The problem is that Puerto Rico's electrical grid was in bad shape to begin with, who knows how much of it is going to be salvageable... Replacing an entire electrical grid of an area as large as Puerto Rico is a massive undertaking under the best of circumstances, it becomes even more challenging when you consider some of the geographic challenges Puerto Rico poses.
RFS62 (09-22-2017)
When I was speaking of Massachusetts, I was speaking to how serious people would take it compared to an island in the Caribbean that half the country doesn't even realize is part of the US. And I am well aware of the logistical obstacles and understand power engineering and the grid very well (I worked six years on high voltage distribution systems). The reality of the situation is that their government and economy was barely capable of functioning while the sun was shining, let alone after a hurricane, and if they don't have basic utilities made available to the bulk of the population- electricity, water, sanitation- it will be the worst disaster on American soil ever. Right now, two days after the storm, they have to deal with a 100,000 tons of rotting food, no fresh water, no sanitation facilities, and little skilled labor to fix it. People in Houston have option, but the people in PR do not. Is it a difficult task? Yes, of course. But that's what we are good at, and you will be surprised how quickly things turn around once they gat started.Originally Posted by RFS62
It's about 50% bigger than Delaware, and most of the population is along the coast. If they got San Juan and two other larger cities working, most of the population would be functional again.
When it comes to natural disasters, no matter what the scale, and all the efforts needed to be implemented for immediate relief, effect recovery/rebuild, manpower, equipment, time-lines, etc, etc .... I will listen to one who has had decades of experience and know-how in that specific area ... and that would be rfs
Someone can correct me if I'm wrong, but in my lifetime this seems to be the worst hurricane season ever as far as impact and devastation, and in such a very short time-frame (over the last month?). Even with all the immediate response(s) and efforts, the volunteers, etc ... it's simply overwhelmed and over-taxed available resources. It's spread thin.
Depending on the level of a hurricane (or even a tornado), which may only last anywhere from 30 minutes to a couple days, the devastation it invokes QUICKLY takes a lot longer as far as rebuild/recovery.
But it does encourage my heart when I see the response being made by the people of this country, and from all over, when it comes to the devastation in Texas, Florida, and the Caribbean. You press on and do what you can as fast as you can.
"In my day you had musicians who experimented with drugs. Now it's druggies experimenting with music" - Alfred G Clark (circa 1972)
These companies are dying for people to work claims...
With a 2% hurricane deductible, most people are falling below that, and it's wasting time, but that is to be expected.
Royal Caribbean cancels cruise, sends ship on rescue mission to Puerto Rico:
Royal Caribbean has canceled an upcoming cruise in order to send a ship to Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands on a mission to help hurricane victims.
The Adventure of the Seas, which can carry 3,114 passengers, will forgo its scheduled Saturday voyage and travel to San Juan, St. Croix and St. Thomas on Friday to pick up evacuees and bring supplies.
A spokesman for Royal Caribbean told the Miami Herald that the cruise line expects to pick up more than 3,000 people, taking them back to Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves. -- Carl Sagan (Pale Blue Dot)
Chip R (09-29-2017),cumberlandreds (09-29-2017),dougdirt (09-28-2017),KittyDuran (09-28-2017)
Trump has turned FEMA successes in Texas and Florida relief efforts into abject failure in Puerto Rico.
His seeming indifference to the misery of the past week has made it his own, just like "Great job, Brownie" did it for Bush at Katrina.
There is no excuse for not having the military in there getting the airport open again for cargo traffic. No excuse for not having heavy equipment in there opening the roads for relief trucks.
We'll go down in history as the first society that wouldn't save itself because it wasn't cost effective ~ Kurt Vonnegut
Good for them....but I'd be a bit pissed if I was booked on the cruise!
why?
1) I'll assume the people booked are getting all their money back (at least for the cruise portion of it)
2) I'll assume the places that the boat was scheduled to go to are pretty much wrecked at this point, so your excursions are likely going to be cancelled if you were on the cruise.
I get being disappointing by the whole thing, but I don't think I'd be pissed off, if anything, I may be relieved.
Posting in the clutch since twenty ought two.
If the places they were going were wrecked anyway, I agree. But if you'd spent a couple grand (or more) on airfare/hotels/etc. getting to Ft. Lauderdale for the cruise and didn't find out until the last day or two your cruise was getting canceled? Yeah, not that pleased.
Granted, I like south Florida, so I'm sure I'd manage to make a nice week of it in Miami/FTL.
I don't understand how this isn't getting a media response like Katrina. I really don't. Is it really just that it's not a state? Is it because they would rather talk about the NFL?
http://latinousa.org/2017/09/28/mari...underreported/
María’s Death Toll in Puerto Rico Is Being Underreported
https://twitter.com/AynRandPaulRyan/...26909282713600SAN JUAN, PUERTO RICO — Leovigildo Cotté died in the midst of desperation over not getting the oxygen needed to keep him alive in the only shelter that exists in the town of Lajas, which has been without electricity since the passing of Hurricane María a week ago. Not even his connections with the government saved him.
“The generator never arrived,” said the current mayor of Lajas, Marcos Turín Irizarry, who explained that he looked for oxygen for Cotté, father of the former mayor of that same town, “turning every stone,” but could not find it.
Cotté is one of the unaccounted victims of the Category 5 hurricane that devastated all of Puerto Rico last week, with its sustained winds and gusts of up to 200 miles per hour. On Wednesday, the government of Puerto Rico still held that the official number of deaths as a result of the catastrophe was 16, but the Center for Investigative Journalism (CPI, for its initials in Spanish) has confirmed that there are dozens and could be hundreds in the final count.
The fatalities related to circumstances created by the hurricane are still mounting with each passing day, and official numbers are not counting patients who are not receiving dialysis, oxygen and other essential services, such as Pedro Fontánez, 79, who is bedridden at the Pavía Hospital in Santurce and who the institution is attempting to release since Saturday, while he lacks electricity at home to support the oxygen and gastric tube-feeding he needs to continue living. His daughter, Nilka Fontánez, showed up desperate at the government’s Emergency Operations Center asking for help, but was told they were not accepting patients there.
“There’s no information,” she said, frustrated.
The dead are at the hospital morgues, which are at capacity and in remote places where the government has yet to go, and in many cases, their families are unaware of the deaths. The Demographic Registry certifies the deaths so bodies can be removed by funeral homes, many of which are also not operating for a lack of resources and fuel. They barely began certifying some of the dead on Monday, as Health Secretary Rafael Rodríguez-Mercado confirmed in an interview.
Anyone who wants to complain this is a political post can shove it.1- I received a DM from a vetted source who wishes to remain anonymous.
S/he was on a conference call with FEMA on Monday, September 25.
2- This is 5 days after Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico. Others on the call: [Lists numerous agencies you'd expect from DoD and Homeland on down]
3- "Then, after every department reported their activities and projections,
it was time for the White House to issue their report."
4- WH answer?
No report, no activity.⁰⁰Nothing planned for Puerto Rico.
"We were all stunned", this source said.
5 - Meaning until Monday the 25th, (nearly a WEEK after Hurricane Maria made landfall), the WH had no plans to make any moves in PR…
6- ...while DoD, FEMA, all government agencies and non-government agencies were ready to go or had already started activities on the ground.
Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
I had forgotten all about this, but in 1982 my uncle retired from the Air Force after 32 years, and he had saved for years so he and his wife could return home on the RMS Queen Elizabeth. But what else happened in 1982? The Falklands War, at which time Great Britain put it back in the naval fleet as a troop carrier. They ended up flying home instead. It happens.
WrongVerb (09-29-2017)
I wonder if it is hard to get reporters in and information out of PR. That certain information isn't coming to my ears right now is the least of the sins surrounding the response to Maria.
Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves. -- Carl Sagan (Pale Blue Dot)
That's like saying my post about baseball is political because I made a political post on my twitter feed once.
Redsfaithful (09-30-2017)
It's a little more than that. If we really want to discuss this gal's twitter posts, watch how fast this thread gets moved
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