|
Trump agreed to boost federal disaster assistance, ordering
increased funding be made available to assist with debris
removal and emergency protective measures. He also said he would
pay a visit on Oct. 3 to Puerto Rico, as well as to the U.S.
Virgin Islands, a neighboring Caribbean territory struggling to
recover from two major hurricanes in a single month.
Democratic leaders in Congress and some residents in Puerto Rico
have accused the Republican administration of being more
sluggish in its response than it would to a disaster on the U.S.
mainland, even though Puerto Rico's 3.4 million inhabitants are
U.S. citizens.
The criticism was heightened by a series of Twitter messages by
Trump on Monday about hurricane damage on Puerto Rico in which
he also referred to the island's $72 billion debt crisis and
bankruptcy.
"Much of the Island has been destroyed, with billions of dollars
owed to Wall Street and the banks which, sadly, must be dealt
with," he tweeted.
Maria roared ashore Puerto Rico last Wednesday as the most
powerful hurricane to strike the island in nearly a century,
knocking out the territory's entire electrical grid, unleashing
severe flooding and causing widespread heavy damage to homes and
infrastructure.
The storm has claimed more than 30 lives across the Caribbean,
including at least 16 in Puerto Rico.
It was the third major hurricane to hit the United States in
less than a month, following Harvey in Texas and Irma in the
Caribbean and Florida. Maria was downgraded to a tropical storm
on Tuesday, far off the coast of North Carolina.
"We've gotten A-pluses on Texas and in Florida, and we will also
on Puerto Rico," Trump told reporters in Washington. "The
difference is this is an island sitting in the middle of an
ocean. It's a big ocean; it's a very big ocean. And we're doing
a really good job."
Trump visited Texas and Florida after Harvey and Irma. The last
Republican president, George W. Bush, faced widespread criticism
for his administration's handling of Hurricane Katrina, which
killed some 1,800 people in and around New Orleans in 2005.
Bush faced particular ire for saying, at a time when the Federal
Emergency Management Agency was widely seen as having fallen
short in its response, that the then-FEMA head, Michael Brown,
was doing a "heckuva job."
Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said the island needed
1,000 to 1,500 additional security personnel and at least
another 200 generators, as well as fuel for them. He urged Trump
to propose an aid package to Congress in the next day or two.
"With all due respect, President Trump, relief efforts are not
'doing well,'" Schumer said.
GOVERNOR DEFENDS TRUMP
But Puerto Rico Governor Ricardo Rossello, characterizing
Hurricane Maria as an "unprecedented disaster" for the island,
said he was satisfied with the administration's relief efforts
and called Trump's performance "excellent."
"They have responded very quickly," he told Reuters by
telephone, adding that he has spoken often with the president
since the storm hit. He cited swift disaster declarations issued
by Trump and a six-month waiver of FEMA's cost-sharing
requirements.
"He has been very much concerned with the situation in Puerto
Rico," Rossello said of Trump. "But they're conscious we still
need more resources to the island."
U.S. disaster-relief spending sufficient to last through
mid-October has already been appropriated, White House budget
chief Mick Mulvaney said.
"We are picking up most of the cost right now in Puerto Rico,"
he told reporters in Cleveland. "We are not penny-pinching in
any fashion. We are taking care of folks."
The administration has about $5 billion remaining in a disaster
relief fund, and Congress has already approved another $7
billion in funding that will become available on Oct. 1,
according to a House Appropriations Committee aide.
Six days after the storm hit, much of the island remains
inaccessible, communication is difficult and fuel is in short
supply.
U.S. Air Force Colonel Michael Valle, helping with the relief
effort, said supplies have been flowing into the island at the
rate of one airplane load per hour since Friday, but
distribution remained a problem.
About 44 percent of Puerto Rico's population currently lacks
access to clean drinking water, and the majority of the island's
69 hospitals are without electricity or fuel needed for
generators, the U.S. Defense Department said.
FEMA has opened distribution centers in 16 cities in Puerto Rico
and at 12 locations in the Virgin Islands to provide food, water
and other commodities, the agency said, though many residents
were struggling to get basic essentials.
"We've not seen any help. Nobody's been out asking what we need
or that kind of thing," said Maria Gonzalez, 74, in the Santurce
district of San Juan.
Help appeared to be reaching parts of the city, she said,
pointing to Condado, a tourist area powered by generators while
other San Juan streets fall into darkness at dusk.
"There's plenty of electricity over there, but there's nothing
in the poor areas," Gonzalez said.
San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulin Cruz criticized Trump for focusing
on the island's financial woes in his tweets.
"You don't put debt above people; you put people above debt,"
she told CNN.
Officials were still taking stock of what was expected to be a
months-long effort to rebuild the island's power system, and
many residents seemed resigned to a long wait for basic services
to return. But few doubted the U.S. government had the ability
to bring the island back to its feet quickly.
"If they wanted to fix things fast, they could do it," said
Carlos Arias, 41, as he waited in a line of people snaking
around a block in San Juan to fill up a canister with gasoline.
"It's a question of will."
(Reporting by Dave Graham and Robin Respaut in San Juan;
Additional reporting by Roberta Rampton, Steve Holland, David
Shepardson, Idrees Ali, Susan Cornwell, Susan Heavey and Doina
Chiacu in Washington, Laila Kearney and Stephanie Kelly in New
York and Ann Saphir in Cleveland; Writing by Scott Malone and
Steve Gorman; Editing by Frances Kerry and Lisa Shumaker)
[© 2017 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2017 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
|
|
