DONDE ESTAN? Puerto Rico reservists mobilized then waited 7 days for orders

[kpete]

DONDE ESTAN?
Puerto Rican Troops Are Still Waiting for Orders While Residents Cry for Help
Twenty-eight reservists reported to an abandoned naval station a week ago. They can't do their mission until until FEMA and the rest of the military get here.

INGRID ARNESEN
10.01.17 10:30 AM ET

ROOSEVELT ROADS NAVAL STATION, Puerto Rico—Twenty-eight U.S. Army reservists answered the call of duty, left their families behind, and reported to an abandoned base on the eastern tip of the island.

Then they waited for orders.

And waited.

It was one week before the soldiers heard from the outside world. That is how desperate, how disorganized, the situation in Puerto Rico has been. Try though as he may to deflect blame for the response to Hurricane Maria, President Donald Trump is the commander-in-chief of these soldiers who were marooned while their countrymen needed all the help they could get.

On September 21, the day after Hurricane Maria crashed into the island and knocked out virtually 100 percent of electricity, the call to mobilize Puerto Rico’s reservists and National Guard went out over AM and FM radio. There was no other way to reach them.
“For those who weren’t tuned in, the order was relayed by word of mouth,” Sgt. Daniel Navedo of the Puerto National Guard said. “We were told to go to Fort Buchanan, the U.S. military base in San Juan, or to our closest unit.”

Without cellphones, internet, or reliable landlines, the island has been thrown back to the 1940s when the naval station was built. After the U.S. Navy shuttered the base in 2004, its last on the island, all that remains are a few decrepit buildings — the old customs house, the port police station, and a towering, rusted shipping platform — worn by years of neglect. The hurricane has done away with the rest, where weeds hadn’t.


http://www.thedailybeast.com/puerto-rican-troops-are-still-waiting-for-orders-while-residents-cry-for-help

[Arazi]

1. Typical. So disgusted