Puerto Rico: What's next?

[ghostsinthemachine]

How and what is going to happen to an island devasted by the hurricane. How do they rebuild? Who pays for it? FEMA?

https://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/20/us/politics/puerto-rico-money-debt.html

[malaise]

1. My first question is why isn't the US Army rebuilding their electricity grid

like immediately?

[Lee-Lee]

2. The Army has very few people trained to do that

The Army doesn't deal with power grids as a rule. They run of generators on a small scale powering specific operations instead of building grids.

There are a handful of units known as "Prime Power" that have some familiarity with doing small scale grid type work, but all told they may have between 250-300 Soldiers total in that MOS supporting all worldwide operations. Of that maybe a couple dozen would be available for that misson. And still they are not used to the kind of work required for a civilian power grid.

It's not something in the Army's skill set.

[haele]

17. Seabees would be best, however, they were starting to be downsized as far back as the 90's.

And Rumsfeld's DoD decimated them in favor of contracting with KBG doing all the base and infrastructure building.

I, too am wondering why there's no major movement for rescue and recovery down there. It's going to be hell pretty soon, especially since hurricane season has another month or so to go...

Maybe Mattis is thinking he can't provide aid because it's U.S. territory and Posse Comitates, or something like that?
Or worse, perhaps they're planning on a short "Hollywood conflict" with North Korea to help Drumpf look prezidentural, or something like that, and don't want to further strain assets?

If it's the latter, then I'm furious. Hundreds of Thousands of U.S. Citizens have to suffer because of a rich man's vanity and his staff of traitorous enablers.

Haele.

[Amishman]

3. It should be brought under federal control first

Prepa is a complete mess and the program of free electricity to municipalities perverted with abuse and shady public/private dealings.

Time to take it over, void the crony deals, and fix the system.

Here is a good NY Times write-up on them from last year. It also underscores some of the general issues facing PR

https://mobile.nytimes.com/2016/02/02/business/dealbook/puerto-rico-power-authoritys-debt-is-rooted-in-free-electricity.html?referer=https://www.ar15.com/forums/general/Puerto-Rico-expected-to-be-without-power-for-4-to-6-months/5-2034577/

[ghostsinthemachine]

4. Interesting article.

Not sure as to how to move forward. Seems an incredible opportunity to create a solar and wind electric grid. I'm also sure that will never happen and the current grid will be patched and rigged to keep it going. And the money will be "lost".

[kydo]

7. Not sure about the power thing, but is the army/military going set up camps w/ food

and all that like they eventually did after Andrew? If so when? This kinda needs to be started as soon as possible.

[NickB79]

8. Their area of expertise is blowing up grids, not building them. nt

[ghostsinthemachine]

5. Puerto Rico's next problem? Congress

http://www.cnn.com/2017/09/21/opinions/us-help-tropical-territories-puerto-rico-louis-opinion/?iid=ob_homepage_deskrecommended_pool

[roamer65]

6. They should consider moving to the mainland.

They are citizens of the USA and are more than welcome to move here.

[NickB79]

9. That's part of what bankrupted the island in the first place

Massive population loss after the Great Recession gutted tourism.

[ghostsinthemachine]

10. A look back at the last hurricane, and some advice.

http://www.cnn.com/2017/09/22/opinions/hurricane-georges-puerto-rico-brinkley-opinion/index.html

[trof]

11. My cousin is there with a FEMA clean up team.

He's a fireman in Virginia Beach.
Says it's beyond bad.

[ghostsinthemachine]

12. Yeah I saw FEMA workers this morning on TV

Are they going to bring shelters? Going to stay a while? The tasks are enormous, being an island and only one of four places in the US that was devasted by hurricanes in the past few weeks.

[trof]

13. His team is clearing debris.

Outside of restoring power, that's the biggest job.
They will be there a couple of weeks.

[DVRacer]

19. Miss VA Beach awesome fire and rescue

I had the privilege of working with them when I was stationed at Oceana. We did some disaster recovery drills together with our Navy FD.

As for the main topic, I talked briefly with a high rank enlisted friend. Ships are back at Norfolk being reoutfitted and serviced and hope to sail soon. (Can’t say more than than soon due to OPSEC) The plan is to use Rosey Rhodes as a staging area since most of the old base was hardened. The island is beyond a mess.

[trof]

20. Hi. Welcome to DU.

Buddy of mine was squadron(?) CO there in the 70s?
We wound up classmates in initial training at TWA.
Bob nd I flew damn near anything that had Boeing pasted on it.

[DVRacer]

21. I have been here a awhile just quite

I was with VF84 and VF41 during the mid to late 90’s. I was hurt bad overseas during IFOR in Bosnia. I miss my Navy and know because I stay in touch with a family member that is still on active duty they are doing everything they can to get help to PR. We are down the USS Comfort while she is in nearly dry dock condition and Mercy has been in TX and FL. Three major hurricanes back to back has stretched everyone and everything. I get a little defensive about the service I loved. Most sailors have a spot in their hearts for St Thomas / St Croix and PR because to us yes we had our predeployment work ups near them for R/R. We always enjoyed the hospitality of the island folks and our hearts are with them. I’m just hoping the recovery doesn’t get hyper partisan and everyone can stay focused. Someone today said they hoped it would be Trumps Katrina why would anyone hope that? These Americans deserve our best and the US Navy is doing everything they can.

[ghostsinthemachine]

14. 3 things. (cross posting)

https://www.democraticunderground.com/10029625705#post1

[ghostsinthemachine]

15. Puerto Rico needs help now (cross posting)

https://www.democraticunderground.com/10029634660

[ghostsinthemachine]

16. Agriculture, farmers decimated

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/24/us/puerto-rico-hurricane-maria-agriculture-.html

[ghostsinthemachine]

18. 5 ex Presidents step up to save Puerto Rico

http://verifiedpolitics.com/5-ex-presidents-just-teamed-help-save-puerto-rico/