NYC Sends Supplies, More Staff To Aid Puerto Rico

NEW YORK CITY — Thousands of cases of supplies and more than 50 workers will soon be en route to Puerto Rico from New York City, officials announced Thursday. The city's Office of Emergency Management is packing 265 pallets of donated supplies to be shipped to the storm-ravaged territory, where 53 city employees will be deployed Friday, Mayor Bill de Blasio said.

The city will continue collecting diapers, baby food, batteries, first aid supplies and feminine hygiene products at two dozen firehouses, every NYPD precinct and other locations until Oct. 31, the mayor's office said.

De Blasio and other lawmakers again assailed President Donald Trump's response to the disaster, which they said has left many hospitals disabled and most of the island's 3.5 million U.S. citizens still without power.

"This is not even debatable," de Blasio said during a Thursday news conference at the city's emergency management warehouse in Bushwick. "The scale of this disaster is obvious and we have to have an attitude of all for one, one for all."

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A citywide drive has collected 23,800 cases of feminine hygiene products, 12,800 cases of diapers, 8,800 packs of batteries, 3,600 cases of baby food and 1,200 first aid kits since Hurricane Maria struck Sept. 20, the mayor's office said. The city is collecting only those items because other relief efforts often lack them, de Blasio said.

Some 158 New York City employees are currently on the ground in Puerto Rico representing the FDNY, NYPD, the Office of Emergency Management, Department of Buildings and other offices, de Blasio said. Some 31 city sanitation workers will go to the island Friday alongside 22 staffers from the buildings and housing departments, he said.

City workers have been there since Sept. 23, three days after Hurricane Maria caused mass destruction throughout the Caribbean, Emergency Management Commissioner Joe Esposito said. Since then they have rescued people from floods, gotten a hospital operational again and helped distribute supplies in the city of San Juan and the surrounding areas, Esposito said.

"They’re hard at work and they’ll be there for as long as they have to," Esposito said.

City lawmakers pledged to continue supporting Puerto Rico amid what they called a lackluster response from the federal government.

City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito, an East Harlem Democrat born in Puerto Rico, attended a Manhattan rally on Wednesday criticizing Trump's visit to the territory, at which he threw paper towels into a gathered crowd.

"We need the support and we need the resources from the U.S. government and they are still woefully lacking," Mark-Viverito said Thursday.

Trump has praised the relief provided by local and federal officials. Some 12,000 federal workers are working to help Puerto Rico recover, the Federal Emergency Management Agency said this week.

(Lead image by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)