The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) said this week that millions of water bottles meant for victims of Hurricane Maria have been left undistributed at an airport in Puerto Rico for more than a year.
CBS News journalist David Begnaud reported on Wednesday that FEMA acknowledged that loads of water bottles were brought to the island in 2017 in the wake of the hurricane and that it turned them over to the “central government.”
However, a photographer working for a Puerto Rican police agency, Abdiel Santana, noticed that the water was still sitting at the airport runway one year later, according to Begnaud.
“FEMA says the water, and we’re talking what could be millions of bottles of water were brought to the island by FEMA last year. FEMA tells me the water was turned over to the central government,” Begnaud said in a video posted on Twitter Wednesday night.
No, no, no… President Trump said the effort was “incredibly successful”, and that “Puerto Rico was actually our toughest one of all, because it’s an island, so you can’t truck things onto it, everything’s by boat. It was one of the best jobs that’s ever been done.”
And yesterday Rick Santorum called Puerto Rico a country and blamed them for the inadequate response.
That story is an onion with many layers.
Case of government employees with the intellectual capacity of slugs? Incapable of seeing a big stockpile of water and taking the initiative to do something with it?
“Deep state” government employees with an agenda to sabotage the administration? Willing to sacrifice the well being of victims of a natural disaster for political purposes?
Abundance of caution? Bottled water has “Best used by date” out about 2 years. Actually the shelf life is indefinite, assuming it has been stored in a cool & dark environment. Sitting out in the sun under plastic tarps on a tarmac does not seem to be optimal storage conditions.
jjf is trolling again. What a surprise.
Time to chase John Foust off this site.
Wonder if Mickey O’Leary is doing anything useful.
This is all on the pathetic liberals running this backward island.
Once again k falls prey to the forces of ideology versus evidence.
Looks like more of a local problem, foreseen a year ago.
https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/09/28/554297787/puerto-rico-relief-goods-sit-undistributed-at-ports
Nord,
So NPR is “fake news” now?
How left wing lunatic does your news have to be?
How predictable. The White Nationalist troll nitpicking Kevin’s comment.
Die soon, Boomer. Social Security depends on it.
Empathy expected soon from Barack Obama. Keeping track of the differences between states and territories (“an organized division of a country that is not yet admitted to the full rights of a state.”) (and countries) can be hard.
“… it is just wonderful to be back in Oregon, and over the last 15 months we’ve traveled to every corner of the United States. I’ve now been in fifty …. seven states? I think one left to go. One left to go. Alaska and Hawaii, I was not allowed to go to even though I really wanted to visit but my staff would not justify it.” Barack Obama, May 2008
Yup, blame it on pathetic liberals rather than the hurricane.
“Diesel is short. Drivers are scarce. And authorities say some roads are still impassable, although local officials dispute that explanation.”
Yet the San Jose mayor managed to get custom-made Trump-bashing t-shirts.
Go back to gumming dinner, gramps.
Oh. The San Jose mayor is under federal investigation for her misconduct and corruption.
Maybe the FBI should look into the corruption of a white nationalist grampa in the 715…
Nord,
If “diesel is short”, “drivers are scarce”, who’s fault is that?
As a local official, I would get public works people to drive the relief trucks, fire department (they have trucks), I would drive myself if needed.
I would also call White House personally to get a diesel tanker, rather than sit on disaster supplies.
Pathetic liberal governance whines it cannot be done, rather than doig it!
Nord,
You went from claiming no evidence, to quoting an excuse for the problem….without apology for your disrespectful and dishonest stance.
How ideologically blind are you?
Don’t worry, the free market will solve the problem.
Mark, do you think a former senior lecturer on constitutional law believes there are 57 states? Do you think he meant forty-seven?
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/57-states/
What do you think of Trump’s assessment of the relief efforts in Puerto Rico?
And “noted futurist” is just a fancy term for soyboy creeper.
JJf,
Free market does not exist on this backwards Marxist, liberal, island. That is the problem!
So we should invite them to become a state, right, and it’ll improve their politics and economy?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_Puerto_Rico
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pamelyn_Ferdin
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Restraining_order
When Puerto Rico’s progressives and pro-independence factions won their “victory” back in the early 2000s to deny the U.S. Navy the use of Camp Garcia and the Vieques firing zones they sure didn’t think things though. Without the Vieques Range there was no longer any reason to maintain a presence at the Rosy Roads Naval Station/Naval Air Station at Cieba.
Aside from the economic impact of a consolidated base (airport/seaport) closing, they gave away the ability of the U.S. military to provide disaster relief on a scale only the U.S. military can provide. They had an airbase they didn’t have to maintain that could handle the largest cargo aircraft we have and more than adequate port facilities, also not their responsibility to maintain. When our military gets involved in disaster relief they bring their own gear, nobody asks how much it costs, and nobody ever gets a bill.
Apparently it didn’t dawn on those enlightened progressive and independent-minded Puerto Ricans that they lived in hurricane ally and now the nearest help would be 1,000 miles away.
Heard from a native Puerto Rican (yesterday’s radio) that there are two parties in PR: the Bernie Sanders-model party, and the Hillary Clinton-model party.
Those poor inhabitants are doomed.
Jjf,
You don’t reform oppressive Marxists by inviting them into the castle.
You let them show you they have given you their liberal evil first.
“Given up”
k:
Puerto Rico is a US territory, and it’s residents are US citizens. They are no more Marxist than you are. Once again you make outrageous statements and claims about folks that have opinions different than yours.
>US territory…US citizens. They are no more Marxist than you are.
Isn’t Marxism an ideology? What does the nationality and current geophysical location have to do with a person’s or collective group’s ideology?
Another whopper from Average Leroy.
Nord,
Did I dispute they are U.S. citizens? or PR being a territory of U.S.?
When I say “invite them into the castle”, I mean statehood.
They need to clean up their oppressive Marxist act first and embrace the values that made this country great: God, the free market, and freedom.
I consider San Francisoc a disgusting Marxist territory as well, but wish their wa some way to throw them out of the castle. their brand of liberalism is a cancer from within. Fortunately, Frisco is largely a benign wart on the butt (California) of the U.S.
As usual, Nordski doesn’t argue the point.
The US citizens who occupy P.R. may or may not be Marxist. But we know for damn sure that their elected representatives ARE–by and large–Marxist.
I wonder if their politics have anything to do with their being a US territory for the last 120 years. Kevin, do you think their history encouraged dependency or independence?
Looks like the residents have voted twice for statehood (2012, 2017) yet Congress has failed to act. Can’t blame the residents. And I don’t think you’ll have much success with the Constitutionality of requiring your version of god as a precursor to statehood.
Perhaps we should support them declaring independence. From a U.S. viewpoint, our need for a remote territory to project our national interests has diminished with the progression of technology. If we don’t want them as a state, we should liberate them from the yoke of American oppression.
The 2012 referendum had 54% of those who voted disagree with a continued territorial status, but a significant number of those voters failed to answer a second question asking about a new model. That is not the same as a 54% vote for statehood and left Puerto Rico’s officials without a reliable measure of clarity.
The 2017 referendum listed three options of which statehood garnered a 97% share of those voting, but only 23% of registered voters bothered to participate. Again, Puerto Rico’s officials were left with no clear direction.
Blaming Congress for Puerto Rico’s own citizens not being able to come to a clear consensus on their vision for Puerto Rico’s destiny is blame misplaced. You can certainly understand their uncertainty due the fact that they’ve been somebody’s colony for the past 500 years, but it should be nobody’s decision but theirs to make. After 500 years what’s the rush?
k:
Once again you exhibit your intolerance for those with opinions differing from yours. Is Intolerance 101 a required class at your voucher schools? Obviously grammar, spelling and punctuation aren’t.
“I consider San Francisoc a disgusting Marxist territory as well, but wish their wa some way to throw them out of the castle. their brand of liberalism is a cancer from within. Fortunately, Frisco is largely a benign wart on the butt (California) of the U.S.”
Nord,
Just looking for the cure to the cancer of liberalism.
I am a good guy that way.
Yup, that wart (SF) and those liberals are making money hand over fist out there. Isn’t that what you are all about?
Mixing capitalists in with the Marxists is how we cure cancer.
Back on your silly pills again? Is that your fall back when your argument disintegrates?
No silly pills.
Just advocating natural cures for liberal economic cancer.