Leaked White House Memo Details Puerto Rico Spin: The Storm Caused These Problems, Not Our Response

[Hortensis]

8. People who believe only what they want to are easy suckers. I read about

a town only about 20 minutes normally from San Juan that was cut off by destroyed roads had had no aid of any kind as of some time Saturday. They were getting on so far by helping each other, but only at the most basic level, and no critical medical emergencies had arisen yet.

If this were Wisconsin in February... Phoenix in August, or right now...

Or any large city any time, or rural area that would be at the bottom of relief priorities, perhaps similarly unreachable. I've realized from this that a person in the middle of any city of millions, or in the country like us, would do well to regard himself as as good as on an island because the problem of distributing water and food, and livable temperatures, to everyone in any situation before their lives are endangered is enormous.

Relief needs to be in place before, but many disasters are not so obliging as to give a week's warning. And, my god, do we need well functioning government. In this era when almost no one grows his own food and very few have fresh water within walking distance, regardless of how clean, it is in for all of us a matter of life and death.