[Updated x4] Puerto Rico Hurricane Recovery Effort
Wouldn't it be great if our esteemed thinkers put their minds to solving the logistics problems facing distribution of aid in Puerto Rico instead of engaging in endless circle jerks about this being "Trump's Katrina"? How about focusing on what's needed and writing and calling our elected reps and the business community to keep things moving?
Puerto Rico's aid is trapped in 9,500 shipping containers
A mountain of food, water and other vital supplies has arrived in Puerto Rico's main Port of San Juan.
But a shortage of truckers and the island's devastated infrastructure are making it tough to move aid to where it's needed most. Only 20% of truck drivers have reported back to work since Hurricane Maria swept through, according to a representative for Puerto Rican Gov. Ricardo Rosselló.
On top of that, a diesel fuel shortage and a tangle of blocked roads mean the distribution of supplies is extremely challenging. Even contacting drivers is a problem because cell towers are still down.
Source: CNN
They need truck drivers. Which of the editorialists is contacting trucking companies in the mainland US to recruit volunteer drivers?
They need diesel fuel. Who at Exxon and our other big oil companies is handling Puerto Rico relief efforts? Exxon sends tankers full of diesel fuel worldwide every day. How about diverting some to Puerto Rico?
Net exports are on track to hit another record in 2017, making foreign fuel markets increasingly important for the future growth prospects and profit margins of U.S. refiners.
In Europe, U.S. shipments of diesel rose to nearly 500,000 bpd in June, according to traders, well above flows that have rarely exceeded 370,000 bpd since July 2015. -- Reuters
Those are just two ideas. Other ideas and plans are needed to get crews in to rebuild the airtport and clear roads, provide helicopters to deliver aid to remote areas, ship in construction crews to rebuild roads, etc.
The Jone's Act Political Football
President Trump recently waived the Jones Act requirement of using only American flagged ships for transport between US ports after taking a lot of heat on the issue. Turns out that new liberal hero Senator John McCain and others are using the Jones Act as a political cudgel to bash Trump and demonize US labor unions.
President Trump bowed to critics of his Puerto Rico relief efforts Thursday and said he would waive the 1920 Jones Act, which says that all shipments between two U.S. ports must be carried on U.S. flag vessels.
But U.S. shipping executives and unions say the move won't speed the delivery of relief to the island after the devastation of Hurricane Maria because there were already more than enough U.S. flag vessels to handle relief supplies.
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), a longtime advocate of repealing the Jones Act restrictions, wrote a letter to the Department of Homeland Security saying, "I am very concerned by the Department’s decision not to waive the Jones Act for current relief efforts in Puerto Rico, which is facing a worsening humanitarian crisis following Hurricane Maria."
Source: Washington Post
US Military Efforts
[Note the reference to Titile 10 in the following article. That's the US law governing use of active and reserve military forces for domestic operations. All such uses must be requested by the state governor and coordinated with state (or territory, in this case) National Guard troops.]
In Puerto Rico, response operations continue as synchronization of efforts between the Title 10 forces, Puerto Rico National Guard and FEMA improve. Fuel distribution remains the top FEMA priority. Multiple DoD elements delivered fuel and continue route clearance operations. Fifty nine of 69 hospitals are operational with unknown status. Roughly 44 percent of the population remains without drinking water. The San Juan Airport and nine other airports are open. Three seaports are open and five are open with restrictions.
A joint Army National Guard and Marine expeditionary unit team is providing first responder movement, commodities and fuel distribution, and route clearance in Puerto Rico. The team established Roosevelt Roads Airfield as an Installation Staging Base; available for 24/7 hurricane relief and commercial operations. The MEU is also moving Department of Health and Human Services assessment teams, via helicopter, to hospitals across Puerto Rico to determine medical requirements.
Source: DoD Officials Provide Update on Hurricane Relief Efforts
Send In The Seabees?
Some have suggested sending in the famed Navy Seabees to aid in disaster relief.
We have the world’s most capable military that can and have built working bases on remote islands under hostile fire. And that was 75 years ago! Who did this? Who can still do this? The United States Naval Construction Battalions. That name may not ring a bell, but you’ve heard of them. They are legendary as the “Can Do” Seabees.
Call, email, tweet or all of these to your Representatives, Senators and the President now. Tell them to suspend the budget squabbling and treat the emergency in Puerto Rico with the urgency it deserves. Get the Seabees, the Army Corps of Engineers, and every other military asset that can make a difference to that island as fast as they can deploy. Worry about Puerto Rico’s finances some other day. American citizens are in danger… and that’s what really matters.
While there are no announced plans to send the Seabees to Puerto Rico (many of them are already deployed in various places around the world), the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) does have more than 750 personnel currently engaged in Puerto Rico. [EdG note: As an Army vet, I say "Go Army Engineers!!"]
On the other hand, there once WERE Seabees stationed in Puerto Rico. They left when protests about the Vieques bombing range brought about closure of the naval base. The property is now a civilian airport.
After Closing of Navy Base, Hard Times in Puerto Rico
A year after the Navy left Roosevelt Roads Naval Station [where Seabees were stationed in Puerto Rico], taking with it 6,000 jobs and an estimated $300 million annually, Ceiba, Puerto Rico is struggling as businesses close, unemployment rises and residents leave the town of 18,000.
Source: NY Times
Congress Finally Acts On Funding
On the defensive over the pace of federal help for Puerto Rico, President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans cleared the way Thursday for more supplies and government cash for the hurricane-ravaged U.S. island.
Trump waived federal restrictions on foreign ships delivering cargo. And House Speaker Paul Ryan said the Federal Emergency Management Agency's disaster relief account will get a $6.7 billion boost by the end of the week. Trump and his advisers, meanwhile, defended the administration's response to the devastation on the island, which was hit by Hurricane Maria Sept. 20 with many people left desperate for power, food and other supplies.
Ryan, meanwhile, said a "huge capital injection will occur in two days" to help Puerto Rico recover. He noted Trump had waived a matching funds requirement, which means the cash-strapped island won't have to contribute to the initial costs of the federal assistance. The Wisconsin Republican said he expects the Trump administration to send Congress a request for a long-term recovery package once damage assessments are conducted.
Source: Trump, Ryan clear the way for gov't cash to Puerto Rico
Comments
It's a matter of if tptb want to help PR
Berlin, Florida, Houston were a necessity, PR
not so much.
Whatever happened to our vaunted military, chinooks
and parachutes don't work in PR?
Why was Cuba ready for Maria but the good ol us not?
Debt have anything to do with it?
I never knew that the term "Never Again" only pertained to
those born Jewish
"Antisemite used to be someone who didn't like Jews
now it's someone who Jews don't like"
Heard from Margaret Kimberley
Not sure anyone would want to parachute . . .
. . . into a tangle of wires and snapped timber, but your point is sound.
There are complaints about insufficient drivers, about blocked or washed-out roads, about the missing cellphone towers for communications. None of that stops military folks, who are on our bases or in the reserves, are trained to improvise and use radios and tractors until the bulldozers and cellphones are on-site and working.
Airlifting the initial teams into designated sites across the island in Bell helicopters to start setting up distribution points, cut trees off the roads, and let the locals know where they'll be getting stuff for a while, then airlifting fuel and supplies in (and medical-needs citizens out) with bigger choppers, shouldn't be all that unusual for Seabees or other military units. They'd also have well-established teams and leadership at the platoon level to man each outpost.
This does, nevertheless, fall on Trump's shoulders, as CinC. It is Trump's disinterest (or worse) that is behind the failure to get such teams on-site and operational immediately. It's not like Americans haven't done this kind of thing before. Think of the Berlin Airlift. Think of how quickly a forward base could be set up in 'nam under enemy fire. We were capable of doing this stuff. And ask any grunt now: we're still capable of this stuff, maybe more so. It's the will at the top, from the guy who claims to want to make America great again, that is making us smaller.
smaller
Just like his, er, hands, yeah, that's it!
"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar
"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides
Recent update from DoD
DoD Officials Provide Update on Hurricane Relief Efforts
Sounds like they're doing everything you suggested.
Thanks for the wonderful elaboration
of how PR could be helped if only
tptb wanted to.
Trump only cares about, adjectives, everything
else is way above his paygrade.
I never knew that the term "Never Again" only pertained to
those born Jewish
"Antisemite used to be someone who didn't like Jews
now it's someone who Jews don't like"
Heard from Margaret Kimberley
Heard a press conference on this topic--the General
in charge of ground forces in Puerto Rico has not recommended airdrops, as of early this afternoon. If he does, Homeland Security says they will follow the recommendation.
Just a note, members of the WH Press Corps [as a whole] are absolutely ignorant of how the military functions, therefore, they totally lack understanding of what is transpiring, or why.
Which is not to say that they don't serve any useful function, in regards to calling attention to the needs of the islanders. They do.
Still, most of them--with the possible exception of military correspondents, who don't normally serve in the WH Press Corps--have absolutely no (military) institutional knowledge; so, I take their reporting with a huge grain of salt.
Mollie
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Taro
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4 comments? That's it? smdh :(
I'm so very sorry, edg.
I stand shamed. I also apologise, personally, for what I said earlier today!