U.S. response in Puerto Rico pales next to actions after Haiti quake

[IronLionZion]

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?hpid=hp_hp-top-table-main_mariaresponse-815pm%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&utm_term=.e67c66c35507




After an earthquake shattered Haiti’s capital on Jan. 12, 2010, the U.S. military mobilized as if it were going to war.

Before dawn the next morning, an Army unit was airborne, on its way to seize control of the main airport in Port-au-Prince. Within two days, the Pentagon had 8,000 American troops en route. Within two weeks, 33 U.S. military ships and 22,000 troops had arrived. More than 300 military helicopters buzzed overhead, delivering millions of pounds of food and water.

No two disasters are alike. Each delivers customized violence that cannot be fully anticipated. But as criticism of the federal government’s initial response to the crisis in Puerto Rico continued to mount Thursday, the mission to Haiti — an island nation several hundred miles from the U.S. mainland — stands as an example of how quickly relief efforts can be mobilized.

By contrast, eight days after Hurricane Maria ripped across neighboring Puerto Rico, just 4,400 service members were participating in federal operations to assist the devastated island, an Army general told reporters Thursday. In addition, about 1,000 Coast Guard members were aiding the efforts. About 40 U.S. military helicopters were helping to deliver food and water to the 3.4 million residents of the U.S. territory, along with 10 Coast Guard helicopters.

Some people act as if America doesn't have the capabilities to get stuff where it needs to go anywhere in the world. There was a time when our military might was used to save people's lives after disasters. But I guess we're under new leadership now with different priorities. Republican candidates always tell us government won't help and after they get elected they prove it.

[spanone]

1. the difference is we had a caring President in 2010

[treestar]

13. Yes, though here on DU

There were some posts saying he wasn't doing enough soon enough!

[Historic NY]

2. I remember seeing the USS Carl Vincent an aircraft carrier loaded..

leaving Norfolk. A friend was on it.

[genxlib]

3. I was sent to Haiti

as part of a Search and Rescue team with FEMA.

Search and Rescue has been in Puerto Rico also so that part of it might be a wash.

But the rest of the response sure has looked smaller and delayed. We saw plenty of US military helicopters in Haiti.

The difference has been willingness to recognize the issue and pull the trigger on needed resources. My team was not even geared for international response. Of the 28 FEMA teams, only two are set-up for international work. Obama didn't care. He knew we had the capabilities and he sent us anyway. Caught me by surprise but it was the right thing to do.

It is sad but this article certainly has the ring of truth to from my observation point.

And bear in mind, our obligation to Haiti was purely humanitarian and did not even stem from an obligation to our citizens.

Here was what Obama said about the Earthquake https://www.democraticunderground.com/10029636572

This is why character, focus and leadership matters

[IronLionZion]

4. Where there's a will, there's a way

most rule breaking is forgiven when people are doing good things to save lives after a disaster. People gotta do what they gotta do.

[Lurker Deluxe]

5. if you read that article

It will tell you why it was so different. The military took control of Haiti within a day, military command structure, control of airspace, complete domination like an invasion.

This can not be done in PR, or Texas/Florida. PR government controls what we can and can not do. Just like any other US state the US Military just can not drop in and take over, they can aid as asked.

[Lee-Lee]

6. People mostly don't realize the PR government still runs the relief

That's the way it's done. The state or territory is the lead in any disaster relief efforts and any federal assistance, including the US military, are there to support them, not to run the show.

The military can't legally show up and take control. Not unless the President declares martial law and tells the local government to step aside.

So the government of PR is the lead here. They request assets, they manage them, they direct who goes where and does what and what supplies go where. FEMA and the military support them.

Haiti was another story. We more or less invaded and took control, wishes of the government be dammed. And a whole lot of the troop numbers listed there were there just to maintain security and control the airport to keep people from overrunning it and disrupting operations.

The military going in like that in PR would be illegal under US law. Under the law te government of PR is still in command of the relief efforts, everyone else is just supporting them and responding to what they ask for and tell them to do.

[IronLionZion]

8. The feds claim that's the disconnect here

They claim they provided everything the PR Governor asked for. But because of the downed communications and utilities and destroyed roads, the governor's office doesn't know what people need across the island and haven't requested stuff. There's a big gap between what is requested and what the people need.

Ironically, the Military and Coast Guard might be better equipped to assess the needs than the local government but that's not how it works.

[Lee-Lee]

11. The more I see the more I don't think the government of PR was prepared

I'm seeing reports of nobody in local government having communications so higher levels, and most of them not having functioning generators at police stations or emergency food and water even for local first responders.

If it's true, that's pretty shocking. I would for a rural NC Sheriff's office and we had tight budgets to say the least and we still had such contingency plans in place. The sheriff and the county EM managers had sat phones, they purchased ham radios and had them in the EOC and had a partnership with local hams to run them, and they had low band systems that could reach adjacent counties without repeaters- and they ran drills once a year to test it.

The EOC and SO had enough water on hand to feed responders for 2 weeks.

I'm kind of shocked about how unprepared local authorities were there, especially given that the tropical threat there is so real.

If your first responders haven't prepared then everything else will fall apart.

[IronLionZion]

12. Obama's FEMA drew up plans for this exact scenario

complete with landing marines on the beach of an isolated island if the ports and roads were inaccessible. It's so frustrating.

One possibility could be to provide plans to the PR government and ask them to approve it.

You're right, downed communications with the local first responders is probably the biggest problem they have.

[Lee-Lee]

14. You have to have layers upon layers of redundancy on communications

When you don't and things fail it's a mess.

Back when Nextel was still a thing they actually came out with a "radio" that was really just a Nextel phone with their push to talk made to look like the radio for a police car. They marketed it to police departments, fire and EMS as an alternative to their radio systems because they just had to buy the radio and pay a "subscription" and it was far cheaper than maintaining a real radio system with repeaters and antennas and towers. They told how much cheaper it was and how great it was that scanners didn't pick it up and how it would free them up to not worry about radio system maintenance.

And a few went with it. And what they quickly found was that that when the cell systems were overloaded now their "radios" didn't work because they were really just cellphones. When the cell towers went down the "radios" didn't work. And since the towers and systems belonged to a big corporation and not the city or county they had no influence on when or how fast they got fixed.

And guess what- Nextel bundled cell phones for all the employees to into the plan. So since their phones worked on the same system as their "radios" it all failed at once, leaving them with no backup....

[genxlib]

9. I am not buying it

You are correct in your assessment. I have seen FEMA tied up before by not being requested by a State.

However, the only time this really becomes an issue is when the leadership of the State (or Commonwealth) is having a territorial power struggle to remain in charge.

I have not seen any evidence of this. The officials of PR have been welcoming any help that was offered. Indeed they have to had agreed to some help in advance because FEMA was there in advance of the storm.

The permission you site is required. I do not think it has been withheld.

[Lee-Lee]

10. It's not just "permission"

It's direction.

The role of the state or territory government isn't to just say "your allowed to help".

It's to say "we need X,Y,Z and we need it in locations A,BC, here is what we have and can do and here is what we need from you."

The PR governments responsibility is to run and manage all resources sent there, they are ultimately in charge.

This system and organizational scheme is nothing new. It's been the law for decades and was further codified and reinforced and put into practice at every level of government that deals with disaster response.

They are all following FEMAs incident command protocols and systems, that anyone who works in even the lowest levels of emergency management had been trained in, that set up these exact chains of command, roles and responsibilities.

[genxlib]

15. I don't disagree with anything you have said

But the degree to which PR officials manage is entirely variable. They can direct every bottle of water into every hand or they can direct entire battalions to be responsible for getting water to a remote region and then let the chain of command work out details.

With FEMA USAR, We are never told which structures to search. We have a command staff known as IST which is directed to search an affected area. Individual teams are tasked to handle sub-areas and report back. It gets done. Vast resources can be set in motion with pretty limited instructions. We are just one ESF among 15 that are prepared to respond for all kinds of help including transportation, medical, energy, communication etc. It is all laid out in this document https://www.fema.gov/media-library-data/20130726-1825-25045-8535/overview_esf___support_annexes_2008.pdf

You are correct that PR is control but I think you are underestimating the capabilities of the responders to function with minimal input and direction.

Aside from all that, I have two comments.

For one, readiness does not require action from PR. I have been alerted by FEMA a number of times that never ended up in mobilization. There are actions that can be taken so that assets are ready to be deployed when requested. They can be on call, on standby, or even pre-deployed to the vicinity. The hospital ship was departing port today and will arrive Oct 3. Even if the request is delayed, there is no reason to sit around waiting for the request when it is obviously going to be needed.

Second, after all is said and done, it will end up happening anyway. A General has been put in charge and the efforts are finally coming together. So the argument does not seem to be "can it be done" so much as "how soon it can be done"

[LAS14]

7. And it took a week for the MSM to catch on! nt