The Mess in Puerto Rico. No power on the whole island for 4-6 mos.

Most American people didn't care deeply, and the media follows that lead. I felt terrible for the island, said we had to "do more" but I didn't even call my legislative reps.

 

I think that’s because it wasn’t thought of as a massive disaster. The 68 or whatever death toll... ah, not such a big deal. If it was seen as a massive disaster, I think people will care much more. Something about massive suffering bring barriers down and much compassion flow...

The media issue I think has more to do with lack of access.. it’s not broadcasting live video of survivors suffering on a massive scale and deaths.

Accurate numbers or even in the ball park number is important for an appropriate response. Rightfully so, resources would be less and responses would be slower for a disaster with less death toll (actual or predicted)...

Method and data: https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMsa1803972

About one third of the reported deaths in the households surveyed in the study were attributed to delayed or prevented access to medical care.​

Since the local infrastructure were destroyed and the local government did not have the ability to response, it's the job of the federal government to take over the response. They failed. And I have to think a big factor to that failure is due to appropriate resources allocation and response time for the now completely incorrect death toll. I'm sure there are other failures, and this might be a great case of how did FEMA and the federal government response to a disaster of this magnitude and learn from it.

What can be done? Maybe portable communication device strategically placed ahead of the storm? Maybe military performing supply drops to hard to reach places? ... we probably have the best logistic agencies within our military. I don't accept we could not have done better, not by a long shot.

 

That would be the case if we were talking about a state, but as merely a territory there is a give and take in exchange for their autonomy. The US simply doesn't have the responsibility to Puerto Rico that they would to say, Florida.

You can be upset about this fact all you want, but that's how it is. The government of Puerto Rico let their infrastructure start to crumble while squandering their budget and their people were screwed when the inevitable natural disaster happened. It's incredibly unfortunate that it happened, but that's just the price you pay for electing incompetent officials and refusing to join the United States when you had the option earlier.

It's similar to Ukraine, they chose to not join NATO and as such they didn't get the support that they'd have liked when they were invaded by Russia. Had they decided to join, Russia never would have conquered half their country. Bad decisions have consequences.

 

Yeah I was aware of how they arrived at their death toll. I was just curious if this was done for other hurricanes or major natural disasters as well. I'll try to check.

I think you overestimate our ability to move large amounts of goods (or rescue people) overseas to an island quickly and effectively distribute them in a place like PR which might as well have third world infrastructure thru no fault of the mainland US. Yes we have great logistics but we aren't gods. You can't simply just airdrop everything. It's not a realistic proposition. These portable communications or any kind of disaster prep is something that should have been addressed by the local PR govt.

In hindsight, yes there are things that probably could have been done differently, but I don't see how you get around the disaster of the PR govt first. And I had bobby on ignore, but I think he makes fair points that should be considered.

https://www.joc.com/regulation-poli...ief-not-infrastructure-upgrades_20180313.html

I thought that was an interesting article to read about the issues PR is still having today and going forward.

 

I'm not sure how often this was done before. The author did allude to that it should be done regularly as an independent check of official counts.

I can't read that link (register required)...

See the video I posted awhile back below. Come on, we are not talking about an act of God. We are talking about getting some basic supplies to these people. It didn't happen. And this is just one region and one example, an example that show a basic failure.

Another example: Listen or read the short transcript of basic failure and inadequate response:

Full episode (which also cover much more than the fed government response, but also the failure of the local government, history of PR, debt issue and future issues of PR - some of things you already mentioned) : https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/film/blackout-in-puerto-rico/

You brought up local government a few times. I fully agree that local government has the biggest responsibility to be prepared (and to fully recover over the long term). Houston lack of flood prevention planning is an example of local government failure. PR local government issues is a set of complex issues and deserve it's own separate responses so I'm leaving them out here. I'm only talking about the emergency response over a critical period of time to save lives and prevent further death. There will be time where only the fed government can perform this function because of the level of devastation. During that period, who care who was at fault, what was the history, what was the lack of prep, it's all about an emergency and saving lives...

Forget about PR unique issues and go beyond that. We will again face a disaster so huge that it will wipe out the local government ability to response. It will happen again due to an act of God or heaven forbid, human. How would we want the fed emergency response to be when it does happen? I hope it's no where close to the PR response (failure). The response to PR has shown that the fed gov emergency response is no where close to par. The basic failures (and waste) is an enormous red flag. We should be pushing them to do much better. (on a political side, this is something that both side can agree to... we all hate government waste and ineffectiveness and FEMA, while much improved vs past years, need so much more improvements).

 

Casting doubt on the hurricane death study. Though, please be mindful that deaths due to hurricane are not deaths due to Trump. For more likely due to incompetent local government.

BTW, the study used R. Where are you at @Northside Storm?

 

I think FEMA is just terrible at federal emergency managing no matter which president.
cities in Texas still waiting.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...eason-starts-cities-still-waiting-on-2017-aid

And of course Puerto Ricans should get the immediate help. They're U.S citizens afterall. Bigly U.S military weapons get to experiment their beautiful shells in regions of that island. remember islands are surrounded by water but not to be mistaken with PENINSULAS!
The new death toll should generate at least a single tweet, crooked hilary and obama get mentions like everyday.

 

Good question... perhaps worth asking republican congressional leadership?

 

FEMA Blamed Delays In Puerto Rico On Maria; Agency Records Tell Another Story

 

After 11 months, the power appears to be on in Puerto Rico.

But hard to believe...

 

Death count up to about 3000 after new study.

 

Does the media follow the people
or
Do the people follow the media?

Rocket River

 

We follow experts or persons of authority. Mostly we follow people who can pull either off convincingly.

 

I was looking over a bit of this thread after hearing that the real death toll in Puerto Rico is reportedly over 2,975 (and counting), and I saw your post, Robbie. I have to strongly disagree. Our military has an enormous ability to tackle just this kind of disaster. To the best of my knowledge, that ability was never used to the extent that it could have used, or should have been used. In my opinion, not using all available resources to bring rescue and help to the Americans living there is a massive failure on the part of this administration. The island isn't on the far side of the world. It is United States territory inhabited by US citizens, and within easy reach. I don't disagree that the island's government is a mess, but that's no excuse for our inadequate response.

 

Far as I can tell: Media follows whatever we will want to watch and click. Not much more, not much less.
So, angry talking heads, pretty talking heads, and contentious issues rule. Things we fear on the near
horizon. Things we fear in our neighbors, our kids' schools, and our doctor's offices. Plus sports, of course.

They've got bills to pay. If they educate the public or do a service, that is only incidental.

 

So someone revives this thread and all I can think about is Trump in Puerto Rico throwing rolls of paper towels in a game of "catch" during the world's lamest photo op. Then ignoring the disaster.

People blaming the Puerto Ricans for not helping themselves.......well, their island was decimated; sometimes you need someone to give a guiding hand so that supplies get to where they're supposed to go.

Whole thing is so painful.

 

My wife is from Brazil and hates American media. It shuts out the rest of the world. We're inherently disinterested and the media and government don't help juice our interest. I don't blame her much.

 

I have a suggestion. Try CNN International. They have a website, so there is plenty of international news to read, videos, and so on, they have a cable news outlet, and the large amount of news they provide is done with the interests of international viewers in mind. I get it via our cable provider. It's even "more" international when viewed outside the States. While they will have some of the evening "talking head" programs to a degree, they also seem to work hard to give that news an international perspective. Their regular anchors are different, as well. I watch it pretty often, and I have their international website as my "go to" CNN outlet on my various devices (PC, iPad, iPhone, etc.). Hope that helps your partner a little. I totally understand where she's coming from.

 

About the same number as 9/11...

 

Bloomberg tv isn’t bad to watch. It’s funny watching it because you realize there is other news going on other than Trump.