^ The rolls of paper towels did seem emblematic of this administration’s “let them eat cake” attitude, didn’t they? “Your home is flooded out, you have half a roof, no potable water and no power? Here’s a roll of paper towels to get you going on your cleanup.” 
“And YOU get some paper towel! And YOU get some paper towel! EVERYONE* gets some paper towel!”
*not really though. We only have like 10 rolls.
^Share - really no one should need more than 2 sheets. Just wring them out and reuse them.
Such an obvious and poorly executed photo op. The optics are amateur hour.
Toilet paper would have been more appropriate.
@OspreyCV22 how about HuffPo reporting that the Mayor isn’t engaged, is that sufficient for you?
Sure, and if you park Chinooks on the runway where the planes come in, then no more planes can come in.
How many Blackhawk helicopters are in the U.S. inventory and how many can be positioned in South Florida to ferry supplies? Honest question.
“Sure, and if you park Chinooks on the runway where the planes come in, then no more planes can come in.”
You do know that airports have areas where aircraft park that aren’t on the runway, right?
There are also multiple airports on the island.
“How many Blackhawk helicopters are in the U.S. inventory and how many can be positioned in South Florida to ferry supplies? Honest question.”
Cargo planes fly supplies to the islands. Helicopters deliver to more remote areas of the island. There is more than one way to skin this cat. Get creative.
As far as I can tell:
The Nimitz is stationed on the west coast.
The Eisenhower is in port getting 6 months of repairs.
The Carl Vinson is stationed on the west coast.
The Roosevelt is stationed on the west coast.
The Abraham Lincoln is conducting Irma relief efforts, according to its Facebook page.
The George Washington is starting a 4 year midlife upgrade
The John Stennis is stationed on the west coast.
The Harry Truman is … perhaps stationed in Norfolk and deployable but difficult for me to tell.
The Ronald Reagan is stationed in Japan.
The George HW Bush is in Norfolk, but just returned from deployment a few weeks ago.
The Gerald Ford was just formally commissioned this summer and probably not ready to do anything yet.
The U.S. does not have extra carriers sitting around waiting for stuff to do.
When an EMP hits the U.S. mainland, all hell will break loose and society will disintegrate.
The U.S. military is not legally allowed to do in Puerto Rico what it did in Haiti.
/// break
I have problems with POTUS and problems with the San Juan mayor.
I don’t have any issues with the military response. I’m sure there are some things they could do differently (there always are), and will study it afterwords for lessons learned.
It is somewhat frustrating to watch people say “why don’t they do X?” like their idea is probably fresh and never considered by the military
Where will it come from, do you think?
Do you honestly think that the military and/or FEMA hasn’t considered flying supplies in bigger planes to the airports and then elsewhere around the island via helicopter?
I hardly think that qualifies as “creative”…
According to at least one source, there were “air drops” already happening on the 26th.
A blackhawk carrying 2600 pounds can move ~300 gallons of water in a flight. So maybe water for 300 people at a time. Which means 11,500 of these flights PER DAY. At 2 hours per flight (including load time, re-fueling, etc) = a need for almost 1000 of these helicopters. If you only need to reach a quarter of the people, then 250 helicopters on 24 hr continuous operations. Which means at least 500 blackhawk pilots on 12 hr shifts.
I think there is a huge lack of appreciation in this thread for MILLIONS of people stuck on an island with infrastructure that is probably 90%+ ruined.
You’re the guy that keeps mentioning blackhawks not me.
The reality is that greater resources were NOT committed right away. Things have been stepped up only lately.
Additionally, you can hire and employ private sector resources. You know, take a page out of Cheney’s Iraq playbook?
What’s your solution? Let them fend for themselves and let the young, weak, and old perish?
First off, note that he visited a relatively wealthy suburb of SJ. Of course, the front men ensured a happy, supportive crowd. Let’s not be naive.
And wait! Not just paper towels! He also informed them they’re lucky this isn’t a real crisis!
(I say a pin shaped like a p.t. roll becomes the new protest symbol.)
So you don’t blame the military. Sorry for this Duh!, but it’s been all over that the military hangs on authorization from the top. Honore described the difference in how Bush gave him release to operate.
Next. Blackhawks?
This is really too significant a topic to play with it or exercise light elbowing. Not cocktail chat.
It concerns me that we’re not prepared, not with supplies, plans of action, and what I’ll call emotional fortitude.
@soccerguy315 – Your above-referenced Huffpost article is in no way denigrating the mayor’s efforts. It quotes a FEMA administrator’s Fox n friends quote earlier, which was of a different tone than what he says in this article.
You can’t quote a source quoted in an article, and say that’s what the article itself is espousing. Composition 101.
X-mas came to PR early,
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/trump-suggests-puerto-ricos-debt-023705148.html
But unless you were directly involved in the recovery process from the very beginning, I don’t think you truly know what decisions were made, and more importantly WHY those decisions were made. That WHY part is the part many people are ignoring here. There may be very good, logical reasons why fewer resources were dispatched immediately (e.g. a thorough assessment of the damage is often needed to know what to dispatch), and given the somewhat unusual circumstances leading up to Maria’s landfall on PR (e.g. damage from several hurricanes to deal with), they had to make critical decisions on how best to maximum effectiveness of all resources.
For an actual timeline of FEMA efforts leading up to Maria’s landfall on PR, see below:
https://www.fema.gov/blog/2017-09-29/overview-federal-efforts-prepare-and-respond-hurricane-maria
Coordination efforts and movement of resources were underway as early as the 17th, 3 days before the hurricane hit PR.
“You know they owe a lot of money to your friends on Wall Street. We’re gonna have to wipe that out. That’s gonna have to be - you know, you can say goodbye to that. I don’t know if it’s Goldman Sachs but whoever it is, you can wave good-bye to that.”
From the article in post #316
If he truly said that, it is irresponsible and probably breaks some laws. It’s not just Goldman Sachs that owns PR debt. A lot of folks do either directly or through investments in other things. It’s not that easy as he makes it out to be for a whole lot of reasons.
It’s a complicated very issue that he doesn’t understand based on his comments.
This NYT article is a little better written:
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/04/business/dealbook/trump-puerto-rico-debt.html
^ Lol, the NYT is such a joke sometimes… They managed to take every issue in that article and find a way to spin it negative, even though these issues started well before this administration.
I will admit, my knowledge of government bonds and how debt forgiveness works is limited, but the reality is that the administration is trying to do something good here, and this author is shining a bad light on it.
This is why I can’t stand our media.