Hurricane Maria

[skatesindreams]

Trump lauds his handling of Maria; gives his response "a 10".
http://www.cnn.com/2017/10/19/politics/puerto-rico-governor/index.html

I'm sure that our friends on the ground have something to say about that.

Our local reporter is returning to PR, today.
I wonder what she will find.

 

[Fridge_Break]

Trump lauds his handling of Maria; gives his response "a 10".
http://www.cnn.com/2017/10/19/politics/puerto-rico-governor/index.html

I give him a 10 too. As long as it's on a scale of 1,000. Even that might be kind of generous.

 

[MacMadame]

I give him a 10. On the scale of incompetence, he's actually probably an 11 but I was feeling generous.

 

[Vash01]

Trump lauds his handling of Maria; gives his response "a 10".
http://www.cnn.com/2017/10/19/politics/puerto-rico-governor/index.html

I'm sure that our friends on the ground have something to say about that.

Our local reporter is returning to PR, today.
I wonder what she will find.

DT is shameless, as always.

 

[Vagabond]

Whatever happened to 6.0?

 

[skatesindreams]

Reality in Puerto Rico:
http://www.cnn.com/2017/10/20/us/puerto-rico-one-month-santiago/index.html
http://www.cnn.com/2017/10/18/us/puerto-rico-numbers-by-the-numbers-four-weeks-trnd/index.html

Veterans act as volunteer first responders:
http://www.cnn.com/2017/10/19/us/puerto-rico-veteran-volunteers/index.html

Our local reporter will be submitting extensive reports after she returns, next week.

 

[ilovepaydays]

One America Appeal, started by the five former U.S. Presidents, had their fundraiser concert today for hurricane relief for Texas, Florida, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. They have raised $31 million so far.

Click here to see the concert. The five presidents (Carter, Bush-41, Clinton, Bush-43, and Obama) are on stage and speaking together at about 1:37:40 if anyone wants to skip to that.

 

[skatesindreams]

Our local reporter will be submitting extensive reports after she returns, next week.

Here is some footage from Nancy Alvarez; WFTV, Orlando:
https://www.facebook.com/NancyAlvarezWFTV/videos/1855385101157477/

 

[Buzz]

Tesla's solar power arrives Puerto Rico.

Mr Musk's firm, Tesla, has set up solar panels and energy storage batteries at Hospital del Nino, a children's hospital in San Juan.

The batteries will provide energy from the panels when sunlight is scarce.

Tesla said on Twitter this was the "first of many" such projects going live.

Mr Musk has also donated $250,000 (£190,000) of his own money to support humanitarian efforts in Puerto Rico, where many people are still without electricity.

http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-41747065

 

[skatesindreams]

The challenges continue:
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/24/...nalia&src=me&version=spotlight&pgtype=article

 

[Vash01]

Whitefish Power, a small company in Montana has signed a contract to restore power in PR. I read about this yesterday but I don't have the link.

 

[skatesindreams]

More reality in Puerto Rico:
http://www.cnn.com/2017/10/27/us/puerto-rico-uncounted-deaths-isabel-rivera-invs/index.html

 

[Vash01]

More reality in Puerto Rico:
http://www.cnn.com/2017/10/27/us/puerto-rico-uncounted-deaths-isabel-rivera-invs/index.html

The horror of it all is that the deaths were not even counted, so 'someone' can brag that 'only' xxx people died due to the hurricane.

I know doctors have to make some tough decisions in difficult situations and this hurricane really forced them to decide where their limited resources should be used. Truly a life or death decision that no one should have to make. They were put in this situation partly by the hurricane but to a large extent by the lack of help from our government.

 

[skatesindreams]

I'm sure that there will be many more such deaths; even if the government doesn't acknowledge them:
http://www.cnn.com/2017/10/27/healt...rosis-victim/?iid=ob_article_footer_expansion

 

[Vagabond]

Zinke says he had ‘absolutely nothing to do with’ Puerto Rico contract

Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke on Friday said he had “absolutely nothing to do” with Puerto Rico awarding a small, for-profit company from his hometown a $300 million contract to repair the island’s electrical grid in the wake of Hurricane Maria.

"Any attempts by the dishonest media or political operatives to tie me to awarding of influencing any contract involving Whitefish [Energy Holdings] are completely baseless. Only in elitist Washington, D.C., would being from a small town be considered a crime,"

And I am the reigning King of England.

 

[ballettmaus]

Funeral directors have come forward and it looks like the death toll could be well over 900 911 bodies were cremated without a government ME looking at the bodies since the Hurricane. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/w...erritory-power-shortages-energy-a8027886.html

What kind of person do you have to be to sweep hurricane deaths under the rug (and deny families federal relief aid)?

 

[Jimena]

I'm not a fan of the PR government (did not vote for our governor in the last election) and I do know for a fact that there are elements within it that are very keen on hiding information. But I think what has been revealed by both the Whitefish contract and the inability to count our dead accurately is a previously unimaginable level of incompetence. We have been receiving Preparedness funds for 16 years now and what needed to get done never got done. I should know. I was assigned to the preparedness program at the PR Dept of Health. The politicking with those funds was painful.

The other part of this that is specially painful to watch is our "leadership" groveling to keep Trump happy because of fear of the possibility that he will pull the funding and the help. I don't think our governor is particularly corrupt, but he is woefully unprepared for something like this. And he picked the wrong people to lead crucial agencies. So he's incompetent. That's the bottom line.

I don't know how the PREPA director and the Secretary of Health (not to mention the State Epidemiologist) still have jobs. The Secretary of Public Security (a new department) has been terrible. Honestly, this experience should make me a libertarian. There is no point in having a government if it's this incompetent.

As for me, we are doing as well as we can be. I don't have electricity but I have a generator. My mom has power. My daughter's going to school. I'm working full time. We are, sadly, getting used to this way of life. We are going to Florida for Thanksgiving and I'm really looking forward to that.

Sigh. This all just makes me so incredibly sad.

 

[skatesindreams]

Thank you, for updating us; and providing a first-hand account of what is happening, Jimena.

 

[Buzz]

Thank you for checking in and letting us know how you and your loved ones are doing @Jimena. My heart goes out to all of Hurricane Maria's victims.

 

[Vash01]

Jimena, thank you for giving us the update. It must be so frustrating to see the incompetence of the authorities. At least you are safe, but this is such a bad situation for all of you!

 

[skatesindreams]

I'm glad that you will have a respite in Florida.

 

[Buzz]

An update on how repairs of PR power grid is going. Apparently Puerto Rico's authorities don't know who has power and who don't.
http://www.cnn.com/2017/11/03/us/puerto-rico-power-investigation-santiago/index.html

 

[skatesindreams]

This should raise spirits in Puerto Rico; even if it's a year away:
https://twitter.com/i/moments/928320243327471616
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/08/...date&nl_art=4&nlid=69275138&ref=headline&te=1

 

[skatesindreams]

As long as FEMA doesn't use the "airlift" as a reason/excuse to lesson relief efforts on the island:
http://www.cnn.com/2017/11/09/us/fema-puerto-rico-transport/index.html

 

[skatesindreams]

More about Lin-Manuel Miranda's efforts:
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/lin-manuel-miranda-brings-help-hope-to-puerto-rico/

On Hamilton:

On Wednesday, he announced he'll return in the lead role in "Hamilton" for a three-week run at the University of Puerto Rico in January 2019.

"It's weird; just yesterday the Smithsonian announced that I donated my act two costume to the Smithsonian. I need it back!" he laughed. "Just three weeks!"

"Aren't you too young to be donating things to the Smithsonian?" Begnaud laughed.

"Well, yeah, I think so too."

Thousands of tickets will be sold for just $10, though more expensive travel packages will be offered for sale to help bring tourism back to this home away from home.

 

[skatesindreams]

A long-term consequence is only beginning:
https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/11/...l?smid=fb-share&referer=http://m.facebook.com

 

[skatesindreams]

What kind of person do you have to be to sweep hurricane deaths under the rug (and deny families federal relief aid)?

The latest on this:
http://www.cnn.com/2017/11/20/health/hurricane-maria-uncounted-deaths-invs/index.html

 

[Meredith]

Thanks for sharing the CNN article. I was apart from the net for 2 weeks and am still catching up with the news.

 

[skatesindreams]

Teams of Spanish speaking technicians from Florida are still working double (16 hour) shifts to rebuild the infrastructure and restore power.
They report that the citizens of each town are cheering them.
They plan to remain as long as necessary

 

[skatesindreams]

The holiday effect:
http://www.cnn.com/2017/11/23/us/puerto-rico-hurricane-maria-holidays/index.html