Puerto Rico is nearly 1,000 miles away from the closest U.S. state, and Hurricanes Irma and Maria severely damaged many of its ports. President Donald Trump highlighted the sheer distance of of the commonwealth in a White House appearance Tuesday, saying “it’s the most difficult job because it’s on the island. It’s on an island in the middle of the ocean. It’s out in the ocean. You can’t just drive your trucks there from other states.”
“This isn’t like Florida where we can go right up the spine, or like Texas where we go right down the middle and we distribute. This is a thing called the Atlantic Ocean. This is tough stuff,” Trump lamented, echoing the same concerns of U.S. military officials. Chief of the National Guard Bureau Air Force Gen. Joseph Lengyel told reporters Monday that Puerto Rico only had approximately 1,400 guardsman on the island before the crisis, and that any additional forces must be flown in.
Compounding the distance and the lack of manpower is the sheer level of destruction in Puerto Rico. “80% of the transmission system and 100% of the distribution system are damaged,” the Pentagon said in a statement Tuesday, adding that “approximately 44% of the population is without drinking water” and “eleven of 69 hospitals have fuel or power.”
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5 comments:
3.4 MIILION Puerto Rican's think that all we have to do is just bring them everything they need and rebuild everything they own RIGHT NOW.
RIGHT NOW.
Now, they really have a good reason to not pay bills. Now, the American taxpayers rebuild their island (OUR island) AND will erase their 70 BILLION dollar debt.
Getting ready to go from a tin roof shack to a 3 bedroom brick house.
Why didn't Trump just make the hurricane go north?
1:41. Many US based Pharmaceutical and manufacturing companies have factories on the island and employ 100's of thousands Puerto Rican workers. These workers have been paying Federal taxes for years and are just as American as you or me.
Puerto Rico has four airports, The Marine Corps has the Super Stallion helicopter, Put 16 of them on a ship, send 4 to each airport, problem solved!
what about dropping it from planes?? hell don't we have drones that can do that now
3:55....no they don't.
"hundreds of thousands"??? I doubt if there are "hundreds of thousands" of Puerto Rican's working anywhere.
Who said they weren't Americans?
If you want to tell the TRUTH, then admit that Puerto Rico is a drug running heaven and even the government admits that their society is quickly succumbing to crime and violence of the drug trade.
Unemployment is VERY high and they have ran their TERRITORY into the dirt from corruption and mismanagement.
THAT is the truth.
I was busting on their laziness and demand that everyone stop what they are doing and rescue them, as if their problems were more important than anyone else.
Remember that after Hurricane Sandy hit, there were (oh no!!) thousands of people in NEW JERSEY (not an island out in the Atlantic) went without power for several weeks. The government can't save everyone from everything. EVER.
Thanks, though, for trying to act as if YOU had worldly knowledge that rest of us never knew or learned.
Fail.
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