An encouraging Facebook post from one of my pilot friends today

[FLPanhandle]

7 hrs · Miami · Traveling to San Juan, Puerto Rico from Miami International Airport - MIA.

Really proud that my company, Air Transport International, is getting to be one of the first on the ground, bringing relief supplies to Puerto Rico. The flight today showed scattered power back on, some of the highways open, (and crowded!) and people just trying to get back to normal. We're doing 2-3 flights a day with the 767. Max takeoff weight with food and water. I'll be doing this all week. Will try to get some pictures if I can. Keep some good thoughts. They need a lot of help, but a lot of people are bringing it!

[ginnyinWI]

1. As per the news last night,

there is a lot of food and water already there, just sitting dockside, waiting for drivers to truck it to where it needs to be. They can't call them and maybe the drivers can't get gas to come get the stuff.

[JayhawkSD]

2. And even if they could get the drivers and the gas,

The roads are still blocked.
It was a hurricane.
It did what hurricanes do.
Everyone who can do anything is doing it.
Blame is a children's game.

[Tribalceltic]

14. What an incredible insult

Anyone who has worked with Disasters recently knows that proper staging and pre-planning are essential to getting an area back to "normal". FEMA was strained for years under the Bush administration. Houston and other areas hit by Harvey we able to recover quickly because of all the planning and staging. Puerto Rico could have been helped in 48 hours if the USNS Comfort had been staged south of the equator.

This is only the result of poor Republican planning, funding, and oversight of our complex disaster response.. and the wasting of Billions of Dollars on fake wars, money and tax cuts for the rich and plain stupidity.

Funny how when the republicans are responsible for a mess.. the "blame game" card always gets played

[B2G]

20. Oh god. Not the Comfort again. nt

[Tribalceltic]

22. No you are right, Not the Comfort

But purpose built replacements for the Comfort and Mercy as the navy has been requesting. The key point would be preparation, not response. We now know what hurricanes of this magnitude can do to us. Instead of having a dozen useless phallic nuclear aircraft carriers , building or re-building one every year... wouldn't it make sense to have a few (more than two!) disaster response ships? With supplies and equipment to respond to disasters?

[B2G]

24. Yes. But we use what we have right now.

And an ill-used tool can make things worse.

[brush]

26. Seems like bulldozers, heavy equip. operators, drivers and dump trucks to clear the roads...

are needed badly.

And they need to be doing more than one thing at a time.

FEMA should have the logistical capacity to get the heavy equipment and operators done by cargo planes.

Clearing the ports to accommodate ships is another matter, as are air drops to the interior.

All are important and necessary but clearing the roads, not just in the capitol but in the interior as well, seems to be a priority to get the food and water waiting to be distributed to where it's needed.

[LanternWaste]

23. Especially when it's directed at posters who

"Blame is a children's game..."

Especially when it's directed at posters who, in good faith ask sincere questions and get accused of being an armchair quarterback or having a knee-jerk reaction.

Children, indeed.

[Fla Dem]

4. US Gov't, POTUS should have had troops prepped and ready to move into PR once storm passed.

Everyone knew this was going to be a devastating storm. All the news /weather people were predicting a monster storm with catastrophic damages. They should have prepared for this like an invasion, with trucks, fuel, supplies, communications etc. Military transport planes should have been loaded and ready to go, hospital ships (USS Comfort) should have been deployed to Miami to make the short hop to Puerto Rico after the storm, but no it's still sitting in Charleston. Our incompetent president was more concerned about football players taking a knee. I am so disgusted with him. If people die in Puerto Rico that could have lived had resources reached them sooner, Trump should be charged with negligent homicide, or at the very least, impeached for dereliction of duty as CIC. THERE IS NO EXCUSE.

[George II]

10. Right. Houston was pretty much "operable", not perfectly, in two days, and they're under sea level.

But the demographics of Houston are completely different than Puerto Rico.

[Lurker Deluxe]

34. uhhh

Houston is 80' above sea level ...

Pretty much the only major city below sea level is New Orleans ... that is the reason for the pumps.

Just sayin'

[maddiemom]

13. Good of Hillary to prod him.

I'm pretty sure that he wasn't even aware of the USS Comfort.

[Ilsa]

32. Two died in hospital two days ago because the generators

ran out of fuel, and the life support equipment failed. May not be able to blame trump if they were already in bad shape, but he certainly did not help them.

[mountain grammy]

3. They're still operating?

Years ago I had a friend who's husband was a pilot for ATI. we took a trip to Puerto Rico 🇵🇷 stayed in the company condo and drove the company junker. Loved Puerto Rico and the people. Glad to read this. Thanks for the news.

[FLPanhandle]

5. ATI is doing well

They just did a major deal with Amazon to handle their air fulfillment.

[Hortensis]

6. Terrific. There are a lot of people and supplies on that island now, and

hopefully most of what needs to be done is happening and the most urgent needs...mostly being met.

Little mention of the USVI, but with "only" 100,000+ people, as opposed to 3.4 million, hopefully providing what's needed to sustain life at least will be quicker. Reportedly these islands are at the end of a supply chain that had depended on Puerto Rico and they were already in severe economic crisis before the hurricanes.

NY Times: The authorities had to ease the strict curfew after bodies started piling up at the morgue because people could not stay out long enough to bury those who had passed away of natural causes since the storms.

Rump's WH is preventing lawmakers from flying to either location on military aircraft -- supposedly to not impede the relief efforts. Wish that were believable, but maybe he mostly just doesn't want other pols taking up air time that could be about him. Most benign explanation I can think of, but of course there could be a number of reasons. He says they have discouraged him from going until next Tuesday.

[brush]

27. He doesn't want Dems to see the continuing tragedy his incompetence has resulted in.

[Hortensis]

28. His own callous attempts to not act, yes, his attempt to spin PR and USVI as

bad real estate investments we shouldn't throw money away on. (THAT didn't work at all right away, but he won't have changed his mind.)

But we can't blame him for most of what's happening because so much of our emergency services has been deployed for 40 days and 40 nights now, moving from one disaster to another. They're getting some huge lessons from these huge disasters. Earlier I saw TV coverage of 9500 shipping containers in San Juan full of needed supplies, but they couldn't get them distributed for lack of fuel and drivers, which couldn't get in for lack of ability to, I'm not sure what, move them to the front of the landing lines. Distribution snarls.

An enormous amount is being done, but it needs to be done better, and rump isn't and never was the one to handle most of these issues.

I was ashamed of the behavior of an MSNBC anchor using every statement of a relief manager statement as an excuse to criticize for not having done more. Like she was getting big bonuses for slapping down every explaination. For sure, he and the thousands working desperately are doing more in one minute than all of the yammers over 40 days.

[brush]

29. trump put no emphasis on PR at all. Any other pres., except maybe W, would've...

found out what was urgently needed.

It's obvious to us that trucks, drivers, heavy equipment for road clearance and operators are a top priority.

They can be found here. trump is so chummy with big business, perhaps he would've gotten trucking execs to supply drivers, or maybe put out a call for volunteers.

A president sure has the power to get that done, if he/she has bothered to find out what's needed, if he/she wants to.

[Hortensis]

30. So? Rump ordered relief agencies to act but is not in charge of deployment and distribution.

For all his dreadful failings, this is not all about him. Seems to me that indulgence in massive, ignorant criticism is as worthless as mindless indulgence in ignoring what's going on, and that there is actually tremendous overlap of the two.

Fwiw, our emergency preparations and disaster relief, local, state and federal, are all generally far better than I'd hoped before this chain of disasters hit 40 days ago, far, far better than after Katrina. I'm proud at least of what they are doing right.

But our efforts are also obviously falling terribly short, as we can all see, a giant national learning experience -- for experts. For sure no one will be looking to that giant orange disaster to learn anything from it.

[brush]

33. All I'm saying is a president has the bully pulpit that can be a huge help to the agencies...

that are already working.

HE COULD HAVE DONE A WHOLE LOT MORE TO SPEED UP THE AID.

[Hortensis]

37. Yes, he runs the agencies and could have done more, far faster. Of course.

Obama would have. But it's not all about any president, and it's dangerous for voters to delude themselves into thinking it is. By far most of the job would still be up to the thousands whose job it is to turn orders into relief, and they'd run into the same huge problems they are now, perhaps only a day earlier. And before they got there up to the citizens themselves.

We've never been here before, and our preparation for distribution to 3-1/2 MILLION people all at once are inadequate, not because that orange buffoon stopped distribution. Devastated USVI is already moving to the recovery stage because they only have 100K+ people and the most critical distributions have been accomplished.

Obviously, on a government level, at very least and as only one aspect of need, critical supplies in larger amounts needed to be there in protected locations long before any hurricane was even predicted. But this can't be blamed on Rump--he wasn't in government until a few months ago. We can blame it on our legislatures.

On a personal level, with giant populations and future giant disasters guaranteed, we're going to have to develop a new culture of personal sustainability. There are 19 million people in the greater LA area and, aside from some municipal reservoirs, almost no fresh water. If terrorists took out power and water delivery, such as with a regional grid-down attack, people would start dying in large numbers within 2-3 days, especially if it were summer. How about diabetics who need fresh, refrigerated insulin? We will never be able to meet that size of a disaster. But even with his "bully pulpit," developing personal resilience in every household isn't going to be rump's job or his failure. It's got to be ours.

Some good lists to think about here.
https://www.fema.gov/pdf/areyouready/areyouready_full.pdf

[druidity33]

38. Oh please, he's directly responsible. Period.

Presidents don't "run agencies" they appoint Agency heads. Period. If you don't appoint the most qualified/bestest person for the job you are accountable, right? Per Obama's presidency and its prior examples of course. Heck even GWB and Brownie exemplify this. WHo's gonna get the blame here i wonder?



BTW, I think Pres Clinton would've been ON this...

[Hortensis]

39. Lol. How? By pushing a truck for which the fuel is in a ship waiting to berth?

You imagine both Rump and one new appointee to FEMA are "directly responsible" for the misorder in which relief supplies arrived? Is either "directly responsible" because PR's government did not maintain an adequate emergency fuel supply too? Is PR's government itself "directly responsible" for the fact that it was broke?

Who is "directly responsible," btw, for the fact that a century of U.S. presidents did not somehow persuade congress to repeal the iniquitous Jones act? Any responsibility left over for the thousands of people in congress over that period?

This is the real world, and we do not have an all-powerful centralized government but rather tiers of government, all with their own power and responsibilities. Good thing, because if it were truly directly, entirely up to Rump or any of his few appointees, not even a single container would ever have been loaded onto a ship anywhere in the first place. Others gave those orders because that was their responsibility, and they did some things very well but some badly and have some learning and refinement of plans to do.

Which brings us back not only to PR's own government but to those people standing in line for money, food, medicine, and water. Not all homes were destroyed and not everyone had to go stand in those long lines, you know. Some people have supplies of all of them. Any responsibility left over for those who could so incredibly easily have had a week's supply in their homes but didn't bother and are now taking supplies desperately needed by others?

[druidity33]

40. Oh so forgiving of Trump....

You think if it was Obama he wouldn't be held directly responsible? Along with his Agency head? That they wouldn't call for resignations and or impeachment proceedings? Yeah welcome to the real world, where regardless of whether it's actually possible to do something, you will still be held accountable for it not being done.

And this?:
"
Which brings us back not only to PR's own government but to those people standing in line for money, food, medicine, and water. Not all homes were destroyed and not everyone had to go stand in those long lines, you know. Some people have supplies of all of them. Any responsibility left over for those who could so incredibly easily have had a week's supply in their homes but didn't bother and are now taking supplies desperately needed by others?"

I don't know how to respond to this callousness. Please explain this, because i hope i'm getting the wrong impression from what you're saying here...

[Hortensis]

41. No. But this is the end.

[druidity33]

42. That's... sufficiently vague. nt.

[TNNurse]

7. Nice to see.

The USNS Comfort should have been being readied for departure when the storm was aiming at the area. Did Trump know it existed before Hillary tweeted about it? I knew it existed, not all the details but was aware of it and I am just a private citizen. Did someone in naval operations suggest it sooner? This is pitiful and is certainly not leadership.

[AtheistCrusader]

9. The DoD didn't plan to use it because the ports in Puerto Rico are borked.

There's a lot of discussion about this over in one of the other threads.
https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=9641802


Some of it covers technical reasons why the Comfort and Mercy aren't the right tools for the job.

[TNNurse]

15. Please excuse my ignorance, what does the word "borked" mean???

[AtheistCrusader]

16. Broken

borked
To have broken something so entirely, you break the words used to describe the item.

It also has a political origin in the spiking of Robert Bork's nomination, but in this case, it's just completely broke, or intentionally misspelled.


The ports in Puerto Rico are badly damaged. Port of San Juan can accept the Comfort, but it only has 1.7 feet of clearance. If there's ANYTHING on the bottom, even a shipping container or log, or the ship gets even a little out of the channel, it'll run aground.

The coast guard pulled a ship from New England and sent it down before the storm hit. It's purpose is to replace destroyed/missing/moved buoys that mark the channel, and other things they need to do to ensure the channel is clear and open.

The ships currently getting in and out run much shallower than the Comfort. (It's an old oil tanker repurposed)

[TNNurse]

17. Thanks .

When I googled it all I found was Robert Bork....

[AtheistCrusader]

18. Yeah, it's a more recent usage/term. Urban Dictionary has it.

[B2G]

21. Would you please post that as an OP?

I'm frankly getting frustrated for you.

[Ligyron]

8. With the road blocked as they are someone should air drop supplies.

The military does this at times and there are helicopters that can carry large loads inland and to the mountain towns, maybe?

IDK.

[AtheistCrusader]

11. The Coast Guard and Ntnl Guard staged a lot of helicopters into Puerto Rico prior to the storm.

They sheltered them in hangars and waited the storm out. They brought in ships and helicopters from as far as New England.

[lark]

12. I love this!

Thank you for the good news, I've been so very worried and distressed about this situation. Glad the people are putting forth max effort at recovery and just wish our government was part of the solution, rather than the problem. They deserve better than they are getting, by far!

[FLPanhandle]

19. Another update:

Windsor jet has been doing rescue and supply runs for the last week. People picking up the supplies show up with tears in their eyes they are so happy. Right on the ramp.

[uponit7771]

25. "Right on the ramp." this is what I'm getting from MSNBC coverage is there are little to no distribu

... distribution points in PR right now.

People have to come to the ramps to get stuff cause it can't get out to the cut off and broken infrastructure.

[Blue_Tires]

31. 767? My main man!

[babylonsister]

35. And here I was lead to believe no planes

could take off or land, specifically military aircraft, due to the storm destruction.

[malaise]

36. Thanks for this

Rec