By Robin Respaut and Dave Graham
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico, Sept 29 (Reuters) – The mayor of the capital of Puerto Rico hit back on Friday at the comments of a top U.S. official who said federal efforts to help the territory recover from the devastation of Hurricane Maria is “a good news story.”
“This is a ‘people are dying story,'” Carmen Yulin Cruz told CNN on Friday. “This is a life-or-death story.”
Acting Department of Homeland Security Secretary Elaine Duke, who is helping coordinate U.S. help after Maria, said on Thursday she was satisfied with the response so far.
“I know it is really a good news story in terms of our ability to reach people and the limited number of deaths that have taken place in such a devastating hurricane,” Duke said.
Maria, the most powerful storm to hit Puerto Rico in nearly 90 years, has killed at least 16 people on the island and more than 30 across the Caribbean.
In Puerto Rico, where most of the island’s 3.4 million residents faced a 10th day without power and struggled to find clean water and fuel, Cruz bristled at Duke’s comment.
“I would ask her to come down here and visit the towns and then make a statement like that,” said Cruz. Duke is scheduled to visit Puerto Rico later on Friday.
President Donald Trump defended his administration’s handling of the disaster.
“Puerto Rico Governor Ricardo Rossello just stated: “The Administration and the President, every time we’ve spoken, they’ve delivered …,” Trump tweeted early on Friday.
Rossello told CNN on Friday the federal government has responded to his requests and that he was in regular contact with the director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, but more needed to be done.
“We are maximizing all of the resources that we have so that we can deliver goods, water food and supplies,” he said. “We do have severe logistical limitations. It has been enhancing but it’s still nowhere near where it needs to be.”
LONG ROAD BACK
Cruz acknowledged Trump’s help, but asked for more immediate action.
“Mr. Trump, we appreciate everything you’re doing, and we know it can be done faster,” she said on CNN. “Let’s just put a crew out there with enough equipment and let’s just push things out of the way and move,” she said.
Even with a ramped-up response, the problems facing Puerto Rico will take a long time to resolve, according to other U.S. officials.
More troops, medical supplies and vehicles were on the way to the island, but it will be some time before the U.S. territory is back on its feet, the senior U.S. general appointed to lead military relief operations said on Friday.
“We’re certainly bringing in more,” Lieutenant General Jeffrey Buchanan told CNN on Friday, a day after he was appointed by the Pentagon to oversee the U.S. response.
Air Force, Navy and Army medical capabilities as well as more aircraft, helicopters of different types, and more logistical support are being dispatched, he said. “It’s not enough, but we’re bringing more in,” Buchanan said.
Asked how long it would take for Puerto Rico to recover, Buchanan gave a slight sigh and said: “This is a very, very long duration.”
Buchanan’s view echoed Colonel James DeLapp, the Army Corps of Engineers commander for Puerto Rico, who told CNN earlier that Maria’s widespread destruction made it impossible to gauge how long it would take to restore power on the island.
“The terrain is significant. There is a logistical challenge clearly,” said DeLapp. “This is a massive undertaking, one that I don’t think that we’ve ever undertaken before, in terms of this magnitude. The closest thing we’ve had is when the Army Corps led the effort to restore Iraq’s electricity in the early stages of the Iraq war in 2003 and 2004.”
(Reporting by Robin Respaut and Dave Graham in SAN JUAN, and Doina Chiacu and Makini Brice in WASHINGTON; Writing by Bill Rigby; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe)
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