FEMA Administrator Swipes At San Juan Mayor, Those Who 'Spout Off' About Aid

[DonViejo]

Source: Talking Points Memo




By ESME CRIBB Published OCTOBER 1, 2017 9:56 AM

Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator Brock Long on Sunday swiped at San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz and others he claimed “spout off” about relief efforts in Puerto Rico after the island was devastated by Hurricanes Irma and Maria.

“What I don’t have patience for is the fact that what we’re trying to do and what we have successfully done is we have established a joint field office within San Juan,” Long " target="_blank">said on “Fox News Sunday.”

He said the agency is “having daily conversations with all of the mayors” and “working with the governor and his leadership to be able to create unified objectives.”

“If mayors decide not to be a part of that, then the response is fragmented,” Long said. “And the bottom line is, is that we’re pushing everybody, we’re trying to push her, in there.”

Read more: http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/fema-administrator-brock-long-puerto-rico-relief-efforts

[Iliyah]

1. He's on "fake news" , enough said

[marybourg]

2. That's what they've done so far?

established a joint field office
having daily conversations with all of the mayors
working with the governor and his leadership to be able to create unified objectives.

In 11 days? After a catastrophic hurricane?

Great job Longie!

[SunSeeker]

13. How can they be having "daily conversations" with mayors when there is no phone service or power?

And what "conversation" do they need? Just get food, water and medical supplies to the towns NOW. They can't wait for bullshit forms and "conversations." They have no phone service!


Mind boggling isn't it?

[marybourg]

19. Several days ago I read that they were

trying to get the word out to all mayors, by whatever means possible, to forward a local phone # where the mayors could be reached at a certain time every day; somebody's landline, cell phone, possibly radio, etc.

[SunSeeker]

20. Well as of Friday their "trying" hadn't reached most of the mayors.

That is what prompted Mayor Cruz of San Juan to beg for help and tell FEMA that they don't need to waste time with forms, meetings and protocol when most of the island is without power, internet, and roads are blocked. Because people are DYING. They need to just helicopter in food, water and medical supplies NOW. Why do they even need a mayor to tell them to do this? What part of EMERGENCY do they not understand?!

[WinkyDink]

23. Wow.

[davekriss]

15. I reacted the same

That's all they've done? After 11 days? People dying and FEMA touts that they've established a field office so they can "create unified objectives"? Criminal.

[SunSeeker]

21. Yep. nt

[DK504]

3. Having daily conversations and doing anything

are two very different things. I'd also like to ask how they are speaking to each other. They don't have sat phones. They weren't set up with sat phones sat phone prior to the CAT 5 hurricane. WTF?? Whose idea was it, what fucking official in FEMA to not hand out sat phones to every official on the island that will need to help the island get help?

This response is as bad as Katrina and the only reason it isn't as bad yet is the loss of life, yet.

[Lazy Daisy]

6. Let me start by saying I could be wrong

But I believe they are requiring all the Mayors come to them to register for help.
I've been blessed to visit Puerto Rico once with a close friend. We stayed in San Juan and took a day trip to visit her relatives on the other side of the island. Ended up getting lost up in the mountains. There are communities that are really rural in the mountains. (the beauty was breath taking) The roads are very narrow and winding. Asking the Mayors to travel to San Juan to get assistance would be like asking the rural communities of WV to get to Richmond VA. Roads are washed out, gas is scarce. How the hell are they supposed to travel that distance safely? FFS

[BumRushDaShow]

10. Parts of the island had 18-38" of rain during Maria's trek across it

which meant flooding and mudslides, so guaranteed any of those narrow roads are probably completely covered with mud and silt.

Link to tweet

Link to tweet

[Lazy Daisy]

22. Many of the homes

are probably washed out too. Have they even gotten beyond the larger cities to give assistance?

[BumRushDaShow]

24. That's a good question

I know some had concrete homes however many lost their roof. Alot of the urban poor are in hi-rise apartment buildings and with no power, there's no water (due to pumps being out). It was bad enough (and people often forget) that over a million lost power there after Hurricane Irma side-swiped the northern part of the island (and Irma was then the strongest hurricane to ever form over the open Atlantic in record-keeping history), so whatever Irma didn't take out, Maria finished it off.

[davekriss]

16. Did you see the heroic mayor of San Juan?

She held up two hefty binders of forms and information they've already supplied FEMA. Yet, still, the aid people need is not getting where it needs to go. What more do they need - just get out there and do your f**king job, FEMA, people are dying, U.S. citizens are dying!

[n2doc]

4. Predictable

The Deplorables are rushing to protect their leader, Twitler. They will lie as much as the can to make sure the base remains convinced of his glorious leadership.

[Lazy Daisy]

5. Are we really having this conversation?

Are we really going to examine whether or not "those brown people" are helping themselves?
I'm surprised the phrase pulling themselves up by their bootstraps didn't get said.
How can anybody in this country not hear the blatant racist dog whistles being blown?


(by WE I mean as a country)

[turbinetree]

7. Hey asshole...................you have a responsibility from day one not day 11 to do something

for U.S. Citizens and the protectorate of those islands, your a fucking crony, who has done exactly what, your fucking sexual predator guy is and has been playing fucking golf, for two fucking weekends while this event was unfolding............did you by chance there zippy go to the sexual predator when the eye wall was slamming into the islands at a category 5 event, and say, to this asshole, we need to be ready for what is happening down there?

No fuck head, you did not, you waited just like your fucking sexual predator and did nothing, that is a fact...............so go fuck yourself and the horse that your team and this sexual predator ride in on ..................I don't tolerate a fucking racist bigots and a narcissistic megalomaniac that should have fucking straight jacket wrapped around him, and his fucking worthless team of same shit and strip.

What the world is witnessing asshole a real life hunger games, have you figured it out yet......................

Show the American people the phone logs and visitor logs that this was being done before the event happened, you have none

[spooky3]

8. Bureaucratic CYA-speak. We don't want process, we want outcomes!

Get people water, electricity, food. Now!!!!

[NCjack]

9. The hero os San Juan: San Juan Mayor Carmen Yuln Cruz

Trump and Long are quite comfortable in their awful treatment of Puerto Rico -- it has no political power in Congress.

Nature erased the infrastructure of PR. Clearly, the job is beyond FEMA's capability. Long's failure to subject its efforts to the Army just continues his list of strategic errors.

Long is unworthy and should resign. That would hasten the consolidation of the job under the Army.

I am sending letters to my Congress repugnants asking them to support PR in their hour of need. The GOP plan for a big tax grift to Trump and his buddies should be stopped. Instead, that money should go as a grant to PR to rebuild, using PR's people. If you think that is the proper approach, please do likewise.

[procon]

11. Some 12 days post Maria and this jerk still doesn't have a "unified objective"?

A 12 year old boy scout could figure out what he needed to survive out in the bush, any prepper could tell him what basic supplies people need after a post apocalyptic event. A family vacationing in tent at a wilderness campground could give him a list of necessary goods to have on hand. But that isn't his priority, is it?

He's using processes and bureaucracy to confirm his power over the lives of the victims. Like Trump, he wants an appreciative audience that will praise him and extol his performance art. Its all about the show. He knows that Trump needs to see those mayors applauding and gushing compliments and that all be cares about.

[SunSeeker]

12. Jesus. Brownie botched the rescue but he didn't attack the New Orleans mayor.

This asswipe botched the rescue AND attacks the San Juan mayor.

May he join Trump in Hell.

[Blue_Adept]

14. This is unfortunate. Long is an Obama appointee, wasn't he?

He's gotten a lot of deserved credit for the response in TX and FL and has been part of getting FEMA to the point where it can do what's needed in those regions quickly and effectively as per what Obama wanted down over his tenure. To see him going at it like this is unfortunate and I do have to wonder after such measured responses during FL and TX that he's simple exhausted after 40+ days of dealing with so much.

[TomCADem]

17. Nope - Forbes: Brock Long Is Trump's Nominee For FEMA Administrator.

Unlike most Trump appointees, Long has experience, but he is a Trump appointee, not an Obama appointee.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/marshallshepherd/2017/04/29/brock-long-is-trumps-nominee-for-fema-administrator-who-is-he/#58cbf1f1fbff

As a meteorologist and professor of atmospheric sciences, I am very weather-attentive. This morning I am watching another weekend of potential severe weather in the United States. Wildfires have ravaged parts of Florida and even Georgia's iconic Okefenokee Swamp. Hurricane season is just around the corner. Unfortunately these weather-related events remind us of the importance of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). At the time of writing, we still have no FEMA Administrator in place. The Administrator of FEMA is the nation's top emergency management official and leads the agency that kicks into action when our nation has various types of disasters. In addition to FEMA, we still have no NASA and NOAA administrator either. These two agencies are also critical to the weather community. As a former president of the American Meteorological Society (AMS) I am very aware of the strong working relationship between the weather community and emergency managers. In fact, the AMS recently created a Committee on Emergency Management. For these reasons, I was pleased to learn yesterday that a nominee has finally been put forth by the Trump Administration. So who is he?

His name is Brock Long. According to the New York Times, he is the vice president of emergency management firm Hagerty Consulting in Illinois. He also has experience at the state level. He was the head of the Alabama Emergency Management Agency from 2008 to 2011.

These are good signs because the most recent FEMA Administrator, Craig Fugate, was extremely effective in his role and brought a wealth of experience with him from his years as Florida's top emergency manager. Fugate is widely seen as the person that helped restore the perception of FEMA as a critical resource of the federal government. The agency had a serious weather related "black eye" after its response to Hurricane Katrina. The FEMA director at that time, Mike Brown (or "Brownie" as called by some), became a household name in a bad way.

[Blue_Adept]

18. Thanks! I could have sworn someone was held over and I thought it was Long

Since there may have been a sense of "don't screw this up" and have your own Katrina.

[Hortensis]

27. Long hasn't been coming across as doing well in his own statements. He sounds harrassed

and not in control, and more divisive than leading. It would be completely understandable if this string of giant disasters required experience and ability above his level of competence. We've never been through this before.

What is all this "push" and "pushing down" stuff coming form him, though? Is that standard management terminology these days? New to me, it sounds more authoritarian than respectful.

“If mayors decide not to be a part of that, then the response is fragmented,” Long said. “And the bottom line is, is that we’re pushing everybody, we’re trying to push her, in there.”

“I believe the Puerto Ricans are pulling their weight. I mean, I think they’re doing what they can,” he said. “The bottom line is, the question is, a local mayor’s job is to push commander’s intent down to his or her troops.”

[Akoto]

25. FEMA will accomplish nothing substantial until it drops standard protocols.

I was dumbfounded when they based their aid upon people going to a website to sign up. Are they not aware that the island's infrastructure in general is gone? How the hell are they supposed to do that?

Then, I've heard other stories of FEMA workers going to remote communities at risk to themselves, only to have no assistance or supplies to provide once there. Effectively, a pointless journey.

It was my sense that things would get more organized once a general was installed, but evidently, the bureaucrats are not content to do that when their image is being tarnished by the only mayor with an international voice.

[pfitz59]

26. the island is very mountainous with steep slopes and valleys

http://en-us.topographic-map.com/places/Puerto-Rico-797932/