.
ReplyDeleteLRod
K4QG
ZJX, ORD, ZAU retired
Don't to land the helos to deliver supplies. This sort of thing has been done before.
ReplyDeleteLRod, I am a ham, and if things were different I would also go. But first, those that do go must be self sustaining. That means that they cannot be dependent on others for food and water, or they become part of the problem and not part of the solution. So while it sounds great to want to help, common sense says to hold off on simply going there to repair roads and facilitate communications. There are many in the retired military, who bear the name special in their operational title, who are preparing as we speak, to head into the area, as soon as they are able to be sure that they will not be a burden on what few resources are there. That means that they are bringing their own food, water or water filtering equipment, and security needs with them. They are going to help set up communications, help to direct the best way to start getting the flow of supplies throughout the island, and attempt to help make some start of an inroad into normality for those in the outer areas once again. What they are not going to do is to attempt to take over things that are not their jobs, like the political business, or the law enforcement, except for their own protection, or that of those who they are in close contact with. Their mission is strictly humanitarian. I know some of these things from a couple of friends who are retired military, and also medical personnel who are taking time off to go help. One of them was also involved with the earthquake in Haiti several years ago, which turned out to be a fiasco. This promises to be much better, or he would not be involved at all. Let us hope that politics doesn't make this a mess, and the people who are in such dire need are helped, and sooner rather than later.
ReplyDeleteLRod,
ReplyDeleteYep, engineer, ham and also former land mobile coms and now antenna designer commmercial, mil and even TLAs.
Much of that is also studying military and both France and Italian campaigns were
notable in that who had supplies was able to take punishment and still dish it out
double. PR is all about process and logistics. And unfortunately time.
Eck!