Postcards from an island of ruin: Puerto Rico after Hurrican

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Postcards from an island of ruin: Puerto Rico after Hurrican

Postby seemslikeadream » Mon Sep 25, 2017 9:44 am

Three million Americans in Puerto Rico and trump tweets about NFL players

instead of sending help to Puerto Rico he sends planes to taunt N. Korea


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Puerto Rico’s Guajataca Dam Still a Danger After Hurricane Maria
by YULIYA TALMAZAN and GABE GUTIERREZ

A Puerto Rico dam damaged by Hurricane Maria's heavy rains remained in danger of failing early Monday, amid fears it might trigger a potentially life-threatening deluge.

The National Weather Service said a flash flooding warning in western Quebradillas and eastern Isabela municipalities, where the Guajataca Dam is located, would continue until 2 p.m. ET on Monday
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/pu ... ia-n804411



Devastation From Hurricane Maria Set Puerto Rico Back “Nearly 20 to 30 Years”
By Daniel Politi

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WEATHERHURRICANECARIBBEANPUERTORICO
Family members collect belongings after hurricane force winds destroyed their house in Toa Baja, west of San Juan, Puerto Rico, on September 24, 2017 following the passage of Hurricane Maria.
RICARDO ARDUENGO/AFP/Getty Images

Hurricane Maria struck Puerto Rico as a Category 4 Hurricane early Wednesday morning but the destruction it caused was so great that the full extent of the damage is only starting to come into focus. To say things are bad would be a gross understatement as some are warning of an imminent humanitarian crisis due to a lack of basic services in certain parts of the island.

So far, the death toll from the strongest storm to hit the U.S. territory in almost 90 years stands at 10 although it seems certain to rise over the coming days. Some Puerto Ricans are describing the conditions in their communities as “apocalyptic,” according to CNN. Maria killed at least 31 lives across the Caribbean.

Authorities are now working to figure out the full extent of the damage but they’re warning it could take a long while for the island to recover. “The devastation in Puerto Rico has set us back nearly 20 to 30 years,” said Puerto Rico Resident Commissioner Jenniffer Gonzalez. “I can’t deny that the Puerto Rico of now is different from that of a week ago. The destruction of properties, of flattened structures, of families without homes, of debris everywhere. The island’s greenery is gone.”

PUERTORICOCARIBBEANWEATHERHURRICANE_1
A woman tries to make a cellphone call on a highway near Dorado, 40 km north of San Juan, Puerto Rico, on September 23, 2017.
HECTOR RETAMAL/AFP/Getty Images

Residents struggled to pick themselves up as most of the island was without cell phone service or electricity. People with relatives in the United States struggled to get a bit of cell phone service to tell their families they were doing OK. The damage to the island’s shaky power grid is so extensive that officials didn’t even dare predict when power would return and some residents are getting mentally prepared to spend up to a year without electricity. Engineers are also inspecting and warning about the possible destruction of a 90-year-old dam in northwest Puerto Rico with the government warning that it could “collapse any minute.”
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PUERTORICOCARIBBEANWEATHERHURRICANE
Overflow from the damaged Guajataka River Dam is seen in San Sebastian, in the west of Puerto Rico, on September 23, 2017.
HECTOR RETAMAL/AFP/Getty Images

A group of mayors traveled to San Juan and warned that things could get worse if immediate needs are not met. “Hysteria is starting to spread. The hospital is about to collapse. It’s at capacity,” the mayor of the north coastal town of Manati said. “We need someone to help us immediately.” Around 15,000 people were thought to be in shelters across Puerto Rico.


“This is, without a doubt, the biggest catastrophe in modern history for Puerto Rico in terms of the damage to infrastructure and in terms of damage to the island as a whole,” Governor Ricardo Rossello said. “Our consideration is not a fiscal consideration. It’s restoring people’s security and restoring normalcy.”

Even if Rossello says he’s not thinking about fiscal issues right now, there is lots of concern about how the island’s economy, which was already in a precarious state before the hurricane, will handle the billions in damages. Some have estimated Maria’s economic damage could be as much as $30 billion. “Puerto Rico is in a precarious state,” said Chuck Watson, a disaster modeler at Enki Research.

Hillary Clinton took to Twitter on Sunday to criticize the Trump administration’s response to the devastation in Puerto Rico. “President Trump, Sec. Mattis, and DOD should send the Navy, including the USNS Comfort, to Puerto Rico now. These are American citizens,” Clinton wrote. Trump had said earlier in the week that Puerto Rico was “absolutely obliterated” by Hurricane Maria.
http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/ ... years.html


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Puerto Rico’s Agriculture and Farmers Decimated by Maria
By FRANCES ROBLES and LUIS FERRÉ-SADURNÍSEPT. 24, 2017

Plantain trees flattened by Hurricane Maria in Yabucoa, P.R. In a matter of hours, the storm destroyed about 80 percent of the crop value in Puerto Rico, the territory’s agriculture secretary said. Credit Victor J. Blue for The New York Times
YABUCOA, P.R. — José A. Rivera, a farmer on the southeast coast of Puerto Rico, stood in the middle of his flattened plantain farm on Sunday and tried to tally how much Hurricane Maria had cost him.

“How do you calculate everything?” Mr. Rivera said.

For as far as he could see, every one of his 14,000 trees was down. Same for the yam and sweet pepper crops. His neighbor, Luis A. Pinto Cruz, known to everyone here as “Piña,” figures he is out about $300,000 worth of crops. The foreman down the street, Félix Ortiz Delgado, spent the afternoon scrounging up the scraps that were left of the farm he manages. He found about a dozen dried ears of corn that he could feed the chickens. The wind had claimed the rest.

“There will be no food in Puerto Rico,” Mr. Rivera predicted. “There is no more agriculture in Puerto Rico. And there won’t be any for a year or longer.”

Hurricane Maria made landfall here Wednesday as a Category 4 storm. Its force and fury stripped every tree of not just the leaves, but also the bark, leaving a rich agricultural region looking like the result of a postapocalyptic drought. Rows and rows of fields were denuded. Plants simply blew away.

In a matter of hours, Hurricane Maria wiped out about 80 percent of the crop value in Puerto Rico — making it one of the costliest storms to hit the island’s agriculture industry, said Carlos Flores Ortega, Puerto Rico’s secretary of the Department of Agriculture.

Across the island, Maria’s prolonged barrage took out entire plantations and destroyed dairy barns and industrial chicken coops. Plantain, banana and coffee crops were the hardest hit, Mr. Flores said. Landslides in the mountainous interior of the island took out many roads, a major part of the agriculture infrastructure there.

The island suffered a loss of $780 million in agriculture yields, according to the department’s preliminary figures. Hurricane Georges in 1998 wiped out about 65 percent of crops and Hurricane Irma, which only grazed the island, took out about $45 million in agriculture production.

For over 400 years, Puerto Rico’s economy was based on agriculture, historically focused on sugar cane, tobacco and citrus fruits. The island’s economy rapidly industrialized after World War II, leading to the downfall of agriculture production. In recent years, in part because of the island’s economic recession, people went back to the fields, and the industry is going through a small renaissance, growing at 3 to 5 percent every year over the past six years, Mr. Flores said. A growing farm-to-table movement has generated optimism in recent years about an agricultural rebirth.

Puerto Rico already imports about 85 percent of its food, and now its food imports are certain to rise drastically as local products like coffee and plantains are added to the list of Maria’s staggering losses. Local staples that stocked supermarkets, school lunchrooms and even Walmart are gone.

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Félix Ortiz Delgado looked over the damage to his crops on Sunday. Credit Victor Blue for The New York Times
“Sometimes when there are shortages, the price of plantain goes up from $1 to $1.25. This time, there won’t be any price increase; there won’t be any product,” Mr. Rivera said. “When I heard the meteorologist say that the two had turned into a three and then a four, I thought, ‘Agriculture in Puerto Rico is over.’ This really is a catastrophe.”

He noted that other islands that export food to Puerto Rico, such as the Dominican Republic, Dominica and St. Martin, were also hit, and that the food supply could be even more precarious if the island’s other suppliers were also affected.

“There won’t be any gandules at Christmas this year,” Mr. Ortiz said, referring to a local favorite usually served as a combination of rice, pigeon peas and pork called arroz con gandules. “Even if we planted now, they won’t be ready.”

Mr. Ortiz, 80, said he had been working these fields for seven decades. He has lived through his share of hurricanes, including Georges, which wiped out the local sugar refinery in 1998.

“I have never seen losses like these in any of my 80 years,” he said as he stood on a riverbank, counting the number of coconut trees that fell. He could earn $100 a month from each one of them. A dozen cracked in half, beside a nursery where the winds swept away all the seedlings and left behind broken glass and ruin.

“Those palms take about 10 years to grow,” he said. “I will be dead by then.”

He is not the owner, but he said it hurt all the same. “You know what it’s like to see the place where you earn your daily bread destroyed?”

Efrain M. Robles Menendez, a dairy farmer, said cattle ranchers had been hit hard, because not only was there major damage to the infrastructure needed to maintain the business, but the supply chain was also cut off. With stores closed and the power out, the dairy trucks have not come.

“Since Wednesday, I have thrown out 4,000 liters of milk a day,” he said. “Come back later, and watch me pour it all down the drain.”

Some see the potential for something positive to come out of a disaster. Agricultural officials are hoping this will be the island’s chance to modernize its outmoded agriculture industry.

“Agriculture is the most vulnerable sector to natural disasters,” Mr. Flores said. “But it’s also the one that can have the speediest recovery, and it’ll be the great surprise in the Puerto Rican economy, because we’re going to come back stronger.”

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José A. Rivera, left, and his brother Ángel Rivera and nephew Javier Cacho Serrano surveyed the destroyed plantain crop in Yabucoa. Credit Victor Blue for The New York Times
Mr. Flores said much of the traditional agriculture in the island had depended on energy-inefficient practices that waste too much water and produce large amounts of waste. Federal funds that will help farmers rebuild infrastructure damaged by the hurricane will present an opportunity to improve the industry, he said.

“We had an antiquated agricultural infrastructure that maybe now is the opportunity to make it more efficient,” he said. “Now is the moment because we’re starting from zero. Maybe it hadn’t been done before because there was no way of financing it. We’re going to rebuild better this time.”

Eduardo Bhatia Gautier, a local senator, said, “We can start developing an agriculture industry that is more profitable and start exporting Puerto Rican products, something this island hasn’t done in decades.”

Puerto Rico currently imports about 85 percent of the food it consumes and exports only 15 percent of what it produces, according to the government. Puerto Rico, Mr. Bhatia said, could service a growing demand for organic foods in the mainland United States. He estimated it could take at least a year to get the industry back up and running, as the soil recovers and farmers replant trees.

But long-term optimism does little to help farmers contemplating the destruction they see around them.

Mr. Pinto, 62, drove to the capital last week to stock up on vegetables to sell at a kiosk he runs with his wife. He did so because his 14,000 plantain trees are all dead and he had nothing of his own to sell.

On the ride to San Juan, he looked around at toppled trees, downed telephone poles, tangled power lines, roofs and crumbled wood structures and wept.

“I could not take seeing my country in pieces like that,” he said, holding back tears.

Mr. Pinto also lost all of his cattle. Literally. He does not know where they are.

He plans to start over as he did a decade ago when he lost everything to a flood. He will get about 35 percent of the value back from insurance, and will not quit, he said, using an expression that has become a popular hashtag: #yonomequito — I will not give up.

“A people without agriculture,” he said, “are a people without food.”


Puerto Rico Radar Obliterated After It Takes a Direct Hit From Hurricane Maria
https://weather.com/news/weather/news/p ... cane-maria


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Mazars and Deutsche Bank could have ended this nightmare before it started.
They could still get him out of office.
But instead, they want mass death.
Don’t forget that.
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Re: Postcards from an island of ruin: Puerto Rico after Hurr

Postby seemslikeadream » Mon Sep 25, 2017 10:30 am

think twice


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Mazars and Deutsche Bank could have ended this nightmare before it started.
They could still get him out of office.
But instead, they want mass death.
Don’t forget that.
User avatar
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Re: Postcards from an island of ruin: Puerto Rico after Hurr

Postby seemslikeadream » Mon Sep 25, 2017 10:45 am

but not my soul



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Mazars and Deutsche Bank could have ended this nightmare before it started.
They could still get him out of office.
But instead, they want mass death.
Don’t forget that.
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Re: Postcards from an island of ruin: Puerto Rico after Hurr

Postby seemslikeadream » Mon Sep 25, 2017 11:35 am

In a world of steel-eyed death, and men who are fighting to be warm



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Mazars and Deutsche Bank could have ended this nightmare before it started.
They could still get him out of office.
But instead, they want mass death.
Don’t forget that.
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Re: Postcards from an island of ruin: Puerto Rico after Hurr

Postby seemslikeadream » Mon Sep 25, 2017 12:40 pm

Since trump's Alabama rally - -
Mentions of Puerto Rico : 0
Mentions of sports protests: 12+



Motherless children have a hard time
Motherless children have a such hard time
Motherless children have such a really hard time
A long way from home





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Mazars and Deutsche Bank could have ended this nightmare before it started.
They could still get him out of office.
But instead, they want mass death.
Don’t forget that.
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Re: Postcards from an island of ruin: Puerto Rico after Hurr

Postby seemslikeadream » Mon Sep 25, 2017 4:43 pm

Puerto Rico Faces Humanitarian Crisis As Towns Go Without Fresh Water, Power
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Two dead horses lie on the side of the road on the second day after the impact of Maria, a Category 5 hurricane that crossed the island, in Toa Baja, Puerto Rico, Friday, September 22, 2017. Because of the heavy rains brought by Maria, thousands of people were evacuated from the community after the municipal government opened the gates at rio La Plata Dam. (AP Photo/Carlos Giusti)
Carlos Giusti/AP
By DANICA COTO Published SEPTEMBER 23, 2017 3:24 PM

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — A humanitarian crisis grew Saturday in Puerto Rico as towns were left without fresh water, fuel, power or phone service following Hurricane Maria’s devastating passage across the island.

A group of anxious mayors arrived in the capital to meet with Gov. Ricardo Rossello to present a long list of items they urgently need. The north coastal town of Manati had run out of fuel and fresh water, Mayor Jose Sanchez Gonzalez said.

“Hysteria is starting to spread. The hospital is about to collapse. It’s at capacity,” he said, crying. “We need someone to help us immediately.”

The death toll from Maria in Puerto Rico stood at seven after a body found in a river was reported Saturday, and the toll was likely to rise.

Authorities in the town of Vega Alta on the north coast said they had been unable to reach an entire neighborhood called Fatima, and were particularly worried about residents of a nursing home.

“I need to get there today,” Mayor Oscar Santiago told The Associated Press. “Not tomorrow, today.”

Federal officials said a dam upstream of the towns of Quebradillas and Isabela in northwest Puerto Rico was cracked but had not burst by Saturday afternoon. Video from a helicopter flight showed water pouring from the Guajataca dam. Federal officials said Friday that 70,000 people were being evacuated, but Javier Jimenez, mayor of the town of San Sebastian, said he believed the number was far smaller.
He said only several hundred families were told to leave the banks of the Guajataca River. San Sebastian is to the west of the dam and outside the worst flood zone.
The discrepancy could not immediately be explained.

The 345-yard (316-meter) dam, which was built around 1928, holds back a man-made lake covering about 2 square miles (5 square kilometers). More than 15 inches (nearly 40 centimeters) of rain from Maria fell on the surrounding mountains, swelling the reservoir.

An engineer inspecting the dam reported a “contained breach” that officials quickly realized was a crack that could be the first sign of total failure of the dam, U.S. National Weather Service meteorologist Anthony Reynes said.

“There’s no clue as to how long or how this can evolve. That is why the authorities are moving so fast because they also have the challenges of all the debris. It is a really, really dire situation,” Reynes said.

Officials said 1,360 of the island’s 1,600 cellphone towers were downed, and 85 percent of above-ground and underground phone and internet cables were knocked out. With roads blocked and phones dead, officials said, the situation may worsen.

“We haven’t seen the extent of the damage,” Rossello told reporters in the capital. Rossello couldn’t say when power might be restored.

Maj. Gen. Derek P. Rydholm, deputy to the chief of the Air Force Reserve, said mobile communications systems were being flown in, but acknowledged “it’s going to take a while” before people in Puerto Rico will be able to communicate with their families outside the island.

The island’s electric grid was in sorry shape long before Maria struck. The territory’s $73 billion debt crisis has left agencies like the state power company broke. It abandoned most basic maintenance in recent years, leaving the island subject to regular blackouts.

Rosello said he was distributing 250 satellite phones from FEMA to mayors across the island to re-establish contact.

At least 28 lives in all have been lost around the Caribbean, including at least 15 on hard-hit Dominica. Haiti reported three deaths; Guadeloupe, two; and the Dominican Republic, one.

Across Puerto Rico, more than 15,000 people are in shelters, including some 2,000 rescued from the north coastal town of Toa Baja.

Some of the island’s 3.4 million people planned to head to the U.S. to temporarily escape the devastation. At least in the short term, though, the soggy misery will continue: Additional rain — up to 6 inches (15 centimeters) — is expected through Saturday.

In San Juan, Neida Febus wandered around her neighborhood with bowls of cooked rice, ground meat and avocado, offering food to the hungry. The damage was so extensive, the 64-year-old retiree said, that she didn’t think the power would be turned back on until Christmas.

“This storm crushed us from one end of the island to the other,” she said.
Hour-long lines formed at the few gas stations that reopened on Friday and anxious residents feared power could be out for weeks — or even months — and wondered how they would cope.

“I’m from here. I believe we have to step up to the task. If everyone leaves, what are we going to do? With all the pros and the cons, I will stay here,” Israel Molina, 68, who lost roofing from his San Juan mini-market to the storm, said, and then paused. “I might have a different response tomorrow.”
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/puert ... power-fuel
Mazars and Deutsche Bank could have ended this nightmare before it started.
They could still get him out of office.
But instead, they want mass death.
Don’t forget that.
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Re: Postcards from an island of ruin: Puerto Rico after Hurr

Postby seemslikeadream » Tue Sep 26, 2017 9:14 am

S-O-S
Even the National Guard Can’t Communicate in Puerto Rico

It’s been almost a week since Hurricane Maria and the island is so devastated that the mighty U.S. military is struggling to coordinate relief.

INGRID ARNESEN
09.26.17 5:00 AM ET
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico—Master Sgt. Shaun Withers was nervously waiting in his office at the 165th Airlift Wing of the Air National Guard’s strip in Savannah, Georgia, on Sunday morning. Outside a C-130 loaded up with supplies for Puerto Rico also waited in the dark.
“We’re ramping up, today is day one,” Withers said, adding the flight had been postponed several times.
Just then the phone rang, and Withers jumped up.
“It’s a go! Wheels up at 0100 hours!”
It was the fifth and last flight for that day.
“Our first flights brought back 103 members of Puerto Rico’s National Guard, evacuated before Maria hit,” Withers said. “They had not heard from their families since.”

Hurricane Maria made landfall last Wednesday, killing at least 10 people so far. What began as catastrophic urgency to rescue survivors—5,500 of them, according to Puerto Rico’s governor—has now turned into a long-term emergency on every level. After Maria and Irma passed, the destruction resembled the aftermath of an atomic bomb. No electricity for the island’s 3.5 million residents. No communication. Just silence.

Capt. Patrick Wheble landed the C-130 at San Juan airport at 7 a.m. Sunday. It was then that the scope of the task came into full view against the ghostlike backdrop of destroyed high rises with blown-out windows, and lifeless tree trunks.
“Today is the start-up and there is no end date,” Shivers said.
Already, more than 1,000 National Guard have arrived. They are part of the 10,000 federal staff deployed to Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands as part of relief efforts, according to FEMA.

CARLOS GIUSTI/REUTERS
A woman cries after learning about the arrival of the National Guard at Barrio Obrero in Santurce to distribute water and food among those affected by the passage of Hurricane Maria, in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Sunday, Sept. 24, 2017. Federal aid is racing to stem a growing humanitarian crisis in towns left without fresh water, fuel, electricity or phone service by the hurricane.
Within minutes, the airport took on the look of a major motion picture production. Two enormous transport planes were already there unloading supplies.
“That’s the C-5 from Travis, the C-17 from McChord, Washington, the C-130 from Savannah,” beamed Senior Master Sgt. Gerard Lamola, pointing at the mammoth birds. “These are the three main cargo planes of the U.S. Air Force, and we’re up and running.”

In another corner on the tarmac, a small group of men walked off another plane with a small load of equipment.
“We’re from Fort Drum,” said James Davis, a civilian communications specialist. “They gave me 24 hours’ notice to get here.”
Here is a flooded Puerto Rican National Guard base.
“Last night we slept in the operations room,” said Capt. Jeff Rutkowski, sitting in a small break room with five other members of his unit, the 115th Fighter Wing Air National Guard from Madison, Wisconsin.
They’ve been brought in to fix areas left without communication.

CARLOS GIUSTI/AP
National Guard personnel evacuate Toa Ville resident Luis Alberto Martinez after the passing of Hurricane Maria, in Toa Baja, Puerto Rico, Friday, September 22, 2017.
“There’s no communication, that’s the problem,” Rutkowski said, adding “we’re innovators, we bridge the networks.”
Without working cellphones or the internet, no one could coordinate. The newly arrived teams frantically borrowed each others’ vehicles to go find out what was going on, where they should go, who they should report to, what was being planned, who was doing what, establish a simple meeting.
No internet meant, too, there was no way of knowing what were urgent priorities in San Juan and throughout the country.
“I’ve never experienced work without being able to communicate,” said an exasperated Michelle Alvarez-Rea, a public affairs officer in charge of multiple media requests.
A two-hour ride to the middle of Puerto Rico to catch up with a National Guard team sent to begin clearing the debris from roads, summed the chaos. Villagers said they were told the team was expected the next day. Alvarez-Rea, herself a Guard from Ohio, said good-humoredly, “When you’re the first troops on the ground, that’s what you have to expect.”
Along the road, we witnessed a strange phenomenon: Dozens of drivers parked their cars at certain spots on the side of the road.
“That’s because they’ve picked up a signal on their cellphones,” explained Alvarez-Rea.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/even-the-n ... uerto-rico
Mazars and Deutsche Bank could have ended this nightmare before it started.
They could still get him out of office.
But instead, they want mass death.
Don’t forget that.
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Re: Postcards from an island of ruin: Puerto Rico after Hurr

Postby 82_28 » Tue Sep 26, 2017 6:03 pm

I bet wall st. forecloses on the entire island and is rebuilt like a themepark/vast burbclave. What is/can anyone going to do about it? Nothing can be done. Another triumph of disaster capitalism and the overwhelming power of the police state.

Now a Burbclave, that's the place to live. A city-state with its own constitution, a border, laws, cops, everything.


https://everything2.com/title/Burbclave

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There is no me. There is no you. There is all. There is no you. There is no me. And that is all. A profound acceptance of an enormous pageantry. A haunting certainty that the unifying principle of this universe is love. -- Propagandhi
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Re: Postcards from an island of ruin: Puerto Rico after Hurr

Postby norton ash » Wed Sep 27, 2017 1:05 pm

This is an all-hands-on-deck frigging disaster, and Venezuela needs to get involved. It's my feeling that the USA has to cooperate with them on urgent fuel and water delivery. Too bad Venezuela's on America's we-hate-you list, because non-cooperation (when things need to be done NOW) will definitely kill a lot more people.
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Re: Postcards from an island of ruin: Puerto Rico after Hurr

Postby seemslikeadream » Wed Sep 27, 2017 3:34 pm

Maddening.
3,000 shipping containers packed with food water & medicene have been sitting at the port in Puerto Rico since Saturday

https://twitter.com/DavidBegnaud/status ... 4983168000




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Mazars and Deutsche Bank could have ended this nightmare before it started.
They could still get him out of office.
But instead, they want mass death.
Don’t forget that.
User avatar
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Re: Postcards from an island of ruin: Puerto Rico after Hurr

Postby Cordelia » Wed Sep 27, 2017 5:34 pm

From 2008:

]Hurricanes, climate change and the cholera epidemic in Puerto Rico of 1855-1856.

Hurricanes and global climate changes may affect the environmental factors of cholera dynamics in warm coastal areas, vulnerable to seasonal or sporadic outbreaks. The cholera epidemic of Puerto Rico in 1855-1856 had a profound effect on the Puerto Rican society; but it was not influenced by any climatic events, such as preceding hurricanes or storms based on past documentary sources. Particularly, the environmental non-toxigenic strains of Vibrio Cholerae in Puerto Rican water sources can maintain their pathogenic potential for sporadic or erratic toxigenic cholera outbreaks--if a "perfect storm" ever occurs.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19400536


Today:


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Could recent hurricanes cause reemergence of cholera in Puerto Rico?


September 27, 2017 Dr. Peter Hotez, infectious disease, National School of Tropical Medicine, Tropical Diseases

The emergence of cholera in Haiti in 2010 is a poignant reminder that the Caribbean remains susceptible to outbreaks. Specifically with respect to Puerto Rico, there are several potential concerns.

A 1989 study published in Applied and Environmental Microbiology found Vibrio cholerae bacteria in the Mameyes River, a tropical rain forest watershed on the northeastern coast of Puerto Rico. Presumably V. cholerae could be recovered elsewhere on the island, although I’m not aware of studies that differentiate between pathogenic and non-pathogenic strains of the bacterium.

Another key factor is poverty because of its association with low sanitation, inadequate access to clean water and low-quality housing. According to the U.S. Census, of the 3.4 million people living in Puerto Rico, approximately 43.5 percent live in poverty, representing about 1.5 million people.

In that setting, Hurricane Maria has knocked out over 90 percent of the island’s power grid and a humanitarian emergency is unfolding, according to Puerto Rico’s governor. Of particular relevance to cholera, it was reported this week that 60 percent of the population may not have access to clean water.

These factors – the presence of the V. cholerae bacterium, poverty, collapsed infrastructure and lack of potable water access – create a toxic mix that could promote cholera outbreaks in Puerto Rico during the coming days and weeks. In a paper published in 2008, B. Christenson wrote that “Puerto Rican water sources can maintain their pathogenic potential for sporadic or erratic toxigenic cholera outbreaks – if a ‘perfect storm’ ever occurs.”

Hurricanes Maria and Irma might indeed be those perfect storms. We therefore need to take this risk seriously and take urgent measures to prevent the emergence of cholera as well as other catastrophic enteric diseases, including typhoid.

https://blogs.bcm.edu/2017/09/27/recent ... erto-rico/


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Re: Postcards from an island of ruin: Puerto Rico after Hurr

Postby 82_28 » Wed Sep 27, 2017 11:35 pm

From FB:

"I'm in Puerto Rico. I work as a power operator for the electric company. I have a 32 week pregnant wife, this is the first time since our collapse that facebook newsfeed logged and updated. This is my top story. I am enraged and desperate.
First off, Fema has federalized our gas and diesel channels. The lines at a gas station to fill your tank is around 12 hrs. I've done it twice. They have hoarded all resources and manpower meaning transportation truckers capable of supplying gas stations. Fema right now has made the gas crisis horrible. I travelled far to find family members since communications are down. All condos have no diesel so no water can go up the pumps to flush. The smell of shit and piss is beyond this hemisphere. Because of no diesel we are having our sick dying in their homes. Some died bc of oxygen failures bc their generators eventually died but bc of no way to get a drop a single drop of diesel or gas for a week. I found most of them. I still after a week cannot see my mom, a mountainside of dead trees are in the way making it impassable. I called her she has food and water for a day more. Thats gonna be my mission tomorrow. Get my mother some food.

Most and i mean almost all trees in the island are dead. Meaning no vapor. No clouds. No rain. We have to reforest inmedietly or we become a desert island. A dead island. I cannot recall a day where i looked up and saw no clouds. Its been a week now and the sight is terrifying. There have been absolutely no drops of any supplies to anyone. At all. There has been no msg on radios nor speakers regarding supply drops or water. Jones act prevents ships from around the world to come directly here without it stopping first in the US then having those supplies moved to a US shipping container and then sent here. So now the world can see the horror of that. They cannot send help directly and time is running out. As i write this i'm on a ceiling of the third home i called home during this disaster. As water and supplies and dangers arise we have to keep moving. My wife's best friend lost her pregnancy during this ordeal. Now im so terrified of my wifes pregnancy. I've no damn idea how in 7 weeks i'm gonna help my baby girl survive this heatwave that never stops now we lost our vegetation and she cannot travel bc of advance stage pregnancy. I felt useless trying to console my wife bc her bf baby died. Btw thank you airlines for charging 2k for a plane ticket when they normally sell for 300 so people can get away. I can see the small isla grande airstrip from here and see the little planes leave at all times , they are ferrying people to the dominican republic and then fly to the states. Granted our main intl airport suffer the lost of the traffic control for 30 miles and commercial flights are hesitant to come. Thanks for the price hike. Get the damn army to put a radar like in a war zone and get us moving. Anyway. This is my rant. I'm just desperate. I hope its not like what i heard at the bank line today that all trump said was that we need to pay wall street our debt while we are dying here and then he talks about peaceful protesters taking a knee on the anthem.

Originally posted by Lisa Innis-Ros


I sure don't know what to do. :blankstare

I don't know if it is happening now or it is to happen tomorrow but people are saying about a million people are marching in NYC right now (I think). I checked some local NYC TV sites and don't see anything about it yet.
There is no me. There is no you. There is all. There is no you. There is no me. And that is all. A profound acceptance of an enormous pageantry. A haunting certainty that the unifying principle of this universe is love. -- Propagandhi
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Re: Postcards from an island of ruin: Puerto Rico after Hurr

Postby Burnt Hill » Thu Sep 28, 2017 12:02 am

Puerto Rico to get help from NY in form of state troopers, ship stocked with supplies

Laura Figueroa


Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo has deployed 100 state police troopers, 60 National Guard soldiers and a ship stocked with supplies to Puerto Rico — part of the state’s latest shipment of aid to the hurricane battered island.

At a news conference in midtown Manhattan on Wednesday, Cuomo said the state was prepared to send an additional 245 national guard members, four Black Hawk Helicopters, and 16 Humvees to the island of 3.5 million U.S. citizens reeling from the aftermath of Hurricane Maria.

“Anything this state can do, this state will do,” said Cuomo, who traveled to Puerto Rico Friday to survey the damage at the request of the island’s Governor Ricardo Rosselló.

Cuomo said a ship dubbed “The Empire State,” belonging to SUNY Maritime, was already near Key West and ready to deliver dozens of pallets of supplies that have been collected over the past week at relief drives throughout the city. The shipment includes 22,000 bottles of water, 17,000 packages of baby wipes, 4,000 packages of diapers, and 2,000 canned food items, according to Cuomo’s office.

With much of the island’s infrastructure decimated by back- to-back hurricanes, Cuomo said up to 30 state Department of Transportation workers will be sent in the coming days to “perform highway restoration work” and to help distribute supplies. A team of state engineers was sent last week. Much of the island remains without electricity and running water.

Cuomo’s announcement came as President Donald Trump continues to face criticism from Democratic lawmakers who have said his response has been inadequate and slow moving. Trump is set to visit Puerto Rico on Tuesday — nearly two weeks after Maria made landfall.

Asked about the federal government’s response, Cuomo noted the Federal Emergency Management Agency was spread thin after responding to hurricane damage caused in Texas, Florida and the U.S. Virgin Islands earlier this month and in August.

“I’m not going to second guess what FEMA does,” Cuomo said. “I know that the overall effort has not satiated the need. We should be doing everything we can and all that we can and we should be addressing the need. I don’t think the collective is addressing the need.”

Cuomo said the state’s relief efforts would be largely reimbursed through the federal government and would cost “very little” to state taxpayers.

Also Wednesday, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced the city had deployed an additional 10 emergency management officers, and 64 FDNY officers to Puerto Rico in the past two days, bringing the city’s total number of personnel aiding on the island to 147 employees.
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Re: Postcards from an island of ruin: Puerto Rico after Hurr

Postby SonicG » Thu Sep 28, 2017 1:59 am

The earthquake in Mexico made me think about how there was an upswelling of popular organizations that ended up breaking up the PRI one-party dictatorship after the '85 earthquake there. I wonder what the political ramifications of this hurricane will be...Certainly, on the one hand, Shock Doctrine will be in full affect.

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The POTUS babbling about debt in the time of a major disaster will not be forgotten...
"a poiminint tidal wave in a notion of dynamite"
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Re: Postcards from an island of ruin: Puerto Rico after Hurr

Postby seemslikeadream » Fri Sep 29, 2017 7:48 am

“FEMA & First Responders are doing a GREAT job in Puerto Rico. Massive food & water delivered,” the president tweeted. :roll:

Russel L. Honoré, the retired lieutenant general appointed by a beleaguered President George W. Bush to take over the botched federal response to Hurricane Katrina in 2005, said the government needs to quickly move 50,000 troops to Puerto Rico.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-dy9-81zd0


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXpJ9KPqY44

ANGELS
Volunteer Pilots Swoop Into Puerto Rico With Supplies and Leave With Survivors
They came from as far away as Connecticut at a moment’s notice, landing at an airport without radar, and taking off with women and children.

KELLY WEILL
EMILIE PLESSET
09.29.17 5:00 AM ET
Paul Weismann got the call for help Monday night at his home in Connecticut. By Tuesday afternoon, he was flying to Puerto Rico on his personal plane, with food, water, and power generators as his passengers.
“You fly over Puerto Rico on the way to the airport, and you see the place is wrecked,” Weismann told The Daily Beast. At night, “a few streets and highways are lit up, because of people and businesses with generators. But the rest of the island was just pitch black.”
After landing on the island destroyed by Hurricane Maria last week, Weismann reloaded his plane—this time with young children, mothers, and senior citizens—and took off for the U.S.
Weismann isn’t a professional rescue pilot though. He’s a Connecticut-based investor working with Patient Airlift Services (PALS), a network of volunteer pilots. PALS mobilized pilots from across the U.S. to help Texas, Florida, and now Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands this hurricane season.

“You name it, we’ve done it,” said Eileen Minogue, the executive director of PALS. “We literally jumped into the deep end together to provide disaster relief and it just hasn’t stopped. We’ve been working for 30 days in a row right now pretty much round the clock just trying to provide support first in Houston and now in the islands.”
Her group, which usually provides airlift relief support within the United State’s northeast region, has partnered with other nonprofits to serve hurricane-stricken regions in Texas, Florida, and now the Caribbean. Since Maria hit, PALS has sent volunteer pilots to Caribbean islands like Puerto Rico daily, bringing satellite phones, water filters, generators, tarps, hammers, and medical supplies.

Pilots flew to Puerto Rico at their own risk; the storm disabled several traffic-control radars in San Juan.

“The hurricane knocked out all their radars, and I think most of their radio communications,” Weismann said. “They have technical teams, but the roads are all blocked, and the radars are up on the mountains.”

Much of Weismann’s work has been delivering supplies to air traffic controllers, so the airport can handle more planes. But he and other PALS pilots have also worked to evacuate some people to Florida, especially young children and senior citizens. Those chosen for evacuation are vetted through FEMA or other philanthropic groups on the ground.
Bob Lambert is a pilot from Michigan and has flown rescue missions for the past 10 years. He said he recently evacuated around 20 people, including children and their chaperones, from St. Thomas after flying rescue workers to the island.
“What becomes a little difficult mentally when you evacuate people, is deciding who really needs to go first,” he said. “That’s always a tough one mentally for me… That’s the emotional drain, making sure the people are safe and doing the best you can for the people.”

On Thursday morning, Weismann had evacuated 16 people, and was flying to Dominica, where he planned to evacuate more. Sometimes, as was the case with four mothers and their young children, Weismann coordinated with families to plan evacuations in advance. But spotty post-hurricane cellphone service meant that some planned evacuations fell through.

“People are contacting me asking if I can bring people out,” he said. “These contacts try to get in touch with people, telling them to get to the airport at the agreed time and find me. But they can’t get ahold of anybody because the phones are so terrible and spotty. People’s phones are going dead and can’t be recharged because they have no power.”

Fortunately, communications are still working from the air. Lambert said the only difference between flying to a storm-ravaged area and flying under normal conditions is that pilots need to carry extra fuel for the plane in case they receive incorrect information about landing conditions and have to turn back.

“It’s just human nature to try and help,” Lambert said. Small aircraft like those he and fellow PALS volunteers fly are “not a long-term necessity but the ability to react immediately and get on station quickly and land at small airports… we can literally respond in minutes or hours given the large number of airplanes that are willing to do this.”

Minogue said PALS expects to continue their efforts in Puerto Rico for the next four to six weeks.
“It just has escalated,” she said. “The 150 flights that we did in Harvey was a piece of cake compared to what we’re having to do in the islands.
Weismann said with increased demand has come a flood of volunteers.

“There’s hundreds of people coming out of chartered airlines,” Weismann said. “And firefighters, park service workers, forestry workers, rangers, and police. I saw a lot of FDNY there stacked up, ready to go inland and deploy. It was pretty moving to see what’s going on.”
http://www.thedailybeast.com/volunteer- ... -survivors


Puerto Ricans denounce US hurricane relief efforts
As Trump officials praise Hurricane Maria aid work, rural residents say they're without fresh water and food.


The US government declared its relief efforts in Puerto Rico were succeeding but people on the hurricane-devastated island said help was scarce and many residents were desperate for fresh water, food and electricity.

The complaints came eight days after Hurricane Maria slammed into the US territory of 3.4 million people, destroying much of the island's infrastructure.

"The federal response has been a disaster," said legislator Jose Enrique Melendez, a member of Governor Ricardo Rossello's New Progressive Party. "It's been really slow."

He said US officials had focused more on making a good impression on members of the media gathered at the capital San Juan's convention centre than bringing aid to rural Puerto Rico.


Trump praises his Hurricane relief in Puerto Rico, promises visit
"There are people literally just modeling their uniforms," Melendez said. "People are suffering outside."

President Donald Trump cleared the way for more supplies to reach Puerto Rico by issuing a 10-day waiver of federal restrictions on foreign ships delivering cargo to the island.

House Speaker Paul Ryan said the Federal Emergency Management Agency's disaster relief account would get a $6.7bn boost by the end of the week.

Presidential spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said 10,000 government workers, including more than 7,000 soldiers, were helping Puerto Rico recover.

Acting Homeland Security Secretary Elaine Duke declared "the relief effort is under control".

"It is really a good news story in terms of our ability to reach people," she told reporters in the White House driveway on Thursday.

However, outside San Juan, people said the comments from US officialdom were far from the truth.

"I have not seen any federal help around here," said Javier San Miguel, a 51-year-old accountant.

In the town of San Lorenzo, residents are collecting spring water to drink and taking turns cooking food for each other because residents are running low on basic supplies.

In the nearby fishing town of Catano, authorities said they would open a distribution point over the weekend to hand out food and water.

"We need food," said Maritza Gonzalez, a 49-year-old government worker.

Image
Hurricane survivors receive food and water given out by volunteers and police as they deal with the aftermath of Hurricane Maria [Joe Raedle/Getty Images
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/09/p ... 37562.html



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NZuy_LuwTFE

Published on Apr 24, 2016

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tt-mpuR_QHQ

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Mazars and Deutsche Bank could have ended this nightmare before it started.
They could still get him out of office.
But instead, they want mass death.
Don’t forget that.
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