WILL BIDEN LEARN FROM TRUMP'S MISHANDLING OF THE 2019 PUERTO RICO HURRICANE?

 

Trump with Governor of Puerto Rico and wife Melania

Puerto Ricans were still recovering from Hurricane Irma when Maria made landfall in the fall of 2019. The storm devastated the island, destroying homes and crippling vital infrastructure. 

The crisis demanded an immediate and heavy response from the federal government. But Trump's response was sluggish, even as early reports made clear that this was a serious tragedy in the making. 

The White House made few preparations in the lead-up to the storm, and it was weeks before the Federal Emergency Management Agency committed its full resources to the island. 

During that time, clean water was scarce, food was hard to find, and hospitals struggled to care for patients, some with serious injuries and illnesses. Most of Puerto Rico lacked electricity for months, and medical supplies were few and far between. 

When FEMA did eventually act, it dropped the ball. To deliver 30 million meals, the agency contracted with an Atlanta-based wedding caterer with no experience in emergency management. By the time the company’s contract was terminated, it had delivered just 50,000 of those meals.

Trump, trying to compare Hurricane Maria to Katrina said:  "But if you look at a real catastrophe like Katrina, and you look at the tremendous—hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people that died."

Trump Tossing Paper Towels to Puerto Rican Hurricane Victims

Then Trump congratulated himself:  “Nobody could have done what I’ve done for #PuertoRico with so little appreciation. So much work!”

A new Harvard study, released on Tuesday and published in the New England Journal of Medicine, estimated that at least 4,465 people died as a result of Hurricane Maria, which would make it the deadliest natural disaster to strike the United States since 1900, when a powerful hurricane devastated Galveston, Texas, and surrounding areas, killing at least 8,000 people. The researchers, who surveyed thousands of randomly selected homes in Puerto Rico, asked residents about deaths and extrapolated from the results, attributing many of the deaths to hospital disruptions and loss of basic utility services.

A faster, stronger response would have prevented some of those deaths. Even if the White House was unprepared when the storm initially hit, much of the aftermath could have been averted if President Trump had focused his administration on the disaster and brought the weight of the federal government to bear on the unfolding tragedy. Instead, Trump sent every signal that he simply didn’t care. He downplayed the devastation to Puerto Rico and blamed Puerto Ricans for not doing more to repair the damage. He went after the mayor of San Juan, who had criticized the government’s response. He didn’t use his Twitter account to publicize relief efforts or generally encourage Americans to help. What he did do during that time, however, was campaign for political allies and start a feud with black football players.