President Donald Trump and first lady Melania visited Puerto Rico today where Trump congratulated himself on a job well done and downplayed the devastation and complained about the cost.
“I hate to tell you, Puerto Rico, but you are throwing our budget out of whack,” Trump said. “We’ve spent a lot of money in Puerto Rico.”
He compared the disaster to Hurricane Katrina, which he called “a real catastrophe.” The difference, to Trump, was that only 16 were killed by Hurricane Maria while hundreds died as a result of Katrina.
Then he graded himself and the job he’s doing.
“In Texas and in Florida, we get an A+,” he said. “And I’ll tell you what, I think we’ve done just as good in Puerto Rico.”
Yes, fewer people have died in Puerto Rico, although some parts of the island have remained unreachable. But here’s a description of of some of the devastation from former Dallas residents Merrill Lipowsky and John D’Errico who live just outside of San Juan. They consider themselves lucky compared to their neighbors.
“Our building with 24 units is 50 percent devastated,” Lipowsky wrote. “We are one of the lucky ones. During the storm, water came in through every window and exterior wall. It took John 2 days to get the standing water up. Dozens of towels were used and are finally washed and dried.
“Even though we have a generator, they are rationing us; it is off from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. because they never know when we can get a company here to deliver more fuel. The elevators don’t work because they were flooded. There are no lights in the hallways or the interior and exterior stairwells.”
The elevators don’t work and the couple lives on the 10th floor. No batteries are available for flashlights so they have to walk up and down 10 flights in the dark to get any food. They consider themselves lucky to be somewhere where they can get food.
Lipowsky and D’Errico are planning on returning to the mainland as soon as they can. So far, they’ve been unable to get a flight.
— David Taffet
