Puerto Rico Is 'Broken' 100 Days After Hurricane Maria And Trump Is No Help, Locals Say
Source: Newsweek Magazine
BY MARIA PEREZ AND LINLEY SANDERS ON 12/28/17 AT 9:00 AM
It has been 100 days since Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico — and the U.S. territory is struggling with scarce resources, strained health care services and about half of the island still lacking power, officials and residents told Newsweek. The struggles drag on as the death toll from the monster storm keeps rising — possibly topping 1,000 people — and local leaders say President Donald Trump still turns a blind eye to the island's pain.
"He has failed the moral imperative that any leader of the free world should hold at the highest level," San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz told Newsweek about the recovery efforts. "All he needs to do is simple: Do his job. I think the world has seen a commander-in-chief unable to command."
She said she and her fellow Puerto Ricans have been "fighting every day" to move past the wreckage of the storm. But the messes that remain on the island have stalled many major relief efforts, and even the attempted recovery continues to bring new, overwhelming challenges.
One of the most immediate problems is power. Puerto Rico at one point lost 100 percent of its power soon after the storm hit September 20. Today, approximately 50 percent of the territory still has no electricity now, Cruz said.
Read more: http://www.newsweek.com/puerto-rico-recovery-100-days-hurricane-maria-760965
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