It's getting crazy in San Juan. At least the mayor is getting crazy. Carmen Yulin Cruz, the mayor of the Puerto Rican capital, yesterday accused President Trump of "genocide" on the island. It really makes me wonder what she is doing.
Let's take a look at some of the genocide.
1. Since Hurricane Maria destroyed most of the island, massive federal aid has gone to Puerto Rico. As I write this, there are more than 20,000 federal employees from FEMA, the military and elsewhere actively working to help those on the island.
2. Yesterday, at the request of President Trump, the House voted another $36 billion for disaster relief which will go to help those hurt by the hurricanes. This is not the final amount; it is just the next installment of aid which has already totaled over $20 billion. The Senate is likely to approve the same bill by Tuesday.
3. The magnitude of the help given to Puerto Rico is no less than that given in Texas or Florida, but the nature of the destruction is different. In the Houston area, there were communities that were flooded, but there were also neighboring areas that survived with relatively little damage. The same was true in Florida. This meant that survivors could be housed in shelters in nearby undamaged areas. On Puerto Rico, the whole island was smashed by the storm. Over 95% of the power grid was destroyed. Nearly every road on the island was blocked and most of the bridges were damaged or destroyed. That meant that there were no places to move survivors in need of shelter. Nothing that FEMA could have done would have prevented this outcome.
4. Because the power grid was basically destroyed rather than damaged, it is a slow process to put a new one in place. Even so, there is now more than 25% of the island with power, and that number should begin to increase in a faster pace over the next two weeks.
5. The biggest immediate problem after the storm was that as aid poured into the island at the ports (mostly in San Juan), it piled up due to a lack of trucks and truck drivers. The local governments that would normally handle this aspect of the relief failed in their basic responsibility to disseminate the aid. Translation: the biggest culprit in the mess in Puerto Rico was the mayor of San Juan herself and her government which failed to deal with the port problem. The military had to be brought in to take control of the port mess and clear it up (which was done well once that happened.)
6. There is little that could be done which isn't being done as I write this.
This has been a massive effort. Calling it an uncaring "genocide" is not just wrong; it is delusional.
Since the hurricane, the governor of the island has been hard at work on disaster recovery. He is a Democrat and was, in fact, a Hillary Clinton delegate to the last national convention. Nevertheless, he has been able to work well with the federal government and the President. His latest move has been to try to crack down on local politicians who have been accused of hoarding relief supplies and giving them only to their supporters and friends. He has coordinated well with FEMA and the federal effort. The loud mouth mayor of San Juan, however, has made her principal effort since the storm to complain about inadequate responses from the federal government. As of ten days after the storm, however, she had yet to even visit the FEMA headquarters in San Juan to arrange for coordination of the relief efforts of her city with the larger federal and island-wide efforts underway. She did have time, however, for a whole host of TV appearances to make unfounded charges.
Yesterday, president Trump said that FEMA and other federal efforts cannot continue forever. That's true. It is not a threat to pull federal workers out of Puerto Rico tomorrow or soon. It is a warning to the island leaders that they better get themselves set up so that they will be able to take over more and more responsibilities as the federal effort inevitably winds down in the future. Some people say that this statement is the basis for the mayor's crazy "genocide" charge, but she said it before the President made his statement.
Because this is an anti-Trump statement, the media is loving it and repeating it. That doesn't make it true, however. It is outrageous, false and even disgusting.
Let's take a look at some of the genocide.
1. Since Hurricane Maria destroyed most of the island, massive federal aid has gone to Puerto Rico. As I write this, there are more than 20,000 federal employees from FEMA, the military and elsewhere actively working to help those on the island.
2. Yesterday, at the request of President Trump, the House voted another $36 billion for disaster relief which will go to help those hurt by the hurricanes. This is not the final amount; it is just the next installment of aid which has already totaled over $20 billion. The Senate is likely to approve the same bill by Tuesday.
3. The magnitude of the help given to Puerto Rico is no less than that given in Texas or Florida, but the nature of the destruction is different. In the Houston area, there were communities that were flooded, but there were also neighboring areas that survived with relatively little damage. The same was true in Florida. This meant that survivors could be housed in shelters in nearby undamaged areas. On Puerto Rico, the whole island was smashed by the storm. Over 95% of the power grid was destroyed. Nearly every road on the island was blocked and most of the bridges were damaged or destroyed. That meant that there were no places to move survivors in need of shelter. Nothing that FEMA could have done would have prevented this outcome.
4. Because the power grid was basically destroyed rather than damaged, it is a slow process to put a new one in place. Even so, there is now more than 25% of the island with power, and that number should begin to increase in a faster pace over the next two weeks.
5. The biggest immediate problem after the storm was that as aid poured into the island at the ports (mostly in San Juan), it piled up due to a lack of trucks and truck drivers. The local governments that would normally handle this aspect of the relief failed in their basic responsibility to disseminate the aid. Translation: the biggest culprit in the mess in Puerto Rico was the mayor of San Juan herself and her government which failed to deal with the port problem. The military had to be brought in to take control of the port mess and clear it up (which was done well once that happened.)
6. There is little that could be done which isn't being done as I write this.
This has been a massive effort. Calling it an uncaring "genocide" is not just wrong; it is delusional.
Since the hurricane, the governor of the island has been hard at work on disaster recovery. He is a Democrat and was, in fact, a Hillary Clinton delegate to the last national convention. Nevertheless, he has been able to work well with the federal government and the President. His latest move has been to try to crack down on local politicians who have been accused of hoarding relief supplies and giving them only to their supporters and friends. He has coordinated well with FEMA and the federal effort. The loud mouth mayor of San Juan, however, has made her principal effort since the storm to complain about inadequate responses from the federal government. As of ten days after the storm, however, she had yet to even visit the FEMA headquarters in San Juan to arrange for coordination of the relief efforts of her city with the larger federal and island-wide efforts underway. She did have time, however, for a whole host of TV appearances to make unfounded charges.
Yesterday, president Trump said that FEMA and other federal efforts cannot continue forever. That's true. It is not a threat to pull federal workers out of Puerto Rico tomorrow or soon. It is a warning to the island leaders that they better get themselves set up so that they will be able to take over more and more responsibilities as the federal effort inevitably winds down in the future. Some people say that this statement is the basis for the mayor's crazy "genocide" charge, but she said it before the President made his statement.
Because this is an anti-Trump statement, the media is loving it and repeating it. That doesn't make it true, however. It is outrageous, false and even disgusting.
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