ProPublica reports that FEMA had a plan on the books on how to respond in the case a major hurricane hits the Caribbean island of PR. This plan was drafted under the Obama administration, several years ago, in response to the bungling debacle that was Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Now FEMA, refuses to release the plan for Puerto Rico from public scrutiny citing “potentially sensitive information”.
The plan, known as a hurricane annex, runs more than 100 pages and explains exactly what FEMA and other agencies would do in the event that a large storm struck the island. The document could help experts assess both how well the federal government had prepared for a storm the size of Hurricane Maria and whether FEMA’s response matches what was planned. The agency began drafting such advance plans after it was excoriated for poor performance and lack of preparation in the wake of Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
ProPublica requested a copy of the Puerto Rico hurricane annex as part of its reporting on the federal response to Maria, the scale and speed of which has been the subject of scrutiny and criticism. More than a month after the storm made landfall, 73 percent of the island still lacks electricity.
snip
As ProPublica has previously reported, FEMA’s Freedom of Information process is plagued by dysfunction and yearslong backlogs. For example, FEMA hasn’t responded to a request for documents related to Superstorm Sandy that we filed more than three and a half years ago.
After FEMA declined to release the Puerto Rico hurricane plan, we found the agency’s equivalent plan for Hawaii posted, unredacted, on the internet by the Department of Defense. The Hawaii plan includes granular details down to, for example, how many specially outfitted medical aircraft the federal government would send to Hawaii after a Category 4 hurricane. It also describes an 85-step process to restore electricity on the islands.
Asked why the Puerto Rico plan was too sensitive to release publicly while the Hawaii plan was not, a FEMA spokesman said: “We aren’t able to speak for DoD or the State of Hawaii.”
When Irma and Maria hit the islands, I knew deep down that there had to be a plan for a hurricane strike in the Caribbean. President Obama would have insisted upon it, he was that kind of President. Thanks for excellent reporting by Justin Elliott and Decca Muldowney we now know it existed and that it was not acted upon. I’d like to know why.
Nurses returning from Puerto Rico accuse the federal government of leaving people to die
The nation's largest nurses union condemned the federal government's emergency response in Puerto Rico on Thursday for "delaying necessary humanitarian aide to its own citizens and leaving them to die."
The stinging criticism came from members of the nonprofit National Nurses United, speaking on Capitol Hill with Democratic members of Congress after a two-week humanitarian mission to Puerto Rico. About 50 volunteer nurses visited two dozen towns in urban and rural areas, and described the desperation of Puerto Ricans — even five weeks after Hurricane Maria hit the island — as worse than anything they had witnessed on other humanitarian missions, including the aftermath of Katrina in New Orleans and the earthquake in Haiti.
snip
The nurses described doctors performing surgery in hospitals with light from their cellphones, children screaming from hunger, elderly residents suffering from severe dehydration, and black mold spreading throughout entire communities.
snip
The nurses union said it had put out a report about its findings in Puerto Rico but the FEMA administrator in Puerto Rico has yet to return the union’s calls to discuss them.
Here is what most concerned them from their experience on the ground:
- People standing in line for hours in the sun for food and water, with federal workers giving them paperwork instead of distributing supplies
- Residents living in soaked homes without roofs, where dangerous black mold is spreading and leading to respiratory problems
- Rural towns that have never gotten food and water supplies, and yet have no running water and no electricity
- An outbreak of leptospirosis, a dangerous bacterial disease that has already claimed lives; as of Thursday, four deaths have been attributed to this outbreak
- Multiple communities without clean water that are at risk of the outbreak of water-borne illness epidemics
Friday, Oct 27, 2017 · 10:31:49 AM +00:00 · Pakalolo
DONATION LINKS
Here’s some great agencies with aid-workers hard at work on the ground in PR right now:
www.internationalmedicalrelief.org
You can donate right to the José Andrés’s Chef’s group at https://www.worldcentralkitchen.org
Hispanic Federation
Americares
Hurricane Maria Community Recovery Fund
Catholic Relief Services Hurricane Relief (Caribbean-wide)
Here is a GoFundMe we can get behind as well. To help those in the most need, celebrities and others started sending their private planes to pick up cancer patients, elderly, people needing medical care, etc.
More donation sites worthy of contributions. Thanks for posting them bfitzinAR
DK ACT BLUE (and other) DISASTER RELIEF DONATION LINKS:
Here’s a link from Bill McKibben for an org to help Puerto Rico:
From Vetwife, Former Presidents Working for All Americans:
Another choice, from Denise Oliver Velez:
- Unidos Fund, from the Hispanic Federation (After you click the orange DONATE button on the Unidos page, you’ll see a dropdown below your name & address. You can choose to donate to hurricane relief for PR, and also to Mexican earthquake relief.)
And of course, h/t TexMex: