Is Hurricane Maria worse than Irma?

[JackLuis]

But the US Navy has some 30 odd ships that could help, and how may containers can you put on the USS Gerald Ford? How many water treatment units could be air lifted by the Helicopter landing ships, and how much fuel can you put in a Navy Tanker? Or, how much food can be put on a replenishment ship?

If the Trumpanzy was really concerned, wouldn't he have a lot of assets he could command to help?

 

[sr71plt]

CNN is now showing a briefing by the DHS acting chief and the administrator of FEMA being given on Puerto Rico in front of the White House--split screening that with simultaneous coverage of Trump getting off his helicopter at Andrews and getting on his plane for a flight up to NYC for a fundraiser.

 

[sr71plt]

And how many containers on a container ship which PR has ports to handle?

It's true that the payloads need to be cut down and the delivery to the islands (from Navy ships) should be done by helicopter. We do have a lot of helicopters. Trump just a couple of minutes ago was shown getting off one at Andrews to board a plane to attend a fundraiser in NYC. Maybe if he doesn't need it for the rest of the day, the Puerto Rico relief could use it.

 

[Adre]

If that were Obama on the chopper the Lit Whackaddodle brigade would be pitching a fucking conniption fit.

 

[jaF0]

This would be the perfect opportunity to show PR what can be done and could well lead to statehood.

 

[sr71plt]

It's about four days late to glean a victory dance off the U.S. government response to Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, but I think, in reality, they're doing what the resources given to them permit--with this on top of the southern states flooding. It's too late for Trump to show he cares, though.

 

[DrDelirium]

But the US Navy has some 30 odd ships that could help, and how may containers can you put on the USS Gerald Ford? How many water treatment units could be air lifted by the Helicopter landing ships, and how much fuel can you put in a Navy Tanker? Or, how much food can be put on a replenishment ship?

If the Trumpanzy was really concerned, wouldn't he have a lot of assets he could command to help?

He certainly does have a lot of assets. Most of them are scattered around the world doing whatever it is the military is designed to do and are not readily available. I am not arguing that Trump is doing a fine job, so far he doesn't seem to playing at a higher level than the Bush/Obama league for disaster management. All I'm saying is that this is a matter of systemic priorities rather than the personalities of whoever happens to be president. We would rather maintain a lot of very expensive forward deployment of military assets than have a lot of active service military close to home and available for disaster relief, and we would rather have a small number of very expensive military assets than a large number of inexpensive assets. And, we would rather rely on private charities than government agencies until the disasters are of an overwhelming scale. This is not a situation that Trump created, it goes way back. Is Trump fixing it? No. But it would appear that neither the Dems nor the establishment Republicans are willing to let him accomplish anything.
I'm not saying that everything Trump went into office publicly saying he would do should be done, just that it no longer seems to matter what he wants, he's not going to get it. Meantime, it's much easier to to take cheap shots at him than it is to look at how we might actually do better at (fill in the blank). A lot of these cheap shots are based on poor or entirely erroneous information.
I don't know what has been delivered to Puerto Rico or by whom, at this stage, though I know both the Feds and a lot of private groups have been airlifting emergency supplies. What I do know is that a much larger scale effort is required for Puerto Rico to in any sense 'recover' from the damage it has received, and it's beyond the scale of emergency airlifts, and it won't be done in a matter of days or weeks. The question is whether that effort will be made in earnest, or if we will see another episode like the Clintons in Haiti. Puerto Ricans, unlike Haitians, are American citizens, so one would hope for a better outcome. We'll have to see.

 

[Hypoxia]

Is this an overly-cynical calculus?

0 = number of people in Puerto Rico who voted for Tromp
0 = number of golf courses in Puerto Rico owned by Tromp
0 = portion of a rat's ass Tromp gives for Puerto Rico

 

[sr71plt]

It's highly likely he doesn't have a hotel there either or any under-the-counter business with Russians or the Mafia there. I don't think he has any sweat-shop plant workers there either.

 

[DrDelirium]

The military is actually quite active in Puerto Rico now, and the pace will accelerate when they get the air traffic control system functioning and the runways cleared. More ships are en route.

I think an argument could be made for stockpiling/pre-positioning more emergency supplies in vulnerable places like Puerto Rico, but from what I can see the military seems to be doing what can be done as it becomes possible to do it. Is it enough? Not for the people who are most vulnerable at the moment. How, exactly, could it be better? It would require a much more detailed knowledge of what has been done and what conditions on the ground are like than any of us have to answer that.

http://www.military.com/daily-news/...elds-limiting-puerto-rico-aid-effort-dun.html

 

[JackLuis]

The military is actually quite active in Puerto Rico now, and the pace will accelerate when they get the air traffic control system functioning and the runways cleared. More ships are en route.

I think an argument could be made for stockpiling/pre-positioning more emergency supplies in vulnerable places like Puerto Rico, but from what I can see the military seems to be doing what can be done as it becomes possible to do it. Is it enough? Not for the people who are most vulnerable at the moment. How, exactly, could it be better? It would require a much more detailed knowledge of what has been done and what conditions on the ground are like than any of us have to answer that.

http://www.military.com/daily-news/...elds-limiting-puerto-rico-aid-effort-dun.html

Good for them, too bad the Trumpster is so focused on diverting attention from Mr. Muller's investigation to pay attention.

 

[JackLuis]

‘Slowly unfolding human catastrophe’: Fox’s Geraldo Rivera blasts ‘mind-boggling’ Puerto Rico response

Fox News correspondent at-large Geraldo Rivera painted a terrifying portrait of the humanitarian disaster in Puerto Rico while reporting live from the San Juan airport.

“It is a mess,” Rivera told Fox News anchor Shepard Smith. “It’s jammed, the main terminal is jammed, Shep, with people desperate to get out of Puerto Rico at the urging of the governor, Ricardo Rosselló. He says anybody that doesn’t have to be here should leave. The problem is there’ve been so few flights out.”

“To me, it’s almost mind-boggling how slow the relief effort has been,” Rivera admitted. “There was one relief flight all day yesterday.”

In 2005, the New Orleans Time-Pacayune described Geraldo Rivera as “passion personified” for sounding the alarm of President George W. Bush’s bungled response to Hurricane Katrina.

“That glaring exposure of the race and class divisions in this country was never, in my very long experience, more clear, more graphic, more hurtful to me, than it was in New Orleans,” Rivera explained in 2005. “And anyone who says otherwise is either full of sh*t or has a political agenda. They either weren’t there, didn’t see it with their own eyes or they have as an agenda blame-shifting.”

 

[jaF0]

Wherever there may be a hidden vault to be opened ....

 

[DrDelirium]

‘Slowly unfolding human catastrophe’: Fox’s Geraldo Rivera blasts ‘mind-boggling’ Puerto Rico response

What day was 'yesterday'? Rivera says one relief flight all day, the military says three to six per hour. Fox News vs the US military- not sure which has less credibility.

 

[JackLuis]

Cold Comfort: Trump's refusal to send hospital ship tips his plan to abandon Puerto Rico (UPDATED!)

Why? Because, according to a Pentagon spokesperson, it just won’t fit.

Thomas LaCrosse, the Pentagon’s director of defense support to civil authorities, said U.S. officials discussed deploying the USNS Comfort to Puerto Rico over the weekend but decided that it should stay in Norfolk because it could not get close enough to any port to avoid using helicopter support to get patients to and from the ship.

True enough, the behemoth ship’s deep draft of 30+ feet bars it from San Juan harbor’s 32 to 35 foot channels even at the best of times (and these are far from San Juan’s best times). But, unmentioned in the WaPo article quoted above, that’s nothing new for the Comfort, which routinely anchors a mile or two offshore to serve disaster sites, as it did following Haiti’s devastating earthquake or, again, as it fearlessly did in 2007 in the teeth of a “storm of a decade” off Corinto, Nicaragua, where it anchored 1.5 miles offshore to receive patients. It is such a common fact in the life of this ship of mercy that militaryfactory.com notes as a mere aside that

Comfort has a deep draft and, in many ports, she has to stand offshore at least a mile. To receive wounded, Comfort has a large day-and-night helo pad.

Puerto Ricans, like all other American citizens, should be deeply chilled by the Trump administration’s stubborn refusal to deploy the Comfort, buttressed by such a transparently flimsy excuse. Because if they’re lying about the reason for their decision, then we must ask what the real reason is...and the answer is terrifying.

It can only be this: Trump intends to abandon Puerto Rico at the first opportunity, leaving its 3.4 million American citizens in their current Stone Age hell forever.

Breaking News!

Tuesday, Sep 26, 2017 · 12:56:13 PM PST · DocDawg

UPDATED: As of 3:30 PM Eastern, NBC is now quoting FEMA administrator Brock Long announcing, in a reversal of last night’s DOD comments, that USNS Comfort has just been ordered to sail for Puerto Rico. For those who are wondering, Comfort is normally required to be able to sail within 5 days after receiving the order, although it has occasionally done so within 3 days (there are about one thousand mostly civilian medical personnel + merchant seamen to mobilize, plus enormous stores of perishable medical supplies to load, plus all the usual ship’s stores to support a full complement of 2,000 souls). Comfort’s top speed is about 20 MPH, and it is (very roughly) about 1,200 miles from Norfolk to San Juan. So we’re looking at another 6-8 days before it arrives in Puerto Rican waters.

May God richly bless, watch over, and guide the nearly 1,000 souls who are now being feverishly mobilized to sail and staff this angel of mercy.

We did it, folks. We shamed the shitgibbon into action. Thank you all.

Just don’t stop. There’s so much more to do. Keep the pressure on.

¡Viva Puerto Rico! ¡Viva!

 

[JawnKarTurr]

I do not find human misery funny. After my US Army service I joined a National Guard medic unit precisely to relieve human misery in disasters. What was your service?

I find fucktards attributing natural disasters to the caprice of a jealous deity (who is a bad shot) to be disgusting. I find victim-blamers disgusting. Racist and sexist pigs are disgusting. Reactionary propagandists are disgusting. I don't care much for beets, either.

How can you vote Democrat then? Yes, you claim to have done a lot and for that, you can take cheap shots and be proud.

 

[JawnKarTurr]

But the US Navy has some 30 odd ships that could help, and how may containers can you put on the USS Gerald Ford? How many water treatment units could be air lifted by the Helicopter landing ships, and how much fuel can you put in a Navy Tanker? Or, how much food can be put on a replenishment ship?

If the Trumpanzy was really concerned, wouldn't he have a lot of assets he could command to help?

Let me guess there can't be some reasoning why those ships aren't being put into action right? I mean Trump has to be racist right?

I mean there is like what only 10,000 federal employees on the island helping.

 

[DMBFFF]

Are the Russians that clever? It could be misdirection by China. They own us, I checked my tag.

Some of my stuff made in China. Now owned by me.

 

[Hypoxia]

How can you vote Democrat then? Yes, you claim to have done a lot and for that, you can take cheap shots and be proud.

As mentioned, I don't vote Dum.

And I'm tired of your attack-troll play of nothing but cheap shots. Flame somebody else. Bye.

 

[JawnKarTurr]

As mentioned, I don't vote Dum.

And I'm tired of your attack-troll play of nothing but cheap shots. Flame somebody else. Bye.

Yes I know I should let you just whine, and I know to you anyone giving you facts you don't like is a troll. Also, you've been nothing but insult free. Don't vote don't complain it's that simple. You're a loser and I get that.