Hurricane Maria was a deadly Category 5 hurricane that devastated Dominica, St Croix, and Puerto Rico in September 2017. It is regarded as the worst natural disaster in recorded history to affect those islands and was also the deadliest Atlantic hurricane since Mitch in 1998. The tenth-most intense Atlantic hurricane on record and the most intense tropical cyclone worldwide in 2017, Maria was the thirteenth named storm, eighth consecutive hurricane, fourth major hurricane, second Category 5 hurricane, and deadliest storm of the hyperactive 2017 Atlantic hurricane season.
In 2019 hurricane Dorian also caused huge impact, especially as the available resources to meet such a challenge had been so depleted by the previous catastrophe and its aftermath. The level of depletion was made worse by the inability, or unwillingness of the Trump administration to respond effectively to an extreme weather event caused by climate change and global heating.
Puerto Rico is an unincorporated territory of the United States, but Puerto Ricans were treated by the Federal Government as if they were citizens of another "shithole" country.
In fact, Puerto Ricans have been citizens of the United States since 1917, and can move freely between the island and the mainland.
However, when it comes to political sufferage, because it is not a state, Puerto Rico does not have a vote in the United States Congress, which governs the territory with full jurisdiction under the Puerto Rico Federal Relations Act of 1950. Puerto Rico does have one non-voting member of the House called a Resident Commissioner.
As residents of a U.S. territory, American citizens in Puerto Rico are disenfranchised at the national level and do not vote for the president or vice president of the United States, and only some residents pay federal income tax. Like other territories and the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico does not have U.S. senators. Congress approved a local constitution in 1952, allowing U.S. citizens of the territory to elect a governor. Puerto Rico's future political status has consistently been a matter of significant debate.
Two weeks after Hurricane Maria had battered the people and forests of Puerto Rico US President Trump arrived, and grandstanding as usual.
“It’s now acknowledged what a great job we’ve done.”
Amanda Holpuch in New York and Oliver Laughland in San Juan reported for the Guardian (Wed Oct 4 2017) under the headline:
Speaking at a briefing shortly after his arrival, Trump told local officials: “I hate to tell you, Puerto Rico, but you’ve thrown our budget a little out of whack. Advertisement
“But that’s fine because we’ve saved a lot of lives.”
The president contrasted Puerto Rico’s relatively low official death toll with that caused by Hurricane Katrina, which he described as a “real catastrophe”.
Turning to Puerto Rico’s governor, Ricardo Rosselló, he asked how many people had died in the storm.
“Sixteen,” the governor replied.
“Sixteen versus literally thousands of people,” Trump said. “You can be very proud. Everybody around this table, and everybody watching, can really be very proud of what’s taken place in Puerto Rico.”
This story for the Guardian by Amanda Holpuch in New York (Tue 28 Aug 2018) ran under the headline and subheading:
Hurricane Maria: Puerto Rico raises official death toll from 64 to 2,975
New estimate is based on the finding that the number of deaths from September 2017 to February 2018 was up 22% year on year
Amanda Holpuch writes:
Puerto Rico has raised the official death toll from Hurricane Maria to 2,975 people – a dramatic increase on the previous official figure of 64 – almost a year after the devastating storm struck the island.
The death toll was changed for the first time since December, following the publication of new research by George Washington University’s Milken Institute School of Public Health.
“We never anticipated a scenario of zero communication, zero energy, zero highway access,” Puerto Rico’s governor, Ricardo Rosselló, told reporters. “I think the lesson is to anticipate the worst.”
This is the first official change to the death toll following efforts by journalists, activists and academics to get the government to officially acknowledge the scale of devastation.
Rosselló told reporters the island could have been better prepared for the hurricane, which hit on 20 September 2017, causing an island-wide electricity outage and telecommunications failures that made it nearly impossible for people to contact loved ones and get help for weeks after the storm.
“Yes, I made mistakes,” Rosselló said. “Yes, in hindsight, things could have been handled differently.” Advertisement
Nearly a year on from the hurricane, Puerto Ricans are still struggling and more than 300,000 people have fled the island for the mainland.
Rosselló said the report provided a foundation for the government to improve its response to hurricanes and other disasters. He also announced the creation of a “9/20” commission to determine what such improvements should look like.
Certain populations are identified in the report as being more vulnerable to natural disasters, including people who lived below the poverty level, the elderly and people who have chronic illnesses and need access to medications and medical equipment such as dialysis.
“A lesson from this [report] is that efforts for assistance and recovery need to focus as much as possible on lower-income areas, on people who are older, who are more vulnerable,” said Lynn Goldman, dean of the Milken institute.
The finding is almost twice the government’s previous, unofficial estimate, included in a recent report to Congress, that said there were 1,427 more deaths in the three months after the storm than the average for the same period over the previous four years.
George Washington University researchers found that the number of deaths from September 2017 to February 2018 was up 22% year on year.
The university researchers said the official count from the hurricane, which hit with huge force on 20 September as a series of tropical storms and hurricanes raged through the region, was low, in part, because doctors were not trained in how to certify deaths after a disaster.
Nydia Velazquez, a Democratic New York congresswoman, said the report shows the US government failed the people of Puerto Rico.
“These numbers are only the latest to underscore that the federal response to the hurricanes was disastrously inadequate and, as a result, thousands of our fellow American citizens lost their lives,” she said in a statement. There is no national standard on how to count disaster-related deaths.
The researchers said they counted deaths over the span of six months, a much longer period than usual because so many people were without power during that time.
“That caused a number of issues,” Goldman said, adding that people were forced to exert themselves physically or were exposed to intense heat without fans or air conditioning. “It’s fairly striking that you have so many households without electricity for so long. That’s unusual in the US after a disaster.”
Donald Trump was lambasted for the government’s slow response to the disaster. The president later visited the island and appeared to complain about the cost of relief, while also making a display out of throwing rolls of paper towel to a group gathered to hear his address.
This is the first official change to the death toll following efforts by journalists, activists and academics to get the government to officially acknowledge the scale of devastation.
Researchers said the actual number of excess deaths was estimated to be in the range of 2,658 to 3,290. Researchers said the next stage of assessing the death toll includes examining death certificates and interviewing family and friends of the deceased to determine if those deaths should be attributed to the storm.
He doesn't get it . . .
Lauren Gambino in Washingto reported for the Guardian (Wed 12 Sep 2018) that:
Donald Trump on Tuesday touted the “incredible, unsung success” of the federal response last year in Puerto Rico, where the government estimates nearly 3,000 died as a result of Hurricane Maria.
The president’s remarks drew swift condemnation from the island and the mainland as Trump sought to assure the public that his administration was as “ready as anybody has ever been” for the powerful 500-mile wide Hurricane Florence swirling toward the Carolina coast.
“This is an offensive, hurtful and blatantly false comment from the president,” Senate minority leader Charles Schumer tweeted on Tuesday. “Nearly 3,000 of our fellow citizens died in Puerto Rico following Hurricane Maria. That is the complete opposite of ‘success’.”
Carmen Yulín Cruz, the mayor of San Juan and a fierce critic of Trump, said his comments added “insult to injury”.
She told CNN: “This is a stain on his presidency. He says he’s done a good job when 3,000 people have died? God bless us all if this man continues on this path.”
Bernie Sanders added:“Nearly 3,000 people died. That is not a success. That is a tragedy and a disgrace.”
Trump spoke from the Oval Office, where he was receiving a briefing on efforts to prepare for Florence by Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema) head Brock Long.
Carmen Yulín Cruz tells us that Donald Trump doesn't get it!
In September 2017, in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria, Cruz made frequent appearances on national and international television, criticizing Federal aid efforts for not getting the aid shipments into the hands of the people who needed them, accusing President Donald Trump and his administration of "killing us with inefficiency", and giving pleas for help in numerous media interviews.
At a September 29 press conference Cruz said:
"We are dying here and I cannot fathom the thought that the greatest nation in the world cannot figure out logistics for a small island of 100 miles by 35 miles long... People are drinking off a creek. So I am done being polite. I am done being politically correct. I am mad as hell... So I am asking the members of the press, to send a mayday call all over the world. We are dying here... And if it doesn't stop, and if we don't get the food and the water into people's hands, what we are going to see is something close to a genocide".
Speaking on Fox News, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) director Brock Long responded to Cruz's remarks saying that unity of command was the main thing needed for the relief effort to be successful, and suggested the mayor needed to go to the joint field office and "get plugged in".
Responding to her statements, President Trump tweeted, "The mayor of San Juan, who was very complimentary only a few days ago, has now been told by Democrats that you must be nasty to Trump. Such poor leadership ability by the mayor of San Juan and others in Puerto Rico who are not able to get their workers to help."
Many legislators responded to Cruz's comments and the Trump tweets. Speaking on CNN, Rep. Al Green said that he saw undertones of racism in the President's remarks. "If they were all Anglos, I don't believe the President would have the attitude that he has, because you don't hear that kind of dog whistle, of people not wanting to pull themselves up by their bootstraps, when the people are Anglos. That's something reserved for people of color."
In tweets Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand called Trump's remarks "offensive" and Sen. Ed Markey said that the President needed to apologize to the people of Puerto Rico, saying, "The definition of 'poor leadership' is sitting at your golf club while millions of US citizens beg for your help, @realDonaldTrump."
Sen. Elizabeth Warren said Puerto Rico was in "crisis" and Trump should "stop playing politics with their lives." Rep.
Don Beyer writing the President "focused on aid efforts in TX & FL but ignored Puerto Rico. Now you attack San Juan's mayor for saying 'people are dying.' THEY ARE DYING."
After Maria: the Netflix documentary looking at life after a hurricane
After Maria, a new documentary short on Netflix, balances these simple scenes of love and loss in its small-scale look at the daily instability following a massive disaster – in this case, of Hurricane Maria, which devastated the island of Puerto Rico in September 2017. The film, directed by Nadia Hallgren and produced by Lauren Cioffi, quietly portrays the daily toll of destabilization after the nation’s second-deadliest hurricane decimated the island’s infrastructure, specifically for the more than 300,000 islanders who fled to mainland America. Most specifically, for those who fled to Fema-assisted housing in Hallgren’s hometown, the Bronx.
Significant actors in exposing the true consequences of what is now called the Hurricane Maria death toll controversy included CNN.
In light of mounting evidence contradicting the official government death toll and allegations of a coverup, CNN and Puerto Rico's Center for Investigative Journalism filed three lawsuits against the Government of Puerto Rico in February 2018.
The lawsuits requested the government to release "death certificates and related data". During court hearings, the government argued that at least some information should be withheld over privacy concerns for the dead.
On June 4, Superior Court Judge Lauracelis Roques Arroyo ruled the requested information to be public record and ordered the data to be published within a week. The government filed a motion to delay the release of these records on June 12, citing more time was needed to compile the information due to limited staff and budgeting. However, the court rejected the motion and maintained the original release date.
Accordingly, the Government of Puerto Rico released updated death statistics for the months following Hurricane Maria on June 13. Compared to the average deaths in September to December 2013 – 2016, September to December 2017 had 1,427 excess deaths; however, it is unknown how many of these deaths are attributable to the hurricane. Furthermore, the government acknowledged the death toll was greater than 64 but an official revision would not be made until the results of George Washington University study were published.
On August 9, a draft of a $139 billion funding request to Congress was reported on by The New York Times. A passage in the document read: "According to initial reports, 64 lives were lost. That estimate was later revised to 1,427."
The government noted that a series of "cascading failures" led to the multitude of deaths. The combined effects of Irma in early September and Maria left the entire island without power, the majority without access to clean water, and crippled road infrastructure. The territory's elderly population became especially susceptible to illness and many died as they were unable to receive medical care.
In response to the widespread media publication of this, Héctor Pesquera stated "This is not the official number of deaths attributable to Hurricane Maria." He reiterated that the official toll would not be changed until the release of the George Washington University study. Accordingly, the document in question was adjusted to remove mention of 1,427 deaths.
AXIOS
is an American news website founded in 2016 by former Politico staffers
Jim VandeHei, Mike Allen, and Roy Schwartz. It officially launched in
2017. The site's name is based on the Greek: ἄξιος (áxios), meaning "worthy".
Catch up quick:
Leaked text messages revealed Rosselló and members of his inner circles
making sexist and homophobic comments and mocking victims of Hurricane
Maria, a disaster that killed thousands and caused the longest
electrical blackout in U.S. history. The leak came just days after a
separate incident, in which the FBI arrested two officials from
Rosselló's administration for mishandling government contracts worth
millions of dollars.
AXIOS picked up the story from CNN News and Ray Sanchez's report on July 17 2019 exposing the questionable values of an established conservative political elite.
Puerto Rico's embattled Gov. Ricardo Rosselló is rejecting calls to step down after the leaks of hundreds of derisive and offensive private chat messages between him and members of his inner circle.
The governor and 11 top aides and Cabinet members exchanged profanity-laced, homophobic and misogynistic messages about fellow politicians, members of the media, celebrities and others in a scandal many are calling "RickyLeaks." The messages were sent in December 2018 and January 2019.
"RickyLeaks" because:
Christian Sobrino Vega who was Puerto Rico's chief fiscal officer at the time, made vulgar references to Puerto Rican star Ricky Martin's sexuality.
"Nothing says patriarchal oppression like Ricky Martin," he wrote.
"Ricky Martin is such a male chauvinist that he f---- men because women don't measure up. Pure patriarchy."
Martin and other artists on the island took to social media to condemn Rossello's government and call for his resignation.
Singer Ricky Martin waves a flag as he joins thousands of other people as they fill the Expreso Las Américas highway calling for the resignation of Gov. Ricardo A. Rosselló.
The most shocking exchange of communication was between the Puerto Rico's Governor Rosselló and Sobrino Vega and concerned their hostility to San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz who was a frequent critic of the governor.
In the chat, Christian Sobrino Vega expressed frustration with Yulín Cruz.
"I am salivating to shoot her," he wrote. "You'd be doing me a grand favor," the governor responded, according to the leaked chats. At one point, the governor writes that Yulín Cruz must be "off her meds" by deciding to run against him. "Either that, or she's a tremendous HP," he said, using the Spanish acronym for "son/daughter of a bitch."
Yulín Cruz belongs to the opposition Popular Democratic Party and is running for governor. Sobrino Vega and Secretary of State Luis Rivera Marin, who also participated in the chats, have both resigned.
The AXIOS piece (July 22 2019) includes a section:
What they're saying: A number of U.S. officials have joined calls for Rosselló to resign, both over the profane text messages and his administration's handling of Hurricane Maria. President Trump tweeted on Monday: "A lot of bad things are happening in Puerto Rico. The Governor is under siege, the Mayor of San Juan is a despicable and incompetent person who I wouldn’t trust under any circumstance, and the United States Congress foolishly gave 92 Billion Dollars for hurricane relief, much of which was squandered away or wasted, never to be seen again. This is more than twice the amount given to Texas & Florida combined. I know the people of Puerto Rico well, and they are great. But much of their leadership is corrupt, & robbing the U.S. Government blind!" Reality check: Congress has allocated $42.5 billion in disaster relief to Puerto Rico, not $92 billion.
He still doesn't get it . . .
Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has also called for the governor's resignation, writing: "The people of Puerto Rico have spoken loudly and clearly for the world to hear. We must stand with la isla. Rosselló must resign." Puerto Rican pop culture figures have joined the movement, including Ricky Martin and Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda. "They mocked our dead, they mocked women, they mocked the LGBT community, they made fun of people with physical and mental disabilities, they made fun of obesity," Miranda tweeted."It’s enough. This cannot be."
Then . . . the Earth quakes . . . and resources for relief are further delayed by the Trump administration . . .
Multiple earthquakes have been taking place in Puerto Rico over the last couple of months causing death and destruction and further misery.
Edward Helmore and agencies, reporting for the Guardian (Wed 8 Jan 2020) following the powerful earthquake that hit Puerto Rico on 4 Jan 2020:
Many Puerto Ricans woke up on Wednesday to a second day without electricity after the island’s worst earthquake in a century knocked out power, collapsed homes and killed at least one person.
All schools remained closed and public employees except police and health workers stayed at home as engineers checked the safety of buildings after Tuesday’s 6.4-magnitude quake and powerful aftershocks.
Some Puerto Ricans in the hard-hit south of the island moved beds outside on Tuesday night and slept outdoors, fearful their homes would crumble if another earthquake hit after a week of tremors, the governor, Wanda Vázquez, told reporters.
Nearly 500,000 people had power service restored by Wednesday morning, up from 100,000 the night before, and the island was generating about 542 megawatts of electricity, the power authority AEE said, still far short of the demand of 2,000 megawatts.
The hardest-hit municipality was the south-west coastal town of Guánica. More than 200 people had taken shelter in a gymnasium after a first quake on Monday, only for the latest shake to damage that structure, forcing them to sleep outside.
Among them was 80-year-old Lupita Martínez, who sat in the dusty parking lot with her 96-year-old husband by her side. He was sleeping in a makeshift bed, a dark blue coat covering him.
“There’s no power. There’s no water. There is nothing. This is horrible,” Martínez said.
People rest at a makeshift camp outside their apartment building after an earthquake in Yauco, Puerto Rico.
The US federal disaster agency Fema said Donald Trump had signed an emergency declaration for Puerto Rico because of the quake.
As authorities on the island assessed damage from the latest tremor, Democrats in Congress issued demands that the administration release $8.3bn in disaster recovery approved after the island was slammed by Hurricanes Maria and Irma in 2017.
Democratic 2020 candidates also weighed in with calls for official assistance – and criticized the administration for holding up aid after Maria.
A Fema report into its response to Hurricanes Irma, María and Harvey in 2017, which overall affected 47 million people, concluded the agency needed to improve “overall readiness and resiliency for future incidents”.
In October, the housing and urban development secretary, Ben Carson, was forced to defend the agency against accusations that administrators intentionally missed a legally required deadline that would have given billions in federal housing funds to the island.
“The Trump administration has failed the people of Puerto Rico,” Bernie Sanders said in his tweet, adding: “We must do everything we can to rebuild.”
Joe Biden said it was “unconscionable” that disaster recovery work remained undone and called for delivery of “concrete support” to Puerto Rico.
“I’ll fight to ensure they receive the disaster assistance they need and deserve to recover from these earthquakes,” Elizabeth Warren tweeted.
Pete Buttigieg said Puerto Ricans “must be assured the administration will act quickly”.
Senators Amy Klobuchar and Cory Booker also issued calls for a coherent official response.
About 750 people spent Tuesday night in shelters in southern towns hit hardest by the earthquake. Television images showed flattened homes and apartment buildings with deep cracks running down their exteriors in communities such as Guánica and Ponce.
Bottled water, batteries and flashlights ran low at supermarkets in the capital, San Juan, and long lines formed outside gas stations.
Puerto Ricans are used to dealing with hurricanes but powerful quakes are rare on the island.
“There’s a lot of uncertainty, this is the first time this has happened to us,” said Patricia Alonso, 48, who lost power and water at her home and headed to her mother’s apartment building with her 13-year-old son as it had a generator.
Tuesday’s quake struck at a depth of six miles (10km) at 4.24am near Ponce, the US Geological Survey said.
For a leftist perspective on Carmen Yulín Cruz's part in the current movement to radically change American politics read this article by José Ciro Martínez (03.18.2019) for Jacobin magazine.
Having gained international attention by challenging Donald Trump’s callous response to Hurricane María, is now she’s co-chairing Bernie Sanders’s presidential campaign.
Jacobin is a democratic socialist quarterly magazine based in New York offering American leftist perspectives on politics, economics, and culture. Its paid print circulation is 40,000 and its website draws more than a million and a half views a month as of 2019. Noam Chomsky has called the magazine "a bright light in dark times".
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