Tons of food went to waste in Puerto Rico as stores' pleas to FEMA went unanswered

[highplainsdem]

Source: Politico

Walmart and other supermarkets in Puerto Rico were forced to throw out tons of perishable meat and produce after Hurricane Maria when their pleas for emergency fuel were ignored by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, according to congressional investigators.

The retail giant and others reached out to FEMA officials repeatedly after the storm, seeking fuel to keep food refrigerated. They enlisted the help of Gov. Ricard Rosselló and other island officials, as well as members of Congress, to deliver emails, texts and in-person messages to FEMA. In one instance, a Puerto Rico official received an urgent email from Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.) on Sept. 22 while the official was sitting in a meeting with FEMA.

“FYI I’m sitting with the FEMA rep right now so we are taking care of this,” the Puerto Rico official wrote minutes after receiving the Gutierrez email.

Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), the top Democrat on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, and Rep. Stacey Plaskett (D-Virgin Islands) released details of the emails in a letter to the committee chairman, Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.), on Tuesday. In the letter, they repeated a longstanding request for a subpoena to force the Department of Homeland Security to produce documents related to FEMA’s disaster response.

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Read more: https://www.politico.com/story/2018/03/20/puerto-rico-food-waste-fuel-476299

[BigmanPigman]

1. In a normal year under a normal president, this would be a huge, newsworthy scandle.....

by we live in Bizarro World now!

[salin]

2. I am horrified both by the stories of neglect to the crisis in Puerto Rico, and the sparse ongoing

coverage. Our humanity is being further stripped away by the chaos presidency.

[Silver1]

3. Back in 1999, during the US led NATO bombing of Yugoslavia ...

... the first thing the people did was to cook all their perishables between the bombing raids. They roasted, grilled, and pretended to party, knowing full well they may die at any minute. And not because of anything they had done, but because of political machinations of their asshole "leaders". At night they hid in bomb shelters, and comforted their children as best they could, and answered their questions about why America hated them so much. All these kids probably grew up with PTSD.

Then, like now in Puerto Rico, and during Catrina, and Sandy, and the wildfires, people have to remember, we must rely on ourselves. Our government is, hopefully momentarily, ineffective, possibly unwilling, to protect us.

I look forward to the better aspects of our human nature surfacing. I am so sorry for the people in Puerto Rico right now. They've really been side swiped.

[dixiegrrrrl]

4. Excellent comment.....

Consider it "liked"__________