Early on Thursday morning, Donald Trump finally raised shipping limitations imposed by the Jones Act. The change—announced in a tweet by Sarah Huckabee Sanders—following the furor when Trump declared that he was putting the interest of shipping companies ahead of the lives of Americans on Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.
Trump said he was initially considering whether to implement a temporary waiver of the Jones Act to allow it, but decided against doing so as "a lot of people that work in the shipping industry…don’t want the Jones Act lifted."
The Act, which goods traveling from one site in the US to another must travel on ships not only owned by US companies, but also built and crewed in the US, not only severely limited the amount of material that could be delivered to Puerto Rico, but meant that prices for goods delivered to the island are much higher than they should be. The Jones Act had been temporarily waived for both Florida and Texas following hurricanes there, but until Thursday, Trump put the interest of shipping companies ahead of needs in Puerto Rico.
Additional shipments coming in and lowered prices for supplies should both be a boost to Puerto Rico. However, for much of the island they won’t make an immediate impact thanks to a failure at the next link in the logistical chain.
Distributors for big-box companies and smaller retailers are unloading 4,000 20-foot containers full of necessities like food, water and soap this week at a dock in Puerto Rico’s capital operated by Crowley Maritime Corp. In the past few days, Tote Maritime’s terminal has taken the equivalent of almost 3,000. The two facilities have become choke points in the effort to aid survivors of Hurricane Maria.
There’s a shortage of people to unload the containers and drive trucks to areas outside the capital, and military personal being sent in are a fraction of those sent to other disasters.
So far, a combination of about 5,000 members of National Guard forces and active military have been sent to assist in Puerto Rico. Which is a long way from enough to work with a population of 3.5 million in crisis.
The pace of military deployment for the disaster in Puerto Rico is astounding for in its slowness, but the effort now seems to be kicking into a higher gear.
In the first six days after the hurricane made landfall here, the Navy had deployed just two ships, citing concerns that Puerto Rico’s ports were too damaged to accommodate numerous large vessels. But harrowing reports of isolated U.S. citizens struggling in the heat without electricity and running low on food and water have now spurred the Pentagon to throw resources into the relief effort even though they haven’t been specifically requested by territorial officials.
The issue of port crowding has been raised both in excusing military inaction and the reluctance to waive the Jones Act. However, much of what’s happening seems to reflect a simple lack of preparedness. For example, the hospital ship USNS Comfort is still not on its way to Puerto Rico, despite announcements that it was.
The mammoth ship was docked Tuesday in its home port of Norfolk, Virginia, with a minimal crew, requiring up to five days to stock up and get underway. When reached by phone Tuesday afternoon, the commanding officer of the ship's hospital, Capt. Kevin D. Buckley, said, "The Comfort is ready to go, if the call comes."
The order to move finally came, a week after the storm, but the Comfort is not still stocking up and preparing — something that could have been done a week before Maria hit Puerto Rico, as soon as the power and course of the storm became clear. In another comparison to the disaster in Haiti, in that situation the Comfort was ordered on its way immediately following the earthquake.
While the White House has finally decided to allow foreign built or flagged ships to deliver supplies during the emergency, there’s another group it has banned from the island.
The Trump administration is restricting members of Congress from making official visits as part of official delegations to the hurricane-battered U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico, congressional sources from both parties said Wednesday. …
The office of Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., who had been organizing a visit to Puerto Rico by several representatives and senators from both parties, "is now trying to figure out alternatives to make this happen, as the situation on the island is extremely dire," a spokesperson said.
"My boss is eager to get down there to assess the federal response thus far," the spokesperson said.
The San Juan Airport is open, though the speed of flights going in and out is severely restricted by the damaged infrastructure. The argument that restricting Congressional flights is necessary because of conditions has some validity—though it has the notable side effect of preventing any Congressional oversight or evaluation of conditions on the ground.