Mexico plans aid for Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria

[Tennis]

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Suffering itself after two major earthquakes last month, Mexico plans to send aid including water and electricity experts to Puerto Rico, a U.S. territory reeling from the devastation of Hurricane Maria.

The gesture, announced by the Mexican government on Wednesday, follows an awkward series of exchanges between Mexico and the United States over emergency aid in recent weeks.

Mexico plans to send some 30 tons of bottled water, mosquito repellent and specialists in power generation, transmission and distribution from the state power utility, Mexico’s foreign ministry said in a statement.

The Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) team would work to mitigate the damage and assist in restoring power supply after Maria, the ministry said.

The strongest hurricane to hit Puerto Rico in nearly 90 years, Maria caused at least 34 deaths and inflicted widespread damage to homes and infrastructure, including wiping out power across the Caribbean island.

Mexico has had strained relations with its northern neighbor since U.S. President Donald Trump took office in January, promising to build a wall along the U.S. southern border to keep out illegal immigrants and drugs.

Mexico had planned to send material assistance to the United States after Hurricane Harvey, which hit Texas in late August, but later withdrew the offer after the first of the two quakes struck southern Mexico in early September.

Trump was criticized in Mexico for the time he took to offer condolences to his Mexican counterpart, Enrique Pena Nieto, over the first quake, which killed at least 98 people. The U.S. president later said he had been unable to reach Pena Nieto because of poor cellphone reception.

Ironically, after Maria struck Puerto Rico, the local cellphone operator of Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim proved more reliable than some U.S. competitors during the early days of the communications outage across the island of 3.4 million people.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-u...-idUSKBN1C925G

This is starting to remind me of Katrina. The federal government response to Irma and Harvey is so different to Maria. Such a shame.

[noidentity]

Good for them

[Dys]

"Irma"
"Harvey"
"Maria"

Clearly, if you want aid, you should name your hurricanes after white people so the people in charge can feel some white guilt and do something kind about it. But since Maria is a spanish/latin primary name, you have to deal with the problems left behind by the illegal immigrant. It's all rigged, even the weather monitoring stations are against my nore eetees, which are staffed by white people, so you know it's true.


...This shit is so stupid that I can't even be facetious about it without eyerolling my way in to a migraine. I hate people.

[Player Twelve]

"Irma"
"Harvey"
"Maria"

Clearly, if you want aid, you should name your hurricanes after white people so the people in charge can feel some white guilt and do something kind about it. But since Maria is a spanish/latin primary name, you have to deal with the problems left behind by the illegal immigrant. It's all rigged, even the weather monitoring stations are against my nore eetees, which are staffed by white people, so you know it's true.


...This shit is so stupid that I can't even be facetious about it without eyerolling my way in to a migraine. I hate people.

Maria is a name for white people.

[Theinquisition]

"Irma"
"Harvey"
"Maria"

Clearly, if you want aid, you should name your hurricanes after white people so the people in charge can feel some white guilt and do something kind about it. But since Maria is a spanish/latin primary name, you have to deal with the problems left behind by the illegal immigrant. It's all rigged, even the weather monitoring stations are against my nore eetees, which are staffed by white people, so you know it's true.


...This shit is so stupid that I can't even be facetious about it without eyerolling my way in to a migraine. I hate people.

Thing about it, is that there is a shit ton of aid waiting at the ports, it's a matter of getting it out to the people. Roads are flooded, bridges washed out, and a lack of trucks and truckers to distribute the aid. the military has been helping tremendously.

The media wants to portray this as a racial issue, when it isn't.

[noidentity]

"Irma"
"Harvey"
"Maria"

Clearly, if you want aid, you should name your hurricanes after white people so the people in charge can feel some white guilt and do something kind about it. But since Maria is a spanish/latin primary name, you have to deal with the problems left behind by the illegal immigrant. It's all rigged, even the weather monitoring stations are against my nore eetees, which are staffed by white people, so you know it's true.


...This shit is so stupid that I can't even be facetious about it without eyerolling my way in to a migraine. I hate people.

*Yawn*

http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/aboutnames_history.shtml

For people who actually are curious how Hurricanes are named.

[Armourboy]

Thing about it, is that there is a shit ton of aid waiting at the ports, it's a matter of getting it out to the people. Roads are flooded, bridges washed out, and a lack of trucks and truckers to distribute the aid. the military has been helping tremendously.

The media wants to portray this as a racial issue, when it isn't.

Yup the company I work for has a plant there ( Carolina is the town ) that they have been trying to get to and get back online since it happened. They stated to us in an email that supplies have been rolling in, but they are having serious problems getting anything to the port, or from the port out to the area. Last update we got ( would have been Monday I think ), they had finally been cleared to fly in, they brought in supplies for the workers, and flew an older couple to their family in Miami because they were in bad shape.

They said it would be an unknowing time table before power was fully restored to the facility, and repairs may take longer than that because they can't get materials to fix things because they are being used for hospitals and such ( which is perfectly understandable). Basically they said they would begin trying to get some machines to essentially power up, but how long it would be before production could actually make it out of the country is unknown.

They made it a point however to let us know that there was large amounts of aid coming into the country, the problem was getting it from the ports to anywhere else. It really is an infrastructure nightmare.

[Molis]

Hopefully the aide Mexico sends does not mess up their budget.

[Theinquisition]

Yup the company I work for has a plant there ( Carolina is the town ) that they have been trying to get to and get back online since it happened. They stated to us in an email that supplies have been rolling in, but they are having serious problems getting anything to the port, or from the port out to the area. Last update we got ( would have been Monday I think ), they had finally been cleared to fly in, they brought in supplies for the workers, and flew an older couple to their family in Miami because they were in bad shape.

They said it would be an unknowing time table before power was fully restored to the facility, and repairs may take longer than that because they can't get materials to fix things because they are being used for hospitals and such ( which is perfectly understandable). Basically they said they would begin trying to get some machines to essentially power up, but how long it would be before production could actually make it out of the country is unknown.

They made it a point however to let us know that there was large amounts of aid coming into the country, the problem was getting it from the ports to anywhere else. It really is an infrastructure nightmare.

Indeed

planning for these type of scenario's is what I got my degree in and what I do for a living (emergency management and planning for a major insurance carrier). I have friends with boots in ground that have communicated to me how difficult it is delivering supplies.

[Nilinor]

People have to also understand that 2 incidents are in the continental US, where people can just get in truck and drive to the disaster area, the other is on an island in the ocean, a small island at that, with probably not very many ports or many airports.

Aid is definitely going to be a lot slower and harder to give as opposed to the 2 hurricane disasters on the continental US.

[Kujako]

Maria is a name for white people.

West side story says otherwise!

[PACOX]

Indeed

planning for these type of scenario's is what I got my degree in and what I do for a living (emergency management and planning for a major insurance carrier). I have friends with boots in ground that have communicated to me how difficult it is delivering supplies.

Air drop them? Load up barges with trucks. Being from FL I can tell you there is no shortage of linesmen and aid workers who would volunteer if need be. The problem isnt resources is logistics and bureaucracy.

[Theinquisition]

Air drop them? Load up barges with trucks. Being from FL I can tell you there is no shortage of linesmen and aid workers who would volunteer if need be. The problem isnt resources is logistics and bureaucracy.

Air dropping is tempting, but you still have to distribute. Problem being, whomever gets to it first, may horde the supplies. When you have people with hungry kids, and a lot of people clamoring for limited supplies, thats a recipe for disaster.

[PACOX]

People have to also understand that 2 incidents are in the continental US, where people can just get in truck and drive to the disaster area, the other is on an island in the ocean, a small island at that, with probably not very many ports or many airports.

Aid is definitely going to be a lot slower and harder to give as opposed to the 2 hurricane disasters on the continental US.

The problem is outlined in bold.

A foreign country with far less resources, their own share of natural disasters, and under a lot of political scrutiny from the US is pledging aid while the US is barely getting its act together. Its not a good look and the US can do much better with a little effort.

[Armourboy]

Air dropping is tempting, but you still have to distribute. Problem being, whomever gets to it first, may horde the supplies. When you have people with hungry kids, and a lot of people clamoring for limited supplies, thats a recipe for disaster.

Yeah sometimes you kind of need to save people from themselves as sad as that is. I know the airport was just opened this week to flights other than FEMA/US Military, which is how our company got there. Prior to that you had to have clearance and that was pretty much not happening. I think you will start to see much more pinpointed efforts like ours popping up which should help the overall logistics nightmare.

I'm still not certain if they have located everyone. I know the week before they had only been able to contact roughly half of their employees ( about 40 people ). The other 40 they had no clue about, and we had put in a system to be able to contact people asap after an event.

[meowfurion]

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-u...-idUSKBN1C925G

This is starting to remind me of Katrina. The federal government response to Irma and Harvey is so different to Maria. Such a shame.

What are YOU doing for Puerto Rico, OP? As you sit there showboating and virtue signalling on a public forum? How much water have you personally sent to Puerto Rico? How much of your own money have you written a check for and sent to a random homeless Puerto Rican person? What are YOU doing? Shine your fucking moral mirror onto yourself, and quit being a hypocrite.

How many Puerto Ricans are you personally bringing into your home and putting up and supporting with food and shelter? When do you leave in your car and drive down to the port to pick a family of unfortunate Puerto Ricans up to take back to your home to live with you? Such a shame.

[Aeula]

Guess Trump's going to have to extend that wall.

[Armourboy]

The problem is outlined in bold.

A foreign country with far less resources, their own share of natural disasters, and under a lot of political scrutiny from the US is pledging aid while the US is barely getting its act together. Its not a good look and the US can do much better with a little effort.

They can pledge all they want, but they will find out just like the US has found out, the problem is not getting aid to the country, it's there, it's just getting it from point A to Point B that is the problem. There is a reason the US changed course and sent the military in rather than leaving it in FEMA's hands. It's going to take military level logistics with helicopters and such to get more of the goods into the areas that need them.

I know the media is yelling like mad about aid not going to PR, but it really is. The bigger problem is not having truck drivers and roads to drive on because all of those people are looking after their own families. They've been calling for anyone with a CDL license in country to please come drive, but they just aren't showing up.

[Jeezy911]

Comparing Hurricane Maria to Katrina is almost laughable. The left just wants this to be Trumps G.W. moment, but it's not even close. 16 people died during Maria which is sad but doesn't come in the same universe as the 1,833 killed during Katrina, not to mention it affected almost the entire southern coast of the U.S. compared to a medium sized island.

[zenkai]

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-u...-idUSKBN1C925G

This is starting to remind me of Katrina. The federal government response to Irma and Harvey is so different to Maria. Such a shame.

I fail to see the point of this post or what to discuss.