Nearly half of Americans do not know Puerto Ricans are our fellow citizens
This is going to affect the way we allocate and prioritize relief efforts and FEMA funding. I think this is a huge deal, and I can see where we are going to be looking at a total disparity between Texas, Florida, St Croix, and Puerto Rico. Meanwhile it is a worse problem in terms of how many and how lives are affected. The damages and impact on the people that live there is going to be subjected to ridiculous applications of funding and relief efforts.
Funding should be allocated from Congress as an aggregate fund that is distributed on a priority need basis. Priority would look something like…
1. Immediate emergency relief efforts that saves lives and enables roads and critical infrastructure to function. The military has the most comprehensive equipment and capabilities to make this category happen in the quickest and most effective manner. Disaster areas that are no longer facing that level of crisis would take a back seat over those that are stabilized and seeing rebuilding efforts getting under way.
2. Rebuilding and fixing infrastructure, bridges, water/sewer, electrical grid, roads. And here is an area that FEMA is prone to bleeding and wasting huge sums of money to large predatory corporations that are set up to specialize in vastly profitable rebuilding. FEMA should provide the equipment and consulting/management expertise that allows local talent to do the work. Puerto Rico has backhoe operators, they have hundreds if not thousands of people who would love to get paid to use a shovel. This puts people to work and saves vast sums of money from what it costs to mount the logistics of a US construction firm to operate overseas. It literally costs hundreds of thousands of dollars per person that’s working for a mainland based corporation. On Puerto Rican economy that one person’s pay would put hundreds of people to work, and hundreds of people can get a lot done. Put this money to work in ways that improve their economy, not wealthy american corporations.
3. ...and I flat think it is a distant last priority that would only come after one and two is well funded and underway, government involvement in paying directly for rebuilding homes or businesses. This is what insurance is for, Period. Don’t have insurance (because insurance companies won’t cover flood prone areas?), too bad, that’s a risk that is of a personal nature to own a house that can’t be insured. Don’t have insurance (because the house was too substandard to be underwritten) Too bad, that is not the rest of America’s problem that either doesn’t own a home, or has insurance on their homes and businesses at substantial cost. Building in a flood prone area makes sense only to those who find the risk acceptable because the tradeoff is that it costs less because of that.
Emotions and feelings of compassion for those experiencing tragedy and loss has to take a back seat to cold hard realities of what we can afford if we keep getting hit with disasters. The money will break us if it keeps happening, and that demands a sense of moderation and cost accountability on relief obligations. Also a hard cold pragmatic application toward multiple disasters.
We are likely to see money allocated for Harvey, then money for Irma, St Croix will take a back seat due to Congress feeling the Texas & Florida crunch, Puerto Rico will come under a shadow of not having any money left for doing things the way we will be paying for Texas and Florida. People who do not even know these are US citizens will not be prone to funding relief efforts the same way they support domestic disasters.
Oh, and with the GOP scumbags we have? They will be looking at cutting entitlements, privatizing social security and the VA, that is inevitable. Harvey money, no problem as long as you fund the wall, Florida sure, Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico, we can’t afford it, what are you willing to cut?
One of my wife’s employees has a husband that is a coordinator for the CDF fire system. It is his job to coordinate resources and deploy air and ground support, and organize the support such as tents, mobile bunk houses, cafeterias, mobile showers, etc. The fire season is winding down so he is being loaned to FEMA and was scheduled to go to Puerto Rico this week, that has been delayed because there was no room in the cruise ships that are providing beds and support.
The whole of FEMA needs that kind of resource coordination effort, not individual disaster coordination.