CRISIS/DHS/PUERTO RICO/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “The mayor of San Juan, Puerto Rico, lashed out at acting Secretary of Homeland Security Elaine Duke’s comment that the Hurricane Maria relief efforts are a ‘good-news story,’ saying, that in reality, it’s a ‘people-are-dying story.’
Speaking outside the White House on Thursday [9-28-17], Duke said she is ‘very satisfied’ with efforts to aid Puerto Rico in the wake of Maria, which devastated the island and has created a humanitarian crisis. Duke said, ‘It is really a good-news story,’ an assessment that prompted San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz’s strong rebuttal.
‘Well, maybe from where she’s standing, it’s a good-news story. When you’re drinking from a creek, it’s not a good-news story. When you don’t have food for a baby, it’s not a good-news story,’ Cruz told CNN’s ‘New Day,’ referring to the plight of Puerto Ricans, many of whom have received little or no aid thus far. ‘When you have to pull people down from their buildings — I’m sorry, but that really upsets me and frustrates me. You know, I would ask her to come down here and visit the towns, and then make a statement like that, which frankly, it is an irresponsible statement…
Cruz said earlier on Friday that the issue has not been a lack of supplies but an inability to deal with the logistics of distributing aid on an island that is still largely without power and supplying it to Puerto Rico’s more rural areas. The mayor said San Juan had received three pallets of water — slightly more than 4,000 bottles for a population of roughly 350,000 people — as well as four pallets of food and 12 pallets of baby food and supplies…
Cruz was clear that she remains appreciative of the federal government teams that have arrived on the island to help but that those teams have thus far been insufficient to overcome the logistical hurdles presented by the island.”
-Louis Nelson, “San Juan mayor hits back at Elaine Duke: ‘This is not a good-news story. This is a people-are-dying story.’,” Politico, Sept. 29, 2017 02:57pm