Via Instapundit: Col. Valle is a firsthand witness of the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) response supporting FEMA in Puerto Rico, and as a Puerto Rican himself with family members living in the devastation, his passion for the people is second to none. “It’s just not true,” Col. Valle says of the major disconnect today between the perception of a lack of response from Washington verses what is really going on on the ground. “I have family here. My parents’ home is here. My uncles, aunts, cousins, are all here. As a Puerto Rican, I can tell you that the problem has nothing to do with the U.S. military, FEMA, or the DoD.” . . .
“The aid is getting to Puerto Rico. The problem is distribution. The federal government has sent us a lot of help; moving those supplies, in particular, fuel, is the issue right now,” says Col. Valle. Until power can be restored, generators are critical for hospitals and shelter facilities and more. But, and it’s a big but, they can’t get the fuel to run the generators.
They have the generators, water, food, medicine, and fuel on the ground, yet the supplies are not moving across the island as quickly as they’re needed.
“It’s a lack of drivers for the transport trucks, the 18 wheelers. Supplies we have. Trucks we have. There are ships full of supplies, backed up in the ports, waiting to have a vehicle to unload into. However, only 20% of the truck drivers show up to work. These are private citizens in Puerto Rico, paid by companies that are contracted by the government,” says Col. Valle.
“The aid is getting to Puerto Rico. The problem is distribution. The federal government has sent us a lot of help; moving those supplies, in particular, fuel, is the issue right now,” says Col. Valle. Until power can be restored, generators are critical for hospitals and shelter facilities and more. But, and it’s a big but, they can’t get the fuel to run the generators.
They have the generators, water, food, medicine, and fuel on the ground, yet the supplies are not moving across the island as quickly as they’re needed.
“It’s a lack of drivers for the transport trucks, the 18 wheelers. Supplies we have. Trucks we have. There are ships full of supplies, backed up in the ports, waiting to have a vehicle to unload into. However, only 20% of the truck drivers show up to work. These are private citizens in Puerto Rico, paid by companies that are contracted by the government,” says Col. Valle.
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7 comments:
A few thoughts:
I believe that guy, because he sounds like an engineer looking at the problem. He's not blaming anybody but the people trying to blatantly mischaracterize the problem for political gain. He understands the human nature of those impacted, and that they naturally will take care of family first and others later. He points out that sending more people to help won't help, because they just add to the burden. His final summation is simple, it will take time.
It's a sad situation. Houston, which was nowhere nearly as badly hit or isolated, took nearly two weeks for normal logistics to come back. Houston roads weren't destroyed and 95% of the area had power. And the recovery is still ongoing. Most, definitely not all, areas are just passed the point in which the debris piles have been removed. That has freed up room for the deliveries of sheetrock, flooring, and other items for repairs. Again, this is Houston, not Puerto Rico. Beaumont is still in worse shape than Houston, and it is a lifetime ahead of Puerto Rico in recovery.
Amazing that this article is published in Huffington Post.
When your home is trashed, it may be difficult to get into work. How many roads have washed out? And there may be fraud and no show jobs involved too.
I suspect it is a complicated mess.
As bad as Puerto Rico is right now post Maria, it is still better than Haiti (without a hurricane)
Or the Ozark Mafia.
Actually, the problem is crooked politics. Crooked Democrat politics.
Evi L. Bloggerlady said...
When your home is trashed, it may be difficult to get into work. How many roads have washed out
The roads, power grid, etc. have been in bad shape for quite a while.
Geraldo Rivera gets to the bottom of the problem... though you could say he's biased because he was a Trump apprentice...
https://twitter.com/hrtablaze/status/914323547979264000
Anyone familiar with military logistics will understand.
You need ships with stuff. You need port facilities and longshoreman to unload the ships. You need warehouses or someplace to store the stuff.
You need trucks with gasoline and drivers. You need people to load the stuff on trucks. And finally, you need unblocked roads and bridges over unfordable waterways.
Everyone of these is a bottleneck and if don't have them all, the supplies won't get through
And apparently the lack of unblocked roads or even roads and bridges existing, seems to be the problem. And for those that like to take advantage of crisis, the time to fix those problems gives them more time to profit on the suffering of others.
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