The nation’s attention is currently focused on the President Trump vs. sports athletes war, but the attention should be on the people of Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico has been decimated by Hurricane Maria after it barely had time to recover from Hurricane Irma, turning the island into a wasteland of floodwaters and debris. At least ten people have been confirmed dead.
The current description of Puerto Rico is sobering: (H/T: Washington Post)
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.”
Here are five things to know about the current devastation of Puerto Rico.
1. The island has become essentially isolated from the rest of the world. Power outages were already becoming more frequent from the Electric Power Authority, the primary source of electricity on the island, which is $8.3 billion in debt. The situation has severely worsened now that Hurricane Maria has destroyed most of the cell towers and infrastructure on the island, resulting in millions of Puerto Ricans having no power and no way of communicating with the outside world. The only way they can have any sort of contact is if they drive to a cell tower and pray that they can get service. It could be six months before power is fully restored on the island.
San Juan Mayor Cruz told The Washington Post:
A janitor stopped Cruz with a request on Friday: “Tell the world we’re here,” he said, Cruz recounted. “Tell everyone we’re fighting. Tell everyone that can listen that we are going to make it.”
With her voice faltering, Cruz echoed that cry: “If anyone can hear us . . . help.”
“Those are words that no society should have to endure alone or ever,” Cruz said. “What I would ask is not only for Puerto Rico, but for the entire Caribbean that has been hit so hard by this: Do not forget us and do not let us feel alone.”
2. The hospitals are running on fumes. CNN visited three hospitals in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria — none of them had running water; they were running out of supplies and fuel. Reuters described most of the hospitals on the island as “flooded, strewn with rubble and running critically low on diesel fuel needed to keep generators operating.” Officials believe that it will take three weeks for power to be restored to the hospitals on the island.
3. The total amount of economic devastation in Puerto Rico is an estimated $30 billion at minimum, per Reuters. Puerto Rico’s economy had already been declining prior to Hurricane Maria due to the government being on the brink of bankruptcy as it faces $74 billion in debt. Following Hurricane Maria, “Prices on Puerto Rico general-obligation bonds maturing in 2032 fell to 48.6 cents on the dollar as Maria raked the island, down from 55.3 cents last week,” per the Chicago Tribune.
4. Federal aid is on the way. Via CNN:
The Puerto Rico Federal Affairs Administration said 4,000 members of the US Army Reserves have been deployed to the island to help with Hurricane Maria recovery.
“Federal partners are aggressively working to meet and overcome challenges to opening ports and restoring power to bring additional life-saving commodities and personnel into disaster-affected areas,” the Federal Emergency Management Agency said in a statement.
Several flights and sea vessels with meals, water and generators have been arriving or are headed to Puerto Rico and other Caribbean islands affected, the agency said.
Brock Long, the FEMA director, said on Twitter Sunday he would visit Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands on Monday.
Trump, who has dubbed Puerto Rico a “disaster zone,” will eventually visit the island.
5. Officials believe that it could be as long as a year before Puerto Rico is back to normal. The island clearly has a long recovery ahead. In the meantime, the world should focus on how it can help Puerto Rico instead of focusing on athletes’ political opinions.