Donald Trump is still in the learning process about Puerto Rico, clearly. Part of the problem is that he's still stuck on one remarkable (to him) fact.
But he remains doggedly insistent that he's getting great reviews on his performance. Puerto Ricans disagree, with San Juan's mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz blasting the administration's response and telling "a story of a devastation that continues to worsen because people are not getting food and water." Case in point, Vieques, another small island seven miles off the east coast of Puerto Rico where 9,000 residents have been trapped for a week without running water, power, gasoline or communications. The only report the world has from the island is from Amy Gordon, a freelance journalist who lives in Vieques and who evacuated late Monday.
The water sanitation plant has not run in four days because of a lack of fuel, threatening an island-wide sewage backup. The backup generator at the only hospital in Vieques was stolen; the remaining generator is almost out of fuel, and 18 dialysis patients cannot survive without consistent power to the hospital. […]
In the days since [Monday], I have been constantly responding to posts from people in the United States and across the globe asking if their loved ones on Vieques are okay. With no direct communication between Vieques and the rest of the world, I am one of very few people that can offer any information about the people still trapped there. But I don’t know what has happened to them since I left.
On the main island, Puerto Ricans are nearly as desperate but are at least able to tell their story to the rest of the world.
"I have not received any help, and we ran out of food yesterday," said Mari Olivo, a 27-year-old homemaker whose husband was pushing a shopping cart with empty plastic gallon jugs while their two children, 9 and 7, each toted a large bucket. They stood in line in a parking lot in the town of Bayamon near the hard-hit northern coast, where local police used hoses to fill up containers from a city water truck.
"I have not seen any federal help around here," said Javier San Miguel, a 51-year-old accountant.
The individual stories of suffering go on and on. But since they aren't on any of Trump's shows in the morning he hasn't gotten past the map stage of all this yet. Maybe while he's back at the golf course this weekend his staff can work on that.