San Juan, Puerto Rico - The mayor of
Puerto Rico's hurricane-battered capital spoke on Friday of
thirsty children drinking from creeks. A woman with diabetes
said a lack of refrigeration had spoiled her insulin. An
insurance adjuster said roads have virtually vanished on parts
of the island.
In enumerable ways large and small, many of the 3.4 million
inhabitants of Puerto Rico struggled through a 10th day with
little or no access to basic necessities - from electricity and
clean, running water to communications, food and medicine.
Carmen Yulin Cruz, mayor of Puerto Rico's capital, San Juan,
gave voice to rising anger on the US island territory as she
delivered a sharp retort on Friday to comments from a top Trump
administration official who said the federal relief effort was a
"a good news story."
"Damn it, this is not a good news story," Cruz told CNN.
"This is a people-are-dying story. This is a life-or-death
story."
Acting U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Elaine Duke, head of
the parent department for the Federal Emergency Management
Agency (FEMA), said on Thursday she was satisfied with the
disaster response so far.
"I know it is really a good news story in terms of our
ability to reach people and the limited number of deaths that
have taken place in such a devastating hurricane," Duke said.
Paying a visit to Puerto Rico on Friday for an aerial tour
of the island with Governor Ricardo Rossello, Duke moderated her
message, telling reporters she was proud of the recovery work
but adding that she and President Donald Trump would not be
satisfied until the territory was fully functional.
Maria, the most powerful storm to strike Puerto Rico in
nearly 90 years, has killed at least 16 people on the island,
according to the official death toll. More than 30 deaths have
been attributed to the storm across the Caribbean.
Rossello has called the widespread heavy damage to Puerto
Rico's homes, roads and infrastructure unprecedented, though he
has praised the U.S. government's relief efforts.
Cruz, appearing in a later interview, bristled at
suggestions that the relief effort had been well-coordinated.
"There is a disconnect between what the FEMA people are
saying is happening and what the mayors and the people in the
towns know that is happening," Cruz, who has been living in a
shelter since her own home was flooded, said on CNN.
Wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with the words: "Help us. We
are dying," Cruz said she was hopeful the situation would
improve, but added, "People can't fathom what it is to have
children drinking from creeks, to have people in nursing homes
without oxygen."
'WE ARE ALONE'
The mayor of San Germán, a town of about 35,000 in the
southwestern corner of the island, echoed Cruz's harsh words.
"The governor is giving a message that everything is
resolved, and it is not true," Mayor Isidro Negron Irizarry said
in Spanish on Twitter. "There is no functional operations
structure. We are alone."
Trump, who was scheduled to visit next week, addressed the
situation before a speech in Washington about his new tax plan.
"The electrical grid and other infrastructure were already
in very, very poor shape," he said. "And now virtually
everything has been wiped out, and we will have to really start
all over again. We're literally starting from scratch."
Colonel James DeLapp, the Army Corps of Engineers commander
for Puerto Rico, told CNN that rebuilding the island's crippled
power grid was a massive undertaking.
"The closest thing we've had is when the Army Corps led the
effort to restore Iraq's electricity in the early stages of the
Iraq war in 2003 and 2004," he said.
Further complicating recovery is a financial crisis marked
by Puerto Rico's record bankruptcy filing in May and the weight
of $72 billion in outstanding debt.
"Ultimately the government of Puerto Rico will have to work
with us to determine how this massive rebuilding effort, which
will end up being one of the biggest ever, will be funded and
organized, and what we will do with the tremendous amount of
existing debt already on the island," Trump said.
'ONE OF THE LUCKY ONES'
In Old San Juan, the capital's historic colonial section,
customers lined up on the sidewalk outside Casa Cortes ChocoBar
cafe for sandwiches and coffee, being handed out from a small
window between plywood planks clinging to the exterior wall.
"We're one of the few restaurants that have a generator,"
said Daniela Santini, 19, who works there. "Most businesses
don't have electricity, only some have water. We're one of the
lucky ones."
Nancy Rivera, 59, a San Juan resident who suffers from
diabetes, was forced to go without her medication by a lack of
electricity. "I stopped using the insulin in my refrigerator.
It's too warm," she said.
Ground transportation, hampered by fuel shortages and
streets blocked with fallen vegetation and utility wires,
remained a major challenge.
"You can't see the roads," said Alvaro Trueba, a regional
catastrophe coordinator for property insurer Chubb Ltd, who told
Reuters that adjusters face difficulties driving about the
island.
More troops, medical supplies and vehicles were on the way
to the island, but it will be some time before the U.S.
territory is back on its feet, the senior U.S. general appointed
to lead military relief operations said on Friday.
"We're certainly bringing in more," Lieutenant General
Jeffrey Buchanan told CNN on Friday, a day after he was
appointed by the Pentagon.
The hardships on Puerto Rico have largely overshadowed
similar struggles faced by the neighboring U.S. Virgin Islands,
slammed by two major hurricanes - Irma and Maria - in the span
of a month.
Most of St. Croix, the largest of the three major islands in
that territory, remained without electricity and cellular
communications nine days after Maria struck. Shelters were still
packed and long lines stretched around emergency supply centers.
At one such facility, anguished residents pleaded for more
than the single sheets of plastic tarp that National Guard
troops were handing out.
Meanwhile, the insurance industry was tallying the mounting
costs of Maria, with one modeling firm estimating that claims
could total as much as $85 billion.
Rossello told CNN on Friday the federal government has
responded to his requests and that he was in regular contact
with FEMA's director, though more needed to be done.
"We do have severe logistical limitations. It has been
enhancing, but it's still nowhere near where it needs to be,"
Rossello said.
Asked how long it would take for Puerto Rico to recover,
Buchanan, the general leading the military effort, gave a slight
sigh and said: "This is a very, very long duration."