Everything You Need To Know About The Humanitarian Disaster Unfolding in Puerto Rico Right Now

Less than 300 of the island’s 1,600 cellphone towers are functional, 85 percent of all above-ground cable and phone infrastructure was knocked out, and the more remote areas that make up the majority of Puerto Rico’s landmass have mostly gone dark, with brief calls from satellite phones providing sporadic updates. There’s no way to know for certain how bad the crisis is, and that dearth of information in turn has become part of the crisis itself.

http://theatln.tc/2xvOTrA

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Six days after Hurricane Maria slammed into Puerto Rico, 3.4 million U.S. citizens in the territory remain without adequate food, water and fuel. But as the massive crisis became clear over the weekend, President Trump failed to weigh in, instead lashing out at sports players who joined in protest against racial injustice. It took the president five full days to respond, with comments that appeared to blame the island for its own misfortune. http://bit.ly/2k2zwRS

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We’ll Know Congress Is Serious About Helping Puerto Rico if It Axes This Obscure Shipping Law

The Jones Act is a century-old shipping law that’s often accused of stifling the Puerto Rican economy. Among other things, the Jones Act requires that domestic shipping be conducted by U.S.-owned, U.S.-made ships staffed by American crews. That means, for example, that all food from the mainland—and Puerto Rico imports 85 percent of what it consumes—must be brought in U.S. ships.

Because of the Jones Act, it costs an estimated $3,063 to ship a twenty-foot container of household and commercial goods from the East Coast of the United States to Puerto Rico; the same shipment costs $1,504 to nearby Santo Domingo (Dominican Republic) and $1,687 to Kingston (Jamaica).

In a tacit acknowledgment of the act’s costs, the Department of Homeland Security has suspended the Jones Act in crises. This month, DHS Acting Secretary Elaine Duke signed a suspension of the Jones Act for oil and gas in the Eastern U.S. and Puerto Rico just before Hurricane Irma. (The U.S. Virgin Islands have been exempt since 1922.) That suspension, which was extended after Irma, expired last week.

https://slate.com/business/2017/09/congress-should-waive-the-jones-act-to-help-puerto-rico.html

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What every American needs to know about Puerto Rico’s hurricane disaster

9 essential things to know about Puerto Rico's humanitarian crisis.

#1. 3.4 million US citizens live in Puerto Rico, and they are entitled to the same government response as any state. But half of Americans don’t even know that.

According to a new Morning Consult poll published in the New York Times, only 54 percent of Americans know that Puerto Ricans are US citizens. The poll found 81 percent of those who knew Puerto Ricans were citizens supported sending to aid to the island. Just 44 percent of those who didn’t know said the same.

If Puerto Rico were a state, it would be the 30th most populated — with more people than Wyoming, Vermont, and Alaska combined.

#2. Hurricane Maria was like a 50-mile-wide tornado that made a direct hit on the island.

By the record books, it was the fifth-strongest storm ever to hit the US, and the strongest storm to hit the island in 80 years.

#3. Water, food, and fuel are scarce on the island. The airports are a mess. Power will be out for months in some places.

The storm knocked out 80 percent of the island’s power transmission lines, the Associated Press reports. And as of Monday, nearly all of the island’s 1.57 million electricity customers were still without power. Generators are being distributed to high-priority hospitals, but most homes and businesses are dark.

It could be four to six months before power is restored on the island. That’s half a year with Puerto Rico’s 3.4 million residents relying on generators, half a year without air conditioning in the tropical climate, half a year that electric pumps can’t bring running water into homes, half a year when even the most basic tasks of modern life are made difficult.

No electricity means no power to pump water into homes, no water to bathe or flush toilets. Gov. Rosselló said Monday that only 40 percent of people on the island have potable water.

http://bit.ly/2hvbRbS

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Puerto Rico Right Now: No Water, No Food, No Cash, No Electricity, No Fuel

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• Puerto Rico has ALWAYS been a colony. Some people are just waking up to that fact now. http://wapo.st/2wRIZRT

• Mark Cuban Loaned Mavericks Plane to J.J. Barea for Puerto Rico Hurricane Relief http://ble.ac/2wiDK9B

• Trump defaulted on payments for his Puerto Rico golf course, leaving the territory with a $33 million tax debt http://bit.ly/2yFMVTe

• Trump on challenge sending aid to Puerto Rico: "This is a thing called the Atlantic Ocean” http://hill.cm/zeJXjA9

• Trump on delivering aid to Puerto Rico: "This is an island sitting in the middle of an ocean. It’s a big ocean, it’s a very big ocean." http://bit.ly/2xA2qMm

• White House weeks away from formal funding request for Puerto Rico aid, sources say http://politi.co/2xxSQcB

• Venezuela will send humanitarian aid to Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria devastation http://bit.ly/2yqNTSi

• Federal Relief to Puerto Rico Won’t Include Waiving Law That Drives up Import Costs http://bit.ly/2xuVRgp

• US military says it hopes to co-ordinate 240 airlifts into Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands over the next 24 hours.

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Mayor of San Juan, Puerto Rico, makes desperate plea for help

"I know that leaders aren't supposed to cry...But we are having a humanitarian crisis here," San Juan mayor tells reporter.

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The mayors greeted each other with hugs and tears, and they pleaded with their governor for some of the things their communities need most: drinking water, prescription drugs, gasoline, oxygen tanks and satellite phones. The entire population remains without electricity. Families everywhere are unable to buy food or medical treatment. Roads remain waterlogged, and looting has begun to take place at night.

“There is horror in the streets,” San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz said in a raw, emotional interview with The Washington Post. “People are actually becoming prisoners in their own homes.”

“Whenever I walk through San Juan,” Cruz said, she sees the “sheer pain in people’s eyes. ... They’re kind of glazed, not because of what has happened but because of the difficulty of what will come,” she said. “I know we’re not going to get to everybody in time. ... Two days ago I said I was concerned about that. Now I know we won’t get to everybody in time.”

http://bit.ly/2wiT4mt

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• Hot, isolated, and running out of supplies, parts of Puerto Rico near desperation http://bit.ly/2fnNpVi

• 'It's like the end of the world' inside San Juan's steaming airport https://usat.ly/2fpTPn2

• 5 Things To Know About The Devastation In Puerto Rico http://bit.ly/2wiT4mt

• J.D. Estrada has lots of important current info on Puerto Rico https://www.facebook.com/jdestradawriter/

• While US colony Puerto Rico descends into darkness, China pledges renewed disaster aid to Cuba.

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No drinking water. No food. No medicine. No dialysis. No insulin. No homes. No fuel for generators.

No president.

3.5 million Americans face disease & death in Puerto Rico. What the hell is Trump doing? http://bit.ly/2xvofPh

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Disconnected by Disaster—Photos From a Battered Puerto Rico http://theatln.tc/2huxxol

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• Puerto Rico Is in an Absolute Crisis http://bit.ly/2wSUGb9

• The Law Strangling Puerto Rico http://nyti.ms/2yr0eWw

• Navy hospital ship USNS Comfort not headed to Puerto Rico — yet http://hrld.us/2hyallM

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Amount FEMA has disbursed so far in Puerto Rico: $2.1M
Amount EACH of Trump's visits to Mar-a-lago costs: $3M

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What People Are Saying:

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