In a situation like this donating money gives organizations the flexibility to spend it on what will actually help. Donations in kind might be too much of one thing and not enough of another.
And they may just pile up on the dockside until the shipping and distribution mess is unraveled. We have to ask people wanting to send donation flights/barges if they have already lined up a place to put it and they react as obviously having never thought of that.
Another point: to political, religious or media entities who want to send a relief mission – for God’s sake DON’T expect the overtaxed local agencies to then assign internal transport and escort for you at our expense… or to just whip out a bunch of all-access IDs for every spear carrier in your cortege!
There was a CBS News report last night showing a lot filled with relief supplies enough for half a million people just sitting there because the truck drivers can’t be found and the roads are impassable.
Many news articles on how to help Puerto Rico stress that money is the most useful right now, since it can go directly where it needs to go. If you go to NPR or NYTimes websites, you can find lists of reputable organizations where the money will go to PR or to USVI, and your donation will do good, and help people get what they need.
I know this. I always donate money, I worked in logistics for years, my best friend in relief agencies. Donating shit is more trouble than it’s worth. But I still feel like I am taking the easy way out. My mom was a proponent of boots on the field generosity, and looked down on people who calmed their conscience by throwing money on the collection plate.
Logically though, I am actually a liability, as I don’t have any useful skills at the moment.
A good friend of mine from college is a Puerto Rican who works in disaster relief training for the Red Cross in NYC. He has been posting calls for people with commercial driver’s licenses to get themselves to the Port of San Juan so supplies can be distributed. No idea to what extent roads have been cleared yet, but I imagine that’s a huge issue, too.
The Jones act has been waived, initially for 10 days.
Speak of good and bad news. Ten days? I would think that aid in non-American bottoms hasn’t left port yet.
I saw this and I can’t even wrap my head around. It sounds like aid is there or on its way but it can’t get to where it’s needed. Can we not start doing helicopter drops?
Kind of tempting fate with that name.
We should send a hospital ship, a tanker and a helicopter carrier to bring people out to the hospital ship and carry fuel and MREs to the island. Ships small enough to get to the beach could generate electricity.
Saw the mayor of San Juan on television. She is fed up with the bureaucracy. Supplies are sitting there while FEMA holds meetings and writes memos. Meanwhile, people are dying in the hospitals because they don’t have fuel for the generators. She said she personally delivered generators to a children’s cancer hospital without power. Are the FEMA people not trained in prioritizing help in an emergency? Why do they not anticipate that in an emergency communications and roads may be out? And thanks Trump for finally authorizing a naval hospital ship several days after Hillary Clinton suggested it. I guess there won’t be that many additional deaths in the 5 days it will take to get there. But hey, you have to respect the president’s priorities. After all, there are football players actually kneeling during the national anthem.
And then again some truckers showed up the other day and offered their services for ten times normal rate, cash up front. Were told to go hang themselves.
Military helo lifts ARE now happening to the hill towns, and regional distribution centers are opened. But again just looking at $$$ and tons delivered is not a sign of people getting their needs met.
So why can’t truck drivers be found? You would expect most of the economy to be basically dead, for example manufacturers. So what are the drivers who used to deliver intermediate goods and finshed products for manufacturers doing now?
Let’s consider some possibilities:
Trapped in villages where there are still trees and debris blocking the roads.
Scavenging for water and food to take care of their families.
Looking for a flight to the mainland where there aren’t any hurricanes.
To be fair many drivers, especially the driver-operators with their own rigs, do not live in the urban centers. Our nominal 100x35 mile extension masks that it is quite hilly and there are access chokepoints where one landslide or washed out bridge can take out multiple routes.
Also the contingency plans evidently relied on that there would be communications up, in order to organize the relief movements. With both overhead landlines and repeater towers down, THAT part of the planning failed.
Also I’ve said this before, part of the problem is everything is needed everywhere, and all of it right now. The fleet on the ground before the disaster already could not have delivered everything to everywhere on short notice on good clear roads. Take out many of the roads and a significant fraction of the fleet and you’re screwed.
This is unbelievable to read. Shame on the USA and our so-called President. Hang on Puerto Rico and the USVI.
Trump’s attacks on the San Juan mayor for not toeing the line on how great the Federal response is make me want to throw up. In the Cheeto-in-Chief’s mind maintaining his brand is more important than the suffering of 3.5 million fellow citizens. It’s appalling.
I think the USN should have something like the helicopter carrier USS Essex off shore and move fuel, food and water about the island by helicopter.
and his supporters will either believe him or pretend to - I would guess they don’t even care if it’s true - if libruls are for it, they are agin it and vice versa.
meanwhile, people die. :mad: