20,000 pallets of bottled water left untouched in storm-ravaged Puerto Rico

Southern Dad · Sep 13, 2018

CNN reports that there are 20,000 pallets of drinking water still sitting on a tarmac more than a year after FEMA brought them to Puerto Rico. The federal government through FEMA or the military is responsible to get the materials and supplies to Puerto Rico but local authorities are responsible to distribute it. More than a year out in the sunlight and heat this water now has a foul taste. This is a huge mismanagement problem. Why did Florida and Texas fare so much better in their disaster recover after these two hurricanes hit? I believe the reason is preparedness. Florida and Texas prepare for storms. They have plans and procedures in place to make the recovery go faster. In addition they are not an island 1,100 miles away from the mainland with 3.3 million people in an area smaller than Connecticut.

What do you think? Why was Puerto Rico not more prepared for these storms? Could it happen again?

20,000 pallets of bottled water left untouched in storm-ravaged Puerto Rico

Ceiba, Puerto Rico (CNN)The stockpile of bottled water stretches down an unused runway in Ceiba. Case after case, pallet piled upon pallet, blue tarps and plastic glinting in the sun.

The emergency supplies were brought in by FEMA in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria, which smashed the island and left its residents without power, without roofs and without running water.

Federal officials commandeered the area in the far east of the island last fall as a staging ground, collecting the water and containers full of tarps to patch damaged and destroyed roofs in surrounding neighborhoods.
And there the supplies sat. And sat. Storm survivors were collecting spring water from the mountains for cooking and bathing, even with the threat of disease that brought.

CNN - 09/13/2018

180912153529-puerto-rico-water-bottles-3-exlarge-169.jpg

Ralph47 · Sep 13, 2018

See, Trump was indeed correct for criticizing PR authorities.

arcturus88 · Sep 13, 2018

I'm surprised CNN reported it.
it runs counter to the narrative that Trump is the cause of all the world's woes.

arcturus88 · Sep 13, 2018

its the Katrina affect. people in a socialized nanny state begin to hope for big daddy government to bail them out instead of helping themselves. but as time shows again and again the government is fairly inefficient at most things.

Southern Dad · Sep 13, 2018

arcturus88 said:
I'm surprised CNN reported it.
it runs counter to the narrative that Trump is the cause of all the world's woes.

CNN wasn't the only one reporting it, nor were they the first. It was pretty hard to hide all that water sitting on a runway and then say that people didn't have water.

arcturus88 said:
its the Katrina affect. people in a socialized nanny state begin to hope for big daddy government to bail them out instead of helping themselves. but as time shows again and again the government is fairly inefficient at most things.

You hit the nail on the head. Many people do not even carry flood or hurricane insurance because they think that FEMA will bail them out in the event of a disaster. Bad choice.

Southern Dad · Sep 13, 2018

Ralph47 said:
See, Trump was indeed correct for criticizing PR authorities.

Puerto Rico's biggest problem is the complete lack of prior planning for such an emergency. Hurricanes hit there often but never two of that magnitude. The electric company the equivalent of an Electric Membership Corporation (EMC). The electric rates in PR are some of the highest in the nation. I think AK and HI are pretty high, too. Because of these high rates, the electric company has not been able to get additional costs passed on to the customers to update the horrible electric grid.

*Note* Thank you for not adding a huge unrelated picture or GIF.

Okashii · Sep 13, 2018

From your own article:

And apparently, the supplies were just left there, lost perhaps in poor communication and collaboration.

FEMA handles getting the supplies to the state or commonwealth, who in turn handle distributing those items at a local level, said Jeff Byard, FEMA Associate Administrator for Response and Recovery. "Obviously with Maria, we had not a supply issue, we had distribution issues," he said during a briefing about Hurricane Florence.

So we fucked it up, basically. Not PR's fault.

Ralph47 · Sep 13, 2018

Okashii said:
From your own article:

So we fucked it up, basically. Not PR's fault.

WE with PR being part of us.

Southern Dad · Sep 13, 2018

Okashii said:
From your own article:

So we fucked it up, basically. Not PR's fault.

We fucked it up? We got the supplies to PR. Are you telling me that no one at this airfield questioned what this water was doing there for more than a year?

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Southern Dad · Sep 13, 2018

Ralph47 said:
WE with PR being part of us.

PR had people needing water. This water was there. Are you telling me they couldn’t give it out?

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Ralph47 · Sep 13, 2018

Southern Dad said:
PR had people needing water. This water was there. Are you telling me they couldn’t give it out?

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

PR drivers failed to deliver! LITERALLY.

Okashii · Sep 16, 2018

I'm not telling you, the article you posted is telling you.

Southern Dad · Sep 17, 2018

That water sat in Puerto Rico so long, the the heat ruined it.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Ralph47 · Sep 17, 2018

Southern Dad said:
That water sat in Puerto Rico so long, the the heat ruined it.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Water literally has NO shelf life. Has been around for millions of years, and is still fresh!

BTW: I used to deliver WATER whilst in the trucking industry. I thought it was a totally STUPID waste of fuel and money to transport & buy, when all one needs to do is turn a tap at a sink - hello?!

Okashii · Sep 17, 2018

And why did it sit for so long?

Ralph47 · Sep 17, 2018

Okashii said:
And why did it sit for so long?

Puerto Rican truck driver bugaboo.

Southern Dad · Sep 17, 2018

Okashii said:
And why did it sit for so long?

FEMA was responsible for getting it to Puerto Rico where they turned it over to the commonwealth. Keep in mind that this island had a lot of balls in the air. They dropped this one. With all the local media running stories about shortages in drinking water, why didn't anyone say that they knew were a bunch of water was? This isn't something that is hidden. It was on a tarmac.

Okashii · Sep 18, 2018

Southern Dad said:
FEMA was responsible for getting it to Puerto Rico where they turned it over to the commonwealth. Keep in mind that this island had a lot of balls in the air. They dropped this one. With all the local media running stories about shortages in drinking water, why didn't anyone say that they knew were a bunch of water was? This isn't something that is hidden. It was on a tarmac.

Total fail (FEMA, not you).

Mission Statement
The mission of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is to reduce the loss of life and property and protect our institutions from all hazards by leading and supporting the nation in a comprehensive, risk-based emergency management program of mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery.
FEMA has adopted five mission-associated goals and one organizational goal to guide its management and program decisions. These are to accomplish the following:

create an emergency management partnership with other federal agencies, state and local governments, volunteer organizations, and the private sector to serve our customers better;

establish, in concert with FEMA's partners, a national emergency management system that is comprehensive, risk-based, and all-hazards in approach;

make hazard mitigation the foundation of the national emergency management system;

provide a rapid and effective response to, and recovery from, disaster;

strengthen state and local emergency management; and

revitalize the agency and develop a more diverse and effective cadre of FEMA managers and employees.

https://govinfo.library.unt.edu/npr/library/nprrpt/annrpt/vp-rpt96/appendix/fema.html

arcturus88 · Sep 18, 2018

If only FEMA would provide someone to open each bottle for the good people of PR.
sometimes they are really hard to open.

Ralph47 · Sep 18, 2018

arcturus88 said:
If only FEMA would provide someone to open each bottle for the good people of PR.
sometimes they are really hard to open.