U.S. denies request for Puerto Rico shipping waiver

[Col Hogan]

CBS News just reported that plenty of supplies have reached the island...but there is a severe shortage of truck drivers to get them out of the port...the video showed hundreds of shipping containers that the reporter said have been sitting there since Saturday...

[JohnStOnge]

Oh - and pretty pathetic was Trump's reasoning for not lifting it.

If it's what I saw that was pretty brain dead. What I saw him say is that shipping companies were against doing it. Even if it's true that is not an astute thing to say.

Otherwise: I wrote earlier that I don't think Harvey was as bad as Katrina. Since then everything I've seen has made me more confident of that assessment. Things like almost NO disruption in sporting events. A few things canceled right at the start but professional baseball games and football games as well as college football games being held in the impact area very shortly thereafter. No way the Harvey area could have been as negatively impacted as the Katrina impact area was and have that kind of stuff going on.

Imra was bad too. Some Islands were particularly hard hit. But they have small populations. Then Florida largely dodged a bullet. It was VERY bad. But nothing like the Katrina situation.

THIS thing....Maria hitting Puerto Rico...is really bad. THIS thing might be worse than the Katrina situation. It wasn't a Category 5 when it hit the Island but it was only two mph short of that (155 sustained wind vs. 157 for a Category 5). It's an Island. It's hard to get aid to them. I wouldn't be surprised if, when all is said and done, we find that a WHOLE lot of people were killed during the immediate impact and/or died (or will die) during the resulting aftermath. People had and have nowhere to go.

I don't know how the monetary cost will stack up historically but the human suffering and physical damage is likely to end up being seen as really, really horrific.

[JohnStOnge]

By the way, do ANY of you REALLY think that Puerto Rico officials would be criticizing the Trump administration right now even if they DID have some problems with the response?

They'd have to be stupid to do that.

[ALPHAGRIZ1]

The views quoted by most on this thread is NOT what friends who LIVE in Puerto Rico are saying and experiencing.

10-12 hour lines for fuel. 2 hour lines for food and water, and that is running out. Parts of the island unreachable.

While lifting the Jones Act may not have an impact today, it will in the near future. And needs to be removed permenantly.

It's not America..........so fucking what. How about they pull the fucking wagon awhile and quit being leeches! Fix it yourself you fucking whiners Jesus Christ this shit is nauseating

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[CID1990]

The views quoted by most on this thread is NOT what friends who LIVE in Puerto Rico are saying and experiencing.

10-12 hour lines for fuel. 2 hour lines for food and water, and that is running out. Parts of the island unreachable.

While lifting the Jones Act may not have an impact today, it will in the near future. And needs to be removed permenantly.

Everybody knows people in PR, Jon.

It's pretty much common knowledge what the conditions are there

I've actually been into every container port in PR, on US Navy ships, and DHS' reasoning is a legitimate concern. Given that this is going to be bad no matter what they do, they are erring on the side of not doing anything overt to make the situation worse.

In the next few weeks Ill be willing to bet that we will see aircraft and possibly flat bottom gators from the Navy taking supplies in because that circumvents the port capacity problem

[Col Hogan]

I just got this from a trusted source deeply involved in Puerto Rico aid efforts...

The Puerto Rico Emergency Management Agency has collapsed and the PR National Guard is taking over for them. A failure of civilian management on par with New Orleans. As of today the PR NG is leading the effort and it will improve.

[JohnStOnge]

I just got this from a trusted source deeply involved in Puerto Rico aid efforts...

The Puerto Rico Emergency Management Agency has collapsed and the PR National Guard is taking over for them. A failure of civilian management on par with New Orleans. As of today the PR NG is leading the effort and it will improve.

I suspect that there is a limit to what anyone can do. I think we live in an age where people do not take how difficult a situation is into account so that whoever is managing a situation like that risks a lot of criticism. There's not a lot of "They did well considering what the situation was." There's going to be a lot of suffering. We'll have to wait and see how much we see on TV. It's a little different than the Katrina thing in that the media don't have as much physical access. But if they want to show pictures of people suffering and they can get there there are and will be plenty of opportunity for such pictures. Also plenty of opportunity to interview people who are frustrated and feel like they've been abandoned and/or like not enough of an effort has been made to help them.

[CID1990]

Consular Affairs has people in all of the affected areas where there are USCs. Primarily for getting people out of non-US territories and countries. It's bad.

That said, civilian leadership is sorely lacking in emergency prep and response. For small scale things like a factory explosion or something like that, political leaders and larger response organizations generally stay away and the local responders handle the situation.

Larger scale events that get wide coverage are a different animal- major decisions have to be made by politicians who may be long on charisma and photogenic qualities but short on real world judgment and large scale operations. Then you have top heavy, bureaucratically clumsy organizations like FEMA that are slow to move in the first place, waiting on decisions from politicians who place political considerations at the same level as operational ones.

This is why in most cases, the military does a MUCH better job at emergency response, even though the military can be just as inept - they have a game plan and they carry it out in a methodical manner without pausing to consider the political.


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[Col Hogan]

The White House has waived the Jones Act at the request of the PR governor

[Skjellyfetti]

The White House has waived the Jones Act at the request of the PR governor

Good news.

I'm sure y'all still think this is a turrible idea.

[CAA Flagship]

The White House has waived the Jones Act at the request of the PR governor

Good news.

I'm sure y'all still think this is a turrible idea.

Not a terrible idea, but it won't matter for a while.
Saw a live report from Port of San Juan on CNBC this morning. Ship in port full of containers. 9500 containers sitting in shipyard. No workers to move the containers. Supply chain has a number of breaks in it. Shipping not one of them.

[GannonFan]

Good news.

I'm sure y'all still think this is a turrible idea.

Not a terrible idea, but it won't matter for a while.
Saw a live report from Port of San Juan on CNBC this morning. Ship in port full of containers. 9500 containers sitting in shipyard. No workers to move the containers. Supply chain has a number of breaks in it. Shipping not one of them.

Agreed, it doesn't matter. It just gives the Donks one less thing to bang the drum about. But it was just noise and politics. GOP would be doing the same to a Dem President. Disaster relief on the ground, not the shipping in and out of PR, is the biggest issue, and it will continue to be as the damage is so widespread.

[Pwns]

So where's all the "Racism! Trump's Katrina!" people now? (not any here, but around the liberal blogosphere.

[CAA Flagship]

So the current problem is that the cell phone service is down over most of PR and the port can't contact the workers to get the supplies moving. You would think these people would find a way to check in, but I guess not.
So if this is the major bottleneck, seems like mobilizing truck drivers and port workers would be the thing to do at this time.

[89Hen]

The White House has waived the Jones Act at the request of the PR governor

Good news.

I'm sure y'all still think this is a turrible idea.

You really need to just stop posting on this thread Jelly and get to a doctor.

[89Hen]

Not a terrible idea, but it won't matter for a while.
Saw a live report from Port of San Juan on CNBC this morning. Ship in port full of containers. 9500 containers sitting in shipyard. No workers to move the containers. Supply chain has a number of breaks in it. Shipping not one of them.

Agreed, it doesn't matter. It just gives the Donks one less thing to bang the drum about.

They'll find two or three more to replace it and forget they all said those ignorant things.

[CID1990]

The White House has waived the Jones Act at the request of the PR governor

Good news.

I'm sure y'all still think this is a turrible idea.

You REALLY need to work on your reading comprehension.


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[dbackjon]

The White House has waived the Jones Act at the request of the PR governor

for only 10 days

[dbackjon]

CBS News just reported that plenty of supplies have reached the island...but there is a severe shortage of truck drivers to get them out of the port...the video showed hundreds of shipping containers that the reporter said have been sitting there since Saturday...

If only the United States had spent trillions on training and employing people that are under their control and can drive trucks...

[Gil Dobie]

CBS News just reported that plenty of supplies have reached the island...but there is a severe shortage of truck drivers to get them out of the port...the video showed hundreds of shipping containers that the reporter said have been sitting there since Saturday...

If only the United States had spent trillions on training and employing people that are under their control and can drive trucks...

You mean Obama didn't train any either.

[Skjellyfetti]

If only the United States had spent trillions on training and employing people that are under their control and can drive trucks...

You mean Obama didn't train any either.

I don't think he's saying we're lacking.

Active duty, National Guard, etc.

[dbackjon]

You mean Obama didn't train any either.

I don't think he's saying we're lacking.

Active duty, National Guard, etc.

bingo!

We have tens of thousands trained and under Uncle Sam's control. USE them!

[CAA Flagship]

I don't think he's saying we're lacking.

Active duty, National Guard, etc.

bingo!

We have tens of thousands trained and under Uncle Sam's control. USE them!

Well that is what I said in my last post.
But who would have guessed that the PR workers wouldn't show up for this long? Hell, if they don't have supplies at home, they had to know that there would be supplies at their job site.

[dbackjon]

bingo!

We have tens of thousands trained and under Uncle Sam's control. USE them!

Well that is what I said in my last post.
But who would have guessed that the PR workers wouldn't show up for this long? Hell, if they don't have supplies at home, they had to know that there would be supplies at their job site.

Hard to get to work with roads blocked, no gas, etc. communication has been poor, with less than 25% of cell towers working. And people have no electricity to charge phones.

[dbackjon]

Democratic Senators trying to help Trump do his job.