As Trump Defends Puerto Rico Response, Many Say The Efforts Have Failed

WASHINGTON, DC — Water, food and electricity are still in desperately short supply across the island territory of Puerto Rico, and questions are mounting about why more hasn't been done to help the nearly 3.5 million Americans who live there. As residents and officials say the federal government has let Puerto Rico down, President Trump and his administration are playing defense and arguing that they've been successful in their disaster response.

"It is really a good news story, in terms of our ability to reach people," said acting Homeland Security Secretary Elaine Duke in remarks to reporters Thursday. She declared that "the relief effort is under control."

But these remarks differed sharply from the experience of Puerto Ricans suffering the brunt of the combined impact of two major hurricanes. The storms ripped homes apart, destroyed vital bridges and infrastructure, and mangled and already tenuous electrical grid, leaving many without consistent access to the basic necessities of life. (For more information on this and other political stories, subscribe to the White House Patch to receive daily newsletters and breaking news alerts.)

Trump: We Won't Rest Until Puerto Rico Is Safe

On Twitter, the president juggled between two contrasting themes: acknowledging the island's struggles while denying his administration has let anyone down.

"Puerto Rico is devastated," Trump wrote Thursday. "Phone system, electric grid many roads, gone. FEMA and First Responders are amazing. Governor said 'great job!'"

He added Friday morning: "Thank you to FEMA, our great Military & all First Responders who are working so hard,against terrible odds,in Puerto Rico. See you Tuesday!"

Earlier, he reminded his Twitter followers of his plans to visit the island on Tuesday and said he wished the press would treat him more fairly.

Meanwhile, Sen. Bill Nelson, a Florida Democrat, called for the U.S. military to immediately provide security and distribution of aid in remote areas.

"As was said after Hurricane Andrew: 'Where the hell is the cavalry?'" he said in a statement.

"I have not received any help, and we ran out of food yesterday," said Mari Olivo, a 27-year-old homemaker in San Juan, Puerto Rico's capital. Her husband was pushing a shopping cart with empty plastic gallon jugs while their two children, 9 and 7, each toted a large bucket. They stood in line in a parking lot in the town of Bayamon near the hard-hit northern coast, where local police used hoses to fill up containers from a city water truck.

"I have not seen any federal help around here," said Javier San Miguel, a 51-year-old accountant in San Juan.

Earlier Thursday, Presidential spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said 10,000 government workers, including more than 7,000 troops, were helping Puerto Rico recover.

Retired Lt. Gen. Russel Honore, who led relief efforts after Hurricane Katrina once the military took over, said these troop levels may not be nearly enough.

"Puerto Rico is a bigger and tougher mission than Katrina," he told NPR in an interview. "And we had 20,000 federal troops, 20 ships and 40,000 National Guard."

He said the federal government has been slow to respond, but it is finally getting its act together.

"It takes time with ships, and we started moving about four days too late," Honore said. "And the air bridge is being set. They've really ramped that up in the last 24 hours. That should make a difference. But you need internal distribution. You need about — you need at least 50 to 80 helicopters in the there."

It seemed to many that Trump himself was relatively removed from the situation over the last weekend, even as Puerto Rico was several days into its current crisis. Much of Trump's public statements during that time were tweets inflaming the debate around NFL players kneeling during the national anthem. He didn't tweet about Puerto Rico until Monday night.

"The federal response has been a disaster," said lawmaker Jose Enrique Melendez, a member of Gov. Ricardo Rossello's New Progressive Party. "It's been really slow."

He said the Trump administration had focused more on making a good impression on members of the media gathered at San Juan's convention center than bringing aid to rural Puerto Rico.

"There are people literally just modeling their uniforms," Melendez said. "People are suffering outside."

In the town of San Lorenzo, about 40 miles west of the capital, people walked through calf-high water to get supplies because the bridge over the Manati River outside town was washed away in the storm.

San Lorenzo residents are collecting spring water to drink and taking turns cooking food for each other because residents are running low on basic supplies.

"Just like God helps us, we help each other," said resident Noemi Santiago, weeping. "Here one person makes food one day, another makes it the other day, so that the food that we have goes further."

FEMA has sent 150 containers filled with relief supplies to the port of San Juan since the hurricane struck on Sept. 20, said Omar Negron, director of Puerto Rico's Ports Authority. He said all the containers were dispatched to people in need, but private aid supplies have not reached Puerto Rico.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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AP Photo/Gerald Herbert