FEMA are shirking responsibility when it comes to hurricane survivors in Puerto Rico.
Almost three weeks after Hurricane Maria brought devastation to the island of Puerto Rico, people in the town of Aibonito have still not received any food or water from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
The reason?
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FEMA have said it is not their responsibility to distribute food and water to the Puerto Rican survivors, according to a recent report by Rachel Maddow for MSNBC.
Alernet reports: They can’t be serious?! Oh yes, they are.
That was the response Rachel got when FEMA was asked why it has been almost 3 weeks since the last hurricane hit Aibonito, a small town high in the mountains about an hour south of San Juan, and FEMA has yet to deliver a single bottle of water.
FEMA claims the roads aren’t passable, For the record, when I say “about an hour south” I mean Google Maps puts the drive — right now — at 1 hour and 5 minutes if I take the autopista (highway). BUT it also says there are portions of the road that are closed. Soooo you have to take route 173 and that takes 1 hour and 24 minutes. Maybe Google is wrong, right? It would be nice if someone on the ground could actually make the trip…. oh wait… what’s that? The MSNBC film crew already made the trip and it took them “about an hour and a half.”
As the MSNBC video shows, they got there no problem because the road was clear. No bridges out, no trees in the way, no mudslides, no raging rivers. Not even bad hombres. I realize the last menace would be Mexicans and there shouldn’t be any Mexicans clogging up the roads in Puerto Rico right now. But we all know to the Trump Klan, Puerto Ricans are just Island Mexicans, so they probably worry about that sort of thing.
Presented with the fact of Maddow’s team having video evidence directly contradicting their claims, FEMA then dropped this bombshell: Apparently, FEMA says it is the mayor’s job to distribute food and water. They are just there to help people fill out paperwork. Forget the fact that about half of the people in Puerto Rico have no access to clean water. Forget the fact that it is now confirmed that people are dying from waterborne diseases like leptospirosis because they lack potable water. Forget the fact mayors in small towns didn’t even have satellite phones until a couple days ago. Forget the fact mayors don’t have fleets of trucks at their disposal. They sure as hell don’t have gas for the trucks they do have. Oh… and when they do, look out the window because the situation can always change on you. That picture above was from Monday in downtown Santurce, on Fernández Juncos, looking towards Isla Grande airport in Miramar. Good thing FEMA doesn’t have to deal with that. We’d really be screwed.
Maybe it’s just too damn bad. A real tragedy. If only there was something we could do. If only FEMA could help. Yeah, I know. That’s hard to swallow. Especially when FOX News reported THIS about FEMA in Lakeland, FL responding to the crisis following a recent hurricane that hit there
LAKELAND (FOX 13) – People who are worn out from Hurricane Irma are getting help in Polk County.
On Friday, FEMA starting handing out free food and water at 11 different sites around the county, including Victory Church.
A long line of cars formed at 8 a.m., and continued throughout the day. Many of the people who came still don’t have electricity.
The difference? Unlike Aibonito, Lakeland is over 70% white, and that is the darkest part of Polk County. But I’m sure that has nothing to do with it. While we are pretending this isn’t the most racist federal government in 70 years, explain something to me Mike Pence, you shameless hypocrite.
When you stood in a House of God in Puerto Rico and declared from the pulpit after reading scripture:
“We are with you today, we are with you tomorrow.”
