Puerto Rico's disaster -- and Trump's petulant, despicable response to criticism

The Trump administration got pretty good marks for handling the hurricane and flood damage in Texas and Louisiana from Harvey and in Florida from Irma.  Hurricane Maria's utter destruction of the island of Puerto Rico and other islands is another matter.

As reported by the Washington Post and MSNBC:    Over and beyond the vast physical destruction of houses, businesses, and bridges, virtually the entire island is without electric power and may be for months because the complete electric grid will have to be rebuilt.   It's not just some wires down.    Cell phone service is spotty at best, mostly non-existent.  And for days more than half of the 3 million residents were without drinking water, and the food and fuel supplies were dwindling to the point of unsustainability.  

The lack of communication meant that many of the people were isolated in remote areas.  Some inner parts of the island have not been reached by rescue teams even yet, 10 days after the storm passed.  Bridges were destroyed, roads swamped by water, hospitals and nursing homes in dire straits.    Even those with their own generators were running out of fuel.  Sixteen people are already known to have died, but that likely will rise as reports from isolated areas come in.   

Now, remember that Puerto Ricans are U.S. citizens;  they pay taxes.   Beyond the humanitarian crisis that we always want to respond to, we have the responsibility to them just as much as to the people of Texas and Florida.

Initially, even before the storm hit, President Trump was proactive, being in touch with local officials, declaring emergency status, promising assistance.   There were hundreds of shipping containers full of food, water, medical supplies waiting on the docks.

And then the storm hit on Wednesday, Sept. 20th.   Trump flew to his golf club on Thursday to spend the weekend.  And for four days neither he nor any of his top officials made any mention publicly of what was happening in Puerto Rico.   He did hold a meeting at the golf club on Friday with several cabinet officials, including Acting Director of Homeland Security Elaine Duke.   But the topic of the meeting was Trump's new, revised travel ban -- and he and Duke spoke only briefly about Puerto Rico after the meeting.

Meanwhile, Trump had a few other things keeping him busy:   a twitter war with the North Korean leader, another twitter war about NFL players and the national anthem, the final defeat of the "kill Obamacare" effort, and the election loss of the candidate he had supported for Jeff Sessions' senate seat.

Back in Puerto Rico, things were getting worse.   All the food, water, and medical supplies in the containers on the docks -- it was all still just sitting there, not getting to the people who now desperately needed them.   There were no drivers and few trucks.

As reported by the Washington Post, the White House didn't seem to realize that:  "Unlike what they faced after recent storms in Texas and Florida, the federal agencies found themselves partnered with a government completely flattened by the hurricane and operating with almost no information about the status of its citizens.   The Federal Emergency Management Agency struggled to find truck drivers to deliver aid from ports to people in need."

The level of devastation made travel around the island difficult and, in many areas, impossible.   And the lack of help meant that those who would normally have driven the trucks were desperately trying to find water and food for their own families.   So, where FEMA usually would be in a supportive role to help the local state and municipal functions, they were having to step in and actually do those jobs.

They needed far more than the 4,400 manpower to come to Puerto Rico;  they needed the military to come in and take over the response.   Trump and his advisers were slow to understand this.   He was telling the media that their response was "great" and that the governor of Puerto Rico was praising him for the "terrific" response.

That was not what was beginning to show on our news media, as the networks got broadcast capability going.    Trump began to bristle at the negative images that were being shown.  As the week wore on, he began to criticize the local response, comparing them unfavorably to the way people in Texas and Florida responded.                                                        
It took five days after the storm hit before anyone from the White House actually visited the island.   It took a week for Trump to waive the Jones Act, which made it difficult to ship in goods from U.S. ports, using foreign ships.   He gave this lame explanation for the delays:   "Puerto Rico is an island . . .  surrounded by water . . . big water . . . ocean water.   It's a very big ocean."

Yes, Mr. President.    The second graders understand that.   Now please move on to a more helpful response.

As he left for another weekend at his New Jersey golf club on Thursday this week, now the eighth day of the destruction, Trump said this to reporters:

“We have done an incredible job considering there’s absolutely nothing to work with."    This was a slap at the Puerto Rican government and the people.   Rather than speaking about the severe destruction, he focused on how the rebuilding was going to be paid for, given the "tremendous amount of existing debt" on the island.

Finally on Friday, Day #10, San Juan's mayor Carmen Yulin Cruz delivered, via satelite on Rachel Maddow's MSNBC show, an impassioned plea for help.  Her anger at the lack of adequate response, and her anguish at not being able to provide for her people, were vivid and palpable and very moving.    She said, "If anybody is listening, I beg you.   We need help. . . . I am done being polite;  I am done being politically correct.   I am mad as hell. . . . We are dying here.  If we don't get the food and the water into the people's hands, we are going to see something close to genocide."

Trump by now had gotten a report from a staff member who had been to Puerto Rico and from FEMA, and he responded by appointing a three-star general to head up a rescue operation, including military troops, vehicles, helicopters, communications, etc.

But, even while finally doing the right thing, he also let loose on twitter, blaming the local people for their plight and showing contempt for their not being more self-sufficient.   Saturday morning, he tweeted that the mayor and others had displayed "such poor leadership ability."   He criticized them for "not able to get their workers to help.   They want everything done for them."   He also noted that there are now 10,000 federal workers on the "totally destroyed island" and "doing a fantastic job."

He also said:  "The mayor of San Juan, who was very complimentary a few days ago, has now been told by the Democrats that you must be nasty to Trump."   And he took shots at the "fake news" on CNN and NBC that are "going out of their way to disparage our First Responders to 'get Trump'."

It's difficult to find the words for my utter contempt for this man.   Such meanness.   Such smallness of heart.   Trump is the one with "such poor leadership ability."

Former disaster assistance chief in Obama's administration, Jeremy Konyndyk, said he was trying to keep a balanced view of the Trump administration's response, because he knows how hard it is.  But these latest developments, he regards as "disaster management malpractice."

Mayor Cruz's response to the president's attack on her was to say "I don't have time for politics. . . . I have one goal, and it is saving lives.  I will say whatever needs to be said or done to be able to do that."   But, she added, don't take her word for it.    General Buchanan, the newly arrived three-star general, whom Trump has appointed to take charge, has told her that he doesn't yet have what he needs in Puerto Rico to get the situation under control, an implicit distancing of himself from Trump's critical stance.

Apparently, it takes negative media coverage of Trump himself, not of the devastating storm, to get him to act.   Only when he began to look bad on TV -- and when his lies about his great response were exposed -- did he really do the things that a president needed to do.   He's now done what should have been done a week ago, and help is on the way.   But this is going to be his Katrina moment.

Ralph