What astounds me is the US response to Puerto Rico reminded me of Nepal trying to respond after the huge earthquake, with authorities unable to get to all populations, unable to say how many people had died, if there were people in the rubble who could be saved… Because Nepal is a very poor country. How this comparison could appear to me for the US response to Irma in Puerto Rico astounded me when I realized it. I’ve been struggling with this for a couple days.
Just a few weeks ago, Irma blew accross and destroyed Barbuda, St Maartens/St Martin, St Barth’s, the British Virgin Islands. Their respective mainland is 7,000or 8,000 miles away. The islands’ population is diverse, too, and outside of tourists and hotel owners, quite poor. They too are overseas territories. So, French/British/Dutch equivalents of puerto Rico, except much farther away. But the response was totally different from what we saw for Puerto Rico. You can check TV5Monde or BBC Archives. First, there was extensive coverage immediately. Public radios set up a system just for the islands, relating weather, where to find water, where to get food, what to do if x or z happens, which could be caught on cell phones or broadcast easily. The following day water was being distributed and an under secretary on location, meeting with people, before higher uo came, all within a few days. Official presence, soldiers, came in helicopters (no airport). They came from the mainland to less affected territories about the same distance Florida is to PR, then came by boat and helicopter. People from the other islands (including Puerto Rico), took their personal boats non stop on the day long trip to evacuate mothers, babies, and children, as well as older people. There was looting so on the third or fourth day foot patrols started in addition to food and water distribution. The patrols also checked the prison. Helicopters checked the isolated areas and had food and water drops as well as tools/things to help. It was not all rosy: People complained loudly because most had lost their house, their business, were not provided with enough food or water. Families were scared. There were shortages everywhere. But within 5 days basic issues had been solved. The islands remained destroyed, the people homeless and penniless, but there was lot of mainland presence, good disaster response, well organized.
The contrast with Puerto Rico and that image of a developing nation unable to handle rescue and having trouble organizing in a time of disaster, struck and confused me especially because it is so fresh in my memory. If three nations could do it, so could we. What happened? It makes no sense to me.
Someone fell asleep at the wheel. What should have been done, what could have been done, I have no idea, but something didn’t go through as it should have.