Donald Trump has come in for some criticism for calling out some
Puerto Rican politicians who are claiming the federal government isn't doing
enough to help the stricken island.
Trump claims the government is doing plenty. And he's right. It
turns out that the disaster relief for Puerto Rico is on the island. But at the
moment, 10,000 containers of food, water, medicine, and other supplies are
sitting on the docks and at airports waiting to be delivered to those who need
it.
CNN reports that the problems are many; lack of truck drivers,
blocked or washed out roads, and a curious lack of coordinated action by local
governments.
A mountain of food, water and other vital
supplies has arrived in Puerto Rico's main Port of San Juan.
But a shortage of truckers and the
island's devastated infrastructure are making it tough to move aid to where
it's needed most, officials say.
At least 10,000 containers of supplies --
including food, water and medicine -- were sitting Thursday at the San Juan
port, said Jose Ayala, the Crowley shipping company's vice president in Puerto
Rico.
Part of the reason for the distribution
backlog is that only 20% of truck drivers have reported back to work since
Hurricane Maria swept through, according to a representative for
Puerto Rican Gov. Ricardo Rosselló.
On top of that, a diesel fuel shortage and
a tangle of blocked roads mean the distribution of supplies is extremely
challenging. Even contacting drivers is a problem because cell towers are still
down.
"When we say we that we don't have
truck drivers, we mean that we have not been able to contact them,"
Rosselló said.
On Thursday the White House
authorized a
10-day waiver of the Jones Act, a federal law that limits shipping to US
ports by foreign vessels. Puerto Rico's governor and other US officials had
argued that a waiver would expedite supplies to the island.
But as Ayala has indicated, shipping
companies already have aid and supplies either waiting at the port to be
delivered -- or held up at ports on the US mainland.
Of the 3,000 containers that Crowley alone
had sent to San Juan's port as of Wednesday, only 4% had been dispatched from
there, Ayala said.
Ayala said the company can't get enough
truck drivers or trucks filled up with diesel to pick up supplies for
distribution across the island.
"The problem has been with the
logistics, the parts of the supply chain that move the cargo from our terminal
to the shelves or to the tables of the people in Puerto Rico," Ayala said
Wednesday. "This hurricane was catastrophic."
Meanwhile, Puerto Ricans are waiting hours in line to get gas,
food and cash. Gas stations and supermarkets are rationing supplies, while
banks are running low on cash.
It should be noted - and never is
- that the road network in Puerto Rico is similar to that of a third world
country. Transportation infrastructure was horrible
before the hurricane and has only gotten worse in the aftermath. Paved roads
are blocked with trees, debris from the storm, and downed power lines. Dirt
roads, of which there are many, have been washed away or are a sea of mud.
Who is responsible for all those containers still sitting on the
docks? Obviously, local governments should have been better prepared to receive
the aid and distribute it. Why didn't the loud mouth mayor of San Juan have
truck drivers waiting in the wings to distribute the food? She couldn't foresee
the cell towers being blown over? She couldn't imagine blocked roads?
I suppose FEMA could have hired 20,000 truck drivers and sent them
to Puerto Rico, but with the roads impassable, how would the aid have reached
those in need?
The exact same situation was present in the aftermath of hurricane
Katrina. Convoys of thousands of trucks containing relief supplies were
backed up to Fort Worth, TX, according to a statement by FEMA at the time that
appeared in the New Orleans Times-Picayune (link broken.). It's not
that the response by the feds was totally inadequate. It's that the devastation
was so severe and so widespread, that many of the roads and bridges leading
into New Orleans were blocked or washed out.
We didn't use to politicize hurricane relief efforts. It was
assumed that everthing that could be done was being done. At least, we assumed
that when Bill Clinton was president.
Now, of course, the goal is to get Trump any way possible. The
president is making it ridiculously easy for the media to pile on, as he has
turned his statements and tweets - delivered from a golf course - into boosting
his administration's image.
As much as the media has politicized the response to the disaster,
Trump has gone them one better.
