'Hysteria Is Starting to Spread' As Humanitarian Crisis Grows in Puerto Rico After Maria

https://weather.com/storms/hurricane/news/hurricane-maria-puerto-rico-us-virgin-islands-dominica-car ^ | 9/23/17 | Pam Wright

[Kartographer]

"Hysteria is starting to spread. The hospital is about to collapse. It's at capacity," Mayor Jose Sanchez Gonzalez of the north coastal town of Manati told the Associated Press Saturday, crying. "We need someone to help us immediately."

Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rosselló told The Weather Channel they were attempting to reach the most remote areas of the island by helicopter, as travel has been crippled by debris and downed power lines on Puerto Rico's roads. Officials said Saturday they still could not communicate with more than half the territory's towns.

Local newspaper El Nuevo Dia reported Saturday evening that the Puerto Rico Environmental Quality Board and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency were attempting to take control of a tanker loaded with fuel that was adrift in the sea near Salinas. The agencies are concerned that a spillage could occur should the tanker run aground.

[grobdriver]

Surely there is at least some equivalent in the U.S. Navy capable of responding!

Yes, and they're engaged:

Eight Navy ships, other assets mobilized after hurricanes Harvey and Irma

Navy and Marines prepare to deploy to help Hurricane Harvey victims

So they're not all in port, mobbing the clubs.

[Caipirabob]

I'm mortified that I have friends who cannot locate their family yet. They knew another storm was inbound but...nothing!

Prayers for the good people of Puerto Rico and may the monsters who destroyed their infrastructure and wasted their wealth so that they were not prepared for this disaster be confronted with their evils at final justice.

[Eleutheria5]

OK. So you find some tugboats, and there’s still no pilot. Does the EPA have a pilot available? Someone who can maneuver an oil tanker? I suspect not.

[Joe Boucher]

About a third of Puerto Ricans already live in Florida.
Me thinks about 75 percent of those left there will be moving here in the near future.

[PIF]

There are only two dedicated hospital ships.

USNS COMFORT (T-AH 20)
USNS MERCY

[raybbr]

Right, it says they’re working on it. How many tugboats do you think are in PR?

[trebb]

The Democrats are going to try to turn this into Trump’s “Katrina”, count on it.

And a lot of FReepers and "principled conservatives" will help them by demanding none of their tax dollars gets illegally spent via humanitarian relief for American Citizens.....

[SkyPilot]

My wife likes to watch the TV show House Hunters International.

Whenever they would have an episode of a couple or family looking to purchase homes in places like Nicaragua or parts of the Caribbean, I would always shudder at the naivety of some of the buyers.

I traveled to every continent and scores of countries during my flying career, and I am convinced that most of these people do not understand the Third World or near Third World.

People talk about cities having a "Thin Blue Line" of cops to protect us from crime. Well, in the many of these countries, the veneer of civilization, law, and much else is very thin indeed. I still remember a show where some young blond wife was shown walking through a street with everyone starring at her. She was wearing her fine clothes and jewels, stating she wanted to live "right near downtown" so she could "shop and experience the local culture."

Lady, you are a Gringo or Toubab, and when things go south, you are the first on their list to rob or attack. As in St. Maarten and Barbuda after Irma, the British Virgin Islands, and elsewhere, many whites found this out the hard way.

Looters ‘armed with machetes and guns’ ransack hotels on St Maarten after Hurricane Irma Read more: http://metro.co.uk/2017/09/10/looters-armed-with-machetes-and-guns-ransack-hotels-on-st-maarten-after-hurricane-irma-6916033/#ixzz4tarYEbgc

[SauronOfMordor]

The US Navy has two 1000-bed capacity hospital ships. The one based on the east coast :

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/USNS_Comfort_(T-AH-20)

[DNME]

Think of prepping as real-world insurance.

A homeowner’s policy (hopefully) will pay to replace what you’ve lost, but a generator in the garage provides more immediate benefits. You can bet those PR preppers with even a few cases of bottled water set aside are glad they did.

Prepping only becomes worthwhile when the fertilizer hits the fan. Then it becomes the best insurance policy in the whole wide world.

[eartick]

What happened to hospital ships?

Sure there is. Our tax dollar sends them all over the world helping our enemies. It seems we can send them to PR if they are not deployed along the Gulf Coast already.

[Eleutheria5]

After the storm? Maybe there are pilots, too. But the EPA wouldn’t know what to do. They push paper.

[usmom]

I always think the same things when I watch these shows. The people are so naive regarding the thin veneer of civilization where they want to live just because it looks like ‘paradise’.
On another note, last spring my son and high school band were supposed to go to Puerto Rico for a trip. Months before the trip was cancelled due to infrastructure and security concerns of protecting hundreds of (at least to locals) well-off white Americans. Since safety could not be guarnteed, they cancelled and went to Disney instead.

[Jane Long]

🙄

[Blennos]

Better link:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/USNS_Comfort_%28T-AH-20%29

[PghBaldy]

Every time during the last few days that I caught a few minutes of news, it wad either Mexico, North Korea, or Trump vs. NBA. Puerto Rico is ignored.

[miss marmelstein]

What happens when your house collapses on your prepwork?

[Seruzawa]

Too busy handling pregnant sailors. (I never ever thought that I would write that someday.)

[Seruzawa]

It’s really sad that since the media found out that attempts to beat up on Trump about hurricanes are futile they are ignoring hurricanes. What filthy scum.

[Travis McGee]

PR will be a good test lab for total SHTF. Worse than Katrina, because it’s not attached to 47 other states by a highway system. The cavalry is going to take a long time to arrive, much more slowly than the social disintegration will take place.