Things are going great in Puerto Rico... according to some guy

[USincognito]

This is apparently making the rounds in the Conservisphere.

Wayne Beech

PRES. TRUMP & PUERTO RICO

.....''In case you were wondering if President Trump is doing “enough” for Puerto Rican hurricane relief...this is from a Puerto Rican friend...

My parents live on the island. They've been without power since Sept. 20th. The response from the US government has been PHENOMANAL.

First, President Trump declared Puerto Rico a "State of Emergency" BEFORE Maria hit.

My father, who lives across the street from Isla Grande Airport, says that US Marines' choppers have been coming in & out for the past 5 days or so, dropping off relief. Air traffic was non-functional right after the hurricane, so many relief flights could not land. It is now open to mostly relief-related flights.

The US Coast Guard is patrolling the San Juan Harbor. They are the ones who let in the freighters. Only certain freighters can dock in at certain times (due to lack of docks and piers), so they are taking turns. Luxury yachts and the like are NOT being let in -- only relief cargo! There are 16 US Military ships deployed to PR right now.

FEMA has had a presence since DAY ONE and there are about 6 million bottles of water on the island right now. Geraldo Rivera was complaining today that telephone poles were still down - but that's not a priority right now, Gerry! Food, Water & Gasoline is Priority Number One!

Companies like Claro are setting up Fiber-Optics & Wi-Fi service. Puerto Rican electric utility workers are getting help from workers coming in from the mainland, but the US cannot do everything in a span of a month. It will take months and possibly years.

Donald Trump is a great humanitarian & is doing a great job but the Liberal Media is either ignoring this huge effort or attacking it."

....Adapted from & thank you to Rob Weiss....​

 

[Saucy]

I think what's going on is there is a huge obstacle getting aid in, but they are there and have been there. The problem is, because of those obstacles, not everyone there has been able to receive the amount of help others have.

That means there are mixed messages coming out of Puerto Rico. You have the governor saying one thing, and a mayor saying another. You have reporters there saying things are running smoothing, you have reporters saying people are dying. It's chaos and hard to tell at this point.

 

[miamited]

Hi usincognito,

Yes, I imagine that Donald Trump's [bless and do not curse][bless and do not curse][bless and do not curse][bless and do not curse] has been warmed up enough to be set on fire by now. I do believe that a lot is being done and that's a good thing. Most people are more upset about the things that Trump says rather than the things that Trump does. After all, he's actually been fairly ineffective in 'doing' the things that he's 'said'. That's not all bad either from where I stand.

I lived in south Miami-Dade county when hurricane Andrew passed through and I can relate to the people of Puerto Rico. It's a long and arduous task, but it has always been the nature of the people suffering such natural calamities to complain about the response of government. When Andrew went through there was a lot of complaining and when Katrina went through there was a lot of complaining. People who find themselves in such uncomfortable circumstances want life to be the way it was before the calamity within a couple of days of such calamity and that's just not possible through human endeavor.

I lived in a fairly regular neighborhood in south Miami-Dade county and it took six weeks for the power to be restored to my neighborhood. Thousands of line poles had been broken and blown over and miles and miles of lines had to be restrung after new poles were put up. All of that takes time. The National Guard set up roadblocks for all the main arteries going into the devastated area, which was about 20 square miles, and for several weeks you had to produce your ID that you lived in the area to be able to enter the area. This was to stop 'tourists' from sightseeing and looters from outside the area coming in to loot. It was three to four weeks before the big box home improvement stores could even get supplies for people to begin rebuilding. Even then, you had to be in line at 6 a.m. if you expected to get any roofing shingles or plywood decking or lumber when it first started trickling in. It was tough!!!

I didn't have a generator and so I went about a week with no power at all. Finally, I paid about $2500. for a $1200. one that I bought from some guy who had a truck set up on the side of the road with generators. Fortunately, my insurance company reimbursed me for such expenses and so it wasn't so bad. Up until I had the generator, even if I'd have been able to get any building materials I couldn't have used a saw or air gun to work with any of it. This is just life in an area devastated by a major hurricane.

I'm confident that Puerto Rico will recover, but I'd expect it to be at least 2 years before most everything gets put back as far as residential housing. Larger commercial structures could take even longer. Everyone within that 20 square mile area had suffered pretty major roof damage and so even when 3 months later I signed a contract for a guy to redo my roof, he told me it would be another 3 months before he could start. The Army Corp of Engineers came through all the neighborhoods with huge rolls of 8-10 mil plastic sheeting and 1by stringer wood that they actually got up on each roof and made them watertight until new shingles could be installed. I was most thankful for their work.

If you haven't actually lived in area devastated by a major hurricane, it's really tough to understand the logistical problems of delivering water -- they came by in military deuce and a halfs handing out cases of water to every family. Housing -- we had to drive to Hollywood Fl every night to sleep at my mother's house for about a month until my insurance company put a mobile home in my front yard. I'm glad I opted for the mobile home. A friend of mine took a travel trailer that they offered and told them that they could keep it when it was over. They about went crazy living in that little travel trailer for a year. But, after a year or so, things began to get back to normal and a lot of the houses were repaired and life began to be more normal, but it takes time and lots of it to recover from such devastation even if you life on the U.S. mainland.

God bless you,
In Christ, ted

 

[miamited]

Here are some pics of the destruction left in my neighborhood after Andrew:

http://ww4.hdnux.com/photos/64/07/55/13663071/3/920x920.jpg

Trust me, this kind of damage doesn't get fixed in a week or a month and what you're seeing here was the same over an area several square miles.

 

[miamited]

Here's a line of people waiting to buy ice:

https://www.frbatlanta.org/-/media/...5-years-later/em_hurricane_andrew_slider1.png

 

[mark kennedy]

This is apparently making the rounds in the Conservisphere.

Wayne Beech

PRES. TRUMP & PUERTO RICO

.....''In case you were wondering if President Trump is doing “enough” for Puerto Rican hurricane relief...this is from a Puerto Rican friend...

My parents live on the island. They've been without power since Sept. 20th. The response from the US government has been PHENOMANAL.

First, President Trump declared Puerto Rico a "State of Emergency" BEFORE Maria hit.

My father, who lives across the street from Isla Grande Airport, says that US Marines' choppers have been coming in & out for the past 5 days or so, dropping off relief. Air traffic was non-functional right after the hurricane, so many relief flights could not land. It is now open to mostly relief-related flights.

The US Coast Guard is patrolling the San Juan Harbor. They are the ones who let in the freighters. Only certain freighters can dock in at certain times (due to lack of docks and piers), so they are taking turns. Luxury yachts and the like are NOT being let in -- only relief cargo! There are 16 US Military ships deployed to PR right now.

FEMA has had a presence since DAY ONE and there are about 6 million bottles of water on the island right now. Geraldo Rivera was complaining today that telephone poles were still down - but that's not a priority right now, Gerry! Food, Water & Gasoline is Priority Number One!

Companies like Claro are setting up Fiber-Optics & Wi-Fi service. Puerto Rican electric utility workers are getting help from workers coming in from the mainland, but the US cannot do everything in a span of a month. It will take months and possibly years.

Donald Trump is a great humanitarian & is doing a great job but the Liberal Media is either ignoring this huge effort or attacking it."

....Adapted from & thank you to Rob Weiss....​

Hey Ucog, I've been tracking the situation myself and it's not like the US has been sitting on it's hands. Early on the roads were out so relief supplies just sat in the harbors, then there was the problem of US relief efforts being a little sluggish but in the face of the devastation, it's understandable. Donald Trump didn't do anything remarkable, he didn't do anything wrong, he did what he could like any President would. He shot his mouth off on twitter, embarrassing himself and his country because he doesn't know how and when to shut up. The media did blow up his tweets but that's kind of what they do, it has more to do with getting an emotional response then anything else.

 

[USincognito]

Ted, thanks for your Florida perspective. I have a Puerto Rican coworker with a lot of family so I'm going inside information that neither the news nor Trump apologists have.

 

[rambot]

It does seem like "SOME" (who can say if it's enough) material is physically on the island. But if that material is not getting TO the people (like, inTO their hands), it's hard to call the relief effort a success IMHO.

It seems like a lot of people are using different rubrics to determine what is a successful roll out. But I'll tell you, checking off boxes on a form is not a reasonable measure.

 

[Douger]

Even before the hurricane hit, the story of the response was set. All sides will carry through with the expected performance.