FEMA Blamed Delays in Puerto Rico on Maria; Agency Records Tell Another Story : NPR
This got fumbled so badly one is tempted to assume deliberate planned malice. Well if you are at all like me that’s probably a little well justified anger getting ahead of the fact finding. It is fair to say the President and his administration, cabinet included ignored the scope of the problem and that cost thousands of lives. Lives that had a fighting chance given rapid aid. Like tarps and blankets and generators. All items that can be found in the millions in the USA. When the military wants to move massive aid that’s ready to load, it does so. But if the pallets are not there, the plane sits. Full of those “thoughts and prayers” offered up by those that failed to act.
Is this criminal neglect? I mean that in the actionable, impeachable sense of the term. High crime?
“If there’s a villain here, it’s the 190 mph winds and the 50 inches of rain,” Byrne said. “That’s the villain. That’s what did the damage to the people. We’ve done nothing but try to remedy that.”
Still, as NPR and Frontline traveled the island in the months after the storm, it was clear many of the problems were man-made.
In Luquillo, Mayor Jesus Rodriguez said he had been waiting more than two months for FEMA to provide just seven generators that would power the town’s water pumps. He said he couldn’t understand what could hold up such a critical request in a town that had no running water.
“Water is life,” he said, frustrated.
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