Not a undivided region in Puerto Rico has its power fully restored , yet the Federal Emergency Management Agency has decide to terminate its humanist mission to the U.S. territory by Wednesday , according to NPR .
Update 1/31/18 : Earther reached out to FEMA for comment on this matter , and the delegacy has inform Earther that a spokesperson miscommunicated with NPR when posit the mission in Puerto Rico would end Wednesday . Spokesperson Daniel Llargues clarified the missionary work is “ not arrest . ” Commodity statistical distribution has lessen and even stopped in some municipalities , but that descend only after a mayor has requested it end to avail “ get the economy back online . ” “ Everything come at the petition of the municipality , the city manager , ” Llargues told Earther . Our original story on FEMA shutting off help to Puerto Rico follows .
The missionbeganin September , now survey Hurricane Maria , the family 4 storm that lay waste to the island . It went altogether dark , and communication to the outside public were well-nigh nonexistent for days after the hurricane . In the four month since then , things still are n’t quite back to normal : Suicideis on the ascent . So iscrime . And homes remainabandonedas island-dweller flee to the mainland .
So normal ? Not quite .
The federal agency , however , appear to disagree . FEMA will “ officially shut out off ” the mission , as it delineate to NPR . After all , the federal government has already dedicate Puerto Ricans more than 30 million gallons of potable water and more than 60 million meals since the hurricane hit . With92 percentof the region ’s supermarkets hunt , FEMA just does n’t think it ’s needed anymore . The state authorities and nonprofit can handle the rest , apparently .
“ The realism is that we just need to look around , ” Alejandro De La Campa , FEMA ’s director in Puerto Rico , recount NPR . “ supermarket are open , and things are go back to normal . ”
Here are the latest fact and figure on the@USACEHQ ’s violent storm response efforts in#PuertoRicoand the#USVirginIslands.pic.twitter.com / fIj87SlgzI
— FEMA Region 2 ( @femaregion2)January 30 , 2018
But despite what FEMA says — the agency has have flak
in the past tense for the elbow room it handledHurricane KatrinaandHurricane Sandy — the facts verbalise for themselves . Only 46 percent of customers live in the island ’s Caguas region to the eastward , for example , have office , allot to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers . That number increases to 89 pct for the great unwashed in the Ponce region to the due south , and that ’s the region with the most power restored . A third of Puerto Rico ’s electricity customers stay without power . And many of the people with power have only irregular magnate from generator .
Still , FEMA is n’t forgetting about Puerto Rico completely . The agency want to focus less on the hand brake response and more on long - term recovery — like the island ’s economy . concern owner literallycannot keeptheir computer memory open without customers , and people ca n’t expend the manner they used to if they are n’t working .
“ If we ’re giving destitute water and food , that means that household are not go to supermarkets to buy , ” De La Campa tell NPR . “ It is affecting the saving of Puerto Rico . So we need to produce a balance . With the financial assistance we ’re providing to family and the municipality , they ’re able to go back to the normal thriftiness . ”
Parts of the island still relies on this help , though . As NPR reports , in Morovis , 10,000 of its 30,000 residents still pick up the food and piss rations . People are using their income to buy fuel for their generators alternatively of spend it on food . ( Well , those who can even afford a author . ) Multiple layers compound this state of affairs , and some U.S. officials wo n’t tolerate by idly .
President Donald Trump will deliver his much - anticipated country of the Union address Tuesday , and San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz — who ’s been especiallycriticalof the prexy ’s response to the crisis — will be thereas a client of New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand .
The human-centered crisis in Puerto Ricoisn’t on the dot raw , but it ’s only worsened in the backwash of Hurricane Maria .
[ h / tNPR ]
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