Federal Response Poor in Puerto Rico

FEMA and the US Military Response to Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico 2017

By Brian Davis --Cleveland Hts. Ohio

I was trapped for a 12 days in Puerto Rico trying to get back to the mainland after Hurricane Maria hit the island.  We were kicked out of our hotel, displaced by wealthy people on the island trying to find relief from the lack of water and electricity, as well as relief workers.  Our hotel had a generator so was highly sought after.  There were media and relief workers also staying in the hotel.  We wound up in a hotel with no water or electricity for two days then were displaced by a member of the US military and wound up in the Convention Center.  This facility was close to a small regional airport and became the staging area for the media, volunteers and supplies.  There was a separate command center for the senior officials near the State Capital, but there were thousands of FEMA, Health and Human Services staff, Military and local officials coming and going from the Convention Center.  The problems that I witnessed include:

   No one was in charge of the disaster

San Juan Convention Center volunteers

We were in the Convention Center, which was a staging area for relief efforts. The US Military were not responsive to the FEMA staff and were not even happy over being told what door to enter.  They had very little interactions with the other agencies and no one on site could identify who was actually in charge. No one was making the big decisions and their interactions with the local community was complicated and tied up in red tape.

   The police on the street were sending those in need to the Convention Center only to be turned away at the Convention Center.

The FEMA and law enforcement at the front of the Convention Center kept asking who sent you here?  They wanted people to call a telephone number even though for 8 days very few cell phones worked.  They kept telling people to leave the area, and these were citizens who were asking for help.

    There were many local resources available but were unused.

For some reason there were so many local resources that were not being used.  There were food trucks that operated on propane that were sitting unused.  Fire fighters could have been used to distribute water.  Even though there was no running water or electricity, there was no food or water distribution on the streets of San Juan.  There were air conditioned buses that were not used for days and could have helped transport people to cooling centers or to evacuation points.  Many of the schools were built to withstand hurricanes and could have been used to shelter or at least operate as a cooling center.  There were so many critical local resources that were sitting idle when the country was in desperate need of everything. 

    FEMA officials were isolated and not working well with the US Military.

They had their own escalator and their own security personnel which made it difficult for any other agency to have contact or any interactions with them.

    Law enforcement were greeting people at the door and not disaster specialists.  

After I protested, they moved a table out front so that law enforcement were not the first to greet those in need.  It was still chaotic out front, but at least someone without a uniform and a gun was greeting people.  They still had everyone (media, volunteers, military and law enforcement) all going in the same door.

Plenty of Military and Law Enforcement present

     Chaos reigned at the facility. 

No one was controlling the location while offering help to those in need.  On the eighth day of the disaster, they moved the shelter to a separate location which was far more appropriate to house people, but on the day we stayed there it was chaos.  They were limiting access by the public for good reason.  If the public had seen the lack of urgency and the number of military and other officials standing around drinking coffee, they would have rioted. 

  Federal officials were not clearing trees or helping with the power system.

In the 12 days on the island after the hurricane, I did not see one power truck with a person up in the cherry picker fixing a power line, and I walked all over the city and traveled by car to many places around San Juan.  I never saw a US military person working on infrastructure and I never saw federal workers out on the street doing anything but driving around with emergency lights flashing.  The City of San Juan workers were doing an admirable job trying to help, but they did not have much support.

 Federal officials were not helping to supplement the transportation needs of the local community  

 There was very little urgency to keep the gasoline and diesel flowing.  There were stories on the local news about not enough trucks at the refinery to deliver gas and diesel.  Federal officials could have been helping to get trucks out of the port or gas refinery to those in need. Doesn’t the US Military have the capability to refine oil into gas?

    There were plenty of individuals present; they were just not doing anything of substance.

I saw no shortage of people at the Convention Center and another large group at the Command Center near the State capital, but they were not showing results.  The airport took two weeks to get power.  There were gas lines for two weeks after the event.  The cell towers were not functioning for most in the first week, and 90% of the population had no power after 20 days.  40% of the population did not have access to clean water after 20 days.  The port had not been cleared of boats sunk from Hurricane Irma, preventing access after Hurricane Maria. 

In the high poverty areas, there was no Federal presence.  

 We went to the area with the homeless shelters and much of the public housing, and saw very little governmental response.  We did not see any federal officials or military and the shelters had run out of diesel.  There were elderly in homes that had no roofs and no one was doing wellness checks or providing any help.

FEMA had no recommendation for how to evacuate the tourists from the island. 

They would not even see us and acted like we were the only couple on the island without a place to live.  There was no plan to get people off the island, and we were using resources that the residents needed.  They had no suggestions, and no one was willing to help find a place for tourists or find a way off the island.

     The response to Puerto Rico was far slower than Harvey, Sandy and Katrina. 

Why would the law enforcement so dominate the Convention Center?

The Convention Center was housing elderly, pregnant women and fragile populations and yet there were hundreds of police officers present.  What were they doing?  Why were they not out helping people on the streets of San Juan?  The air conditioned Convention Center with electricity did not need so many law enforcement officers. There was no threat at the Convention center. 

   Why wasn’t the USS Comfort launched to Puerto Rico before Day 13 since 80% of the hospitals were operating on diesel?

If IRMA had done damage to the island, why were there not more FEMA workers present when Maria hit?  It seems like more resources would have been on the way or standing by because we saw downed trees and damage from Irma that had not been addressed.  The residents of one area of San Juan said that they had only regained power two days before Hurricane Maria hit. Where was all the federal help from Irma including the USS Comfort and some ability to evacuate fragile populations?

    Does FEMA have any recommendation on local curfews?

Chaotic San Juan Airport

The Governor kept a local curfew for more than two weeks, which made it difficult for people to stand in line for food, supplies, water or diesel.  Stores closed early so that there would not be a conflict with the curfew for their employees.  This made it necessary to stand in line during the hottest parts of the day.   A curfew was good for two or three days to protect property, but after that it was harming the population. 

    It would have been much better if relief supplies could have been delivered from the Dominican Republic directly. 

The Jones Act was not suspended for a week of valuable time after the Hurricane and was only suspended for 10 days.  This decision would not allow aid to come from closer ports such as the Dominican Republic at 127 miles away or the Bahamas, Cuba or Turks or Caicos Islands.  This enriches the shipping industry, but it probably killed people in Puerto Rico.  The Jones Act allows only US ships, staffed by US citizens to deliver anything to this US territory. The Jones Act keeps the island living in poverty and certainly should have been suspended before the Hurricane and should be suspended for months. 

 

My recommendations are that with 50% of the last few Hurricanes having devastated the local population, Mayors and Governors need to rip up their disaster plans and start over.  They cannot rely on the federal government to be there especially if there are other disasters happening around the same time.  They need to rethink their strategy and focus on local resources and local control of the response.  Any help the federal government gives would be a bonus, but should not be expected. It was embarrassing to see the response.  We have let down our fellow US citizens down in Puerto Rico.