
Puerto Rican Hospitals Battle Life and Death Daily - curtis
http://www.npr.org/2017/10/05/555796327/following-disaster-teams-in-puerto-rico
======
rayiner
Sadly, we can expect to see more of this into the future.

[http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/puerto-rico-
fa...](http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/puerto-rico-faces-weeks-
electricity-maria-50020984).

> The territory's $73 billion debt crisis has left agencies like the state
> power company broke. It abandoned most basic maintenance in recent years,
> leaving the island subject to regular blackouts.

The Federal government can provide disaster relief (and should have done a
better job here), but it's job isn't to rebuild local infrastructure
(especially infrastructure that was already marginal due to decades of
neglect). In that sense, Puerto Rico isn't different from Illinois, Detroit,
Flint, or numerous other places where decades of mismanagement have hollowed
out the resources of the local government. If a major disaster hit Detroit, I
think you'd be surprised at how long it would take to recover.

~~~
kafkaesq
Point taken, but the article wasn't talking about "rebuilding local
infrastructure", or long-term recovery. It was specifically talking about
people dying, and in danger of dying, _right now_ \- for the lack of easily
deployable (in the timespan since the hurricane - being as this is, you know,
the richest country in the world) replacement "infrastructure" like air
conditioners and gas-powered generators.

While their country's Executive Branch not only shows no signs of taking their
plight seriously, but goes out of its way to make spiteful comments about it.

~~~
zaroth
It's weird that when I read the article I form a picture of an immense
response of very determined, brave, well funded, well trained, responsive
professionals out there _saving_ lives in a post-apocalyptic environment.

But your takeaway was that this "shows no signs of taking their plight
seriously"? I honestly do not get it. Did we read the same article?

Did you read about Dr. Melissa Stein leading the DMAT team? About Commander
Thorp responding to the false report of a disaster at a nearby hospital? About
the conditions they are working in?

 _" In telling team members coming here we tell them it's going to be an
extremely austere environment," she says.

No power, no air conditioning, no local water, no local food, no Internet and
very limited communication. Hurricane Maria falls somewhere between Hurricane
Harvey in Houston — where teams stayed in a hotel — and the 2010 Haiti
earthquake, where they created a field hospital in Port-au-Prince and slept
outside._

This is a island with 3.4 million people which won't have power restored for
4-6 _months_. From what I'm reading we have seen an overwhelming Federal
response starts days _before_ landfall.

 _No signs of taking their plight seriously...._

~~~
skybrian
There is a robust federal response. It's also not enough to meet the
challenge. Both things can be true.

Apparently the response in Haiti was faster and larger [1] And yet, people
forget that the response in Haiti was screwed up too.

[1] [https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/us-
responded-t...](https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/us-responded-to-
haiti-quake-more-forcefully-than-to-puerto-rico-
disaster/2017/09/28/74fe9c02-a465-11e7-8cfe-d5b912fabc99_story.html?utm_term=.0fe9e6d435f0)

~~~
zaroth
We are spending $200 million per day. NYT reports that 19 people died during
the storm and 14 people have died since "indirectly" from the storm.

You claim what we are doing is "not enough to meet the challenge". By what
metric? It was a "catastrophic event" which will take months to rebuild. It's
been about two weeks, and a dozen people have died. It seems like the
immediate challenge has been well and fully met. The long term challenge is
already shaping up with Trump statements like "wipe out the debt".

By comparison deaths in Haiti were about 200,000. Please let that sink in when
MSM tries to make the comparison.

One of the things we learned from Haiti is the _deploy everything now_
mentality is counter-productive. You get a baseline then you assess, assess,
assess and then figure out how to send the _right_ resources that are actually
needed on the ground.

~~~
rayiner
Source for $200 million per day?

~~~
zaroth
[https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/10/04/us/politics/trump-
hurr...](https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/10/04/us/politics/trump-hurricane-
relief-request-flood-insurance.html?referer=https://www.google.com/)

------
HillaryBriss
FWIW, the full title of this article is: _112 Degrees With No Water: Puerto
Rican Hospitals Battle Life And Death Daily_

i think it's important to emphasize the temperature difference here because
_almost every hospital anywhere_ battles life and death daily

~~~
curtis
I had intended to use the full title, and only just now realized that I messed
it up.

~~~
copperx
Big time, mind you.

------
classicsnoot
In regards to people questioning why the US Navy and friends haven't swooped
in yet, it is a question of logistics. Contrary to cinematic portrayal, an
endeavour of this magnitude requires a ton of planning and legal acrobatics,
not to mention hiring and deploying contractors. A worthy read on this subject
is Shield and Sword, an account of the US Navy in Gulf War I.

------
emodendroket
It is truly shocking how slow the recovery is.

~~~
zaroth
FEMA is used to dropping massive quantities of supplies "at the doorstep" and
relies on local infrastructure to distribute it.

Apparently there are 10,000 containers in port but no way to distribute the
goods. No drivers, no gas for trucks, and no passable roads to drive on.

You can't rebuilt the islands electrical grid in a couple weeks, when first
you have to rebuild the roads, which you can't build because there's no one
there to build them because there's no food or water.

I'd say the devastation is truly shocking. It's not particularly shocking that
the recovery is just getting started and that they are facing absolutely
enourmous logistical problems compounded by the pre-existing state and very
poor readiness for this level of event.

~~~
pera
Solar energy could be a good temporal solution for this kind of disasters:

[https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-puertorico-
solar/how-...](https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-puertorico-solar/how-
solar-energy-saved-a-puerto-rican-farm-from-hurricane-maria-idUSKCN1C90CG)

The military probably have a lot of experience deploying solar energy
infrastructure in places with complex accessibility.

~~~
astrodust
Afghanistan was a testbed for this technology because remote bases were often
extremely expensive to maintain if running off of generator power. The cost of
fuel was astronomical since it had to be ferried in by helicopter.

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dingo_bat
Don't all hospitals? It's a place to treat and care for sick people. Obviously
some are going to die.

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epitomix
What's with the "force protection" with assault weapons? What exactly are they
protecting from?

~~~
drakonandor
There's always a big looter/violence problem during disasters like this, and
it's difficult for police/security to do their jobs at normal efficiency.

------
copperx
Don't they all? Not criticizing the article, just the title.

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RandVal30142
"Great anger" -Trump, commenting on the divisiveness he sowed using his
supporters & the subject of the NFL protests, while ignoring Puerto Rico.

