President Responds to Question on Puerto Rico

The President of the United States today made both formal statements and then answered a question regarding the response to Hurricane Maria by saying that a former FEMA official gave the response good grades.  Here is the transcript from the Washington Post: 

I was very honored to see a man that I've had a lot of respect for, James Lee Witt, of the Clinton administration -- the head of FEMA. He gave us an A-plus; I just see -- it just came out. And I've always had respect for him. He gave us -- he's the FEMA director of the Clinton administration -- gave us an A-plus for how we responded to the hurricane aftermath -- all of the hurricanes. And that includes Puerto Rico. 

So I just want to thank Mr. Witt, wherever you may be now, wherever you may be listening. I just want to say, I really much appreciate it. Because that took it out of politics -- out of the world of politics, in that he was with the Clinton administration and I'm sure remains loyal to the Clinton administration. I hope he does.

Here is what the James Lee Witt told the Atlantic's David Graham on September 28

"It’s a reality of disasters that, as former FEMA Director James Lee Witt put it to me earlier this week, “If you’re one of the victims, every hour and every day is too long.” There are real obstacles that make it difficult to distribute aid around Puerto Rico. Roads are destroyed, gas stations are dry, the power grid is down, and telecommunications infrastructure is out of service. Even as the port of San Juan fills up with containers, people outside of the capital city can’t get basic supplies. These are not problems that the federal government, or anyone else, can fix instantaneously."

Pretty amazing that the White House found this nugget in the corner of the internet from the LMT online Laredo Texas newspaper. 

"But it's hard to identify exactly what more the federal government could be doing. Indeed, former FEMA director James Lee Witt told me he'd give the Trump administration an A-plus for how it's responding to all the hurricane aftermath - including in Puerto Rico.

"They've maxed out probably how many people they could put there," said Witt, a Democrat who ran the agency under President Clinton. "I know they're all working frantically, but sometimes that's not enough."

Then a question came up  asking if the President was standing by his assertion that the Administration had done an "outstanding job" in Puerto Rico.  Here was his response:

"Oh, I think -- well, that's according to the Clinton administration’s head of FEMA, it’s been outstanding. 

Puerto Rico is very tough because of the fact it’s an island. But it’s also tough because, as you know, it was in very poor shape before the hurricanes ever hit. Their electrical grid was destroyed before the hurricanes got there. It was in very bad shape, was not working, was in bankruptcy, owed $9 billion. And then on top of that, the hurricane came. Now, you're going to have to build a whole new electrical plant system. We're not talking about generators. We moved -- Puerto Rico now has more generators, I believe, than any place in the world. There are generators all over the place. The fact is, their electrical system was in horrible shape before and even worse shape after. 

So we are working right now -- as you know, relief funds were just approved and are in the process of being approved by Congress. And that includes Texas, by the way. That includes Florida. And it also includes Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, et cetera. But it was in really bad shape before. We have done -- I will say this, we have done --"

Then someone shouted a question about the people of Puerto Rico not having drinking water. His response:

Well, we've delivered tremendous amounts of water. Then what you have to do is you have to have distribution of the water by the people on the island. So we have massive amounts of water. We have massive amounts of food. But they have to distribute the food, and they have to do this. They have to distribute the food to the people on the island.

So what we've done is we now actually having military distributing food -- something that really they shouldn’t have to be doing.

But if you look at the governor, who is a good man, by the way, but if you look at the governor of Puerto Rico, he himself has said we've done an outstanding job. And most people have said we've done an outstanding job. But Puerto Rico is a very tough one.

This prompts a bunch of questions:

1. Was there anyone who ever said that the Governor of Puerto Rico, Ricardo Rossello, was not a good man? 
2. Are good men those who do not criticize the President?
3. Does he know that people drink a lot of water on a hot island in the Caribbean or that there are 3 million people in Puerto Rico?  
4. He has to realize that just getting the water to the island is only a piece of the battle.  Getting it to the people is the harder part of the struggle.  
5. He never explained why people were not getting drinking water on Puerto Rico.
6. This was the first we ever heard that the power plants were wiped out.  This was first because upon further checking there were not problems with the power plants.  
7. Why does he keep mentioning the debt in Puerto Rico?  It has nothing to do with people need food, water and power.  Simple. Go Do It Now!

 by Brian Davis