Campaign Action People with no drinking water. People with no food. People with no medicine. No dialysis. No insulin. No homes. Water full of feces. No fuel for generators. The mayor of San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz describes the horror: ...
People with no drinking water. People with no food. People with no medicine. No dialysis. No insulin. No homes. Water full of feces. No fuel for generators.
The mayor of San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz describes the horror:
Where the hell is the Army, the Navy, the Marines? Why is there no massive airlift in and out?
WTF is the President of the United States and the Republican controlled Congress doing?
Why the hell is the situation in Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands not being covered round the clock —and at the top of the headlines?
I was looking at the notice to VI from FEMA — I was struck by the announcement that people could register on line. How do you do that if you have no internet? How do you call when phones aren’t working?
This disaster was already brewing with Irma.
Call your Congressperson. Call your Senators. Flood their switchboards the same way people in PR and VI are flooded.
To call your Member of Congress: US Capitol Switchboard (202) 224-3121
To locate your Member on-line: U.S. House of Representatives: www.house.gov U.S. Senate: www.senate.gov
Ask them, “WHAT ARE YOU DOING FOR IMMEDIATE SUPPORT for PUERTO RICO and THE VIRGIN ISLANDS?”
Yes that is bolded and in all caps. Yes, I am shouting.
Watching this nightmare unfold as a person who has worked in public health, who has family and friends in Puerto Rico and the VI, I am not going to stop shouting.
Tweet #SOSPuertoRico
Despierta America. Wake up!
He’s blaming them
More from the article:
[The thread Hillary quoted:]
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En fotos: Así golpeó el poderoso huracán María a Puerto Rico [Univision Puerto Rico, September 20]
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The entire island is without power, a dam is in danger of bursting, and Sunday political talk shows talked about it for less than a minute [Media Matters, September 24]
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Battered Puerto Rico hospitals on life support after Hurricane Maria: “People Are Going to Start Dying” [Reuters, September 24]
Updated 9:35 PM EDT, Mon September 25, 2017
Gov. Ricardo Rosselló said the nation faces a humanitarian crisis. He urged Congress to approve a commensurate aid package as the US commonwealth, already hammered by a prolonged economic crisis, tries to get back on its feet. The governor joined others in emphasizing that Puerto Rico’s residents are American citizens.
“It is as if Puerto Rico got hit with the strength of Irma’s winds, leaving a trail of devastation worse than much of the destruction Irma left in Florida,” said CNN meteorologist Judson Jones. “The rainfall in some areas of Puerto Rico rival the amounts of rain left by Harvey in Houston. And now they are contending with a dam disaster that is reminiscent of California’s Oroville Dam crisis earlier this year.”
The Guajataca Dam in the island’s northwest corner is releasing water after suffering a “critical infrastructure failure” following the Category 5 storm. “Some of the dam has fallen apart,” Rosselló said. “Now we are making sure that we can assess if the other part will fall down as well. It represents a great danger for about an estimated 70,000 people.” Residents below the dam were told to evacuate on Friday, according to the National Guard.
With more than 95% of wireless cell sites out of service, authorities had to physically go to thousands of homes to warn people of the potential collapse.
Without power and communications in much of the island, millions of people have been cut off from the world since Maria hit Wednesday.
After flying over Puerto Rico on Sunday, CNN’s Leyla Santiago said residents could be seen along the highways searching for a cellphone signal. “The island from above is a completely different color” due to the lack of trees, Santiago said, while pools are filled with black water and debris. The storm ripped the roofs of houses, exposing their interiors to the sky, she said.
Authorities who flew over the island Saturday were also stunned by what they saw. Roads are completely washed away and others are blocked by debris, isolating residents. “It was devastating to see all that kind of debris in all areas, in all towns of the island,” Jenniffer González, the island’s nonvoting representative in Congress, told CNN.
A doctor at Canovanas Medical Center – one of the few hospitals with a working generator – said they were running out of fuel to keep it going. Dr. Norbert Seda told CNN that the center only had 2-3 days left of medical supplies and medicine.
None of the three hospitals CNN visited had running water and all said they had just days of supplies left.
