STOP TRYING TO MAKE KATRINA HAPPEN. KATRINA ISN’T GOING TO HAPPEN. Amid NFL Obsession, Media Blinds Itself to Trump’s Puerto Rico Relief Efforts.
The message was clear: Trump was doing nothing to help Puerto Rico (based on liberal bias and tweets).
As it turns out, it was the media ignoring Puerto Rico—not Trump.
PBS’s John Yang spoke to Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rossello about the help he has received from the states. Rosselo immediately said he was “very grateful for the administration” and that “they have responded quickly.”
“The president has been very attentive to the situation, personally calling me several times,” Rossello said. “FEMA and the FEMA director have been here in Puerto Rico twice. As a matter of fact, they were here with us today, making sure that all the resources in FEMA were working in conjunction with the central government.”
He asked Congress to quickly provide an aid package to the island.
Politico reported, “Rossello and other officials praised the federal government for planning its response in detail before the storm hit, a contrast with what Puerto Rico has long seen as the neglect of 3.4 million Americans living in a territory without a vote in Congress or the electoral college.”
Tweets mean nothing. It takes no effort at all to send one. Acting like Trump actually spent all day Monday caring about the NFL because of what he tweeted is absurd. Does the media really think all he does is tweet? It sure seems like it. They would rather write dozens of articles about every single one of the president’s tweets than look into what he’s actually doing.
Or maybe they can’t. Maybe [the press’s] humping President Barack Obama’s leg for eight years has made the current Republican administration unwilling to share as much information, because they know it’ll be spun negatively.
Ouch. Well, there’s lots of info at the FEMA website, such as: “There are more than 8,800 federal staff, including more than 600 FEMA personnel, on the ground in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands engaged in response and recovery operations from Hurricanes Maria and Irma.”
And:
FEMA, working in coordination with federal partners, provided more than 4.4 million meals, 6.5 million liters of water, nearly 300 infant and toddler kits to support 3000 infants for a full week, 70,000 tarps, and 15,000 rolls of roof sheeting to the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico since Hurricane Maria’s landfall.
FEMA is delivering food and water to territorial points of distribution (POD) locations in 7 municipalities in Puerto Rico. Please reach out to municipality officials for specific locations. More PODs will continue to open as areas become accessible.
Officials in the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico opened points of distribution (POD) in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands for survivors to get meals, water, and other commodities. The Governor of the U.S. Virgin Islands announced that PODs in the islands will be closed Wednesday, but 16 locations in St. Thomas, St. Croix, and St. John are scheduled to be open tomorrow.
In Puerto Rico, fuel was delivered to 19 hospitals for power generators. 200 gas stations received fuel yesterday for distribution to residents of Puerto Rico.
Maybe if Trump tweets it, the press will notice.