American citizens have had their lives ravaged by a Category 4 hurricane that flooded their cities and destroyed their homes. The devastation is total. Many packed their bags, waited for evacuation flights and are now displaced indefinitely. Federal aid is slow to arrive. The military has sent few planes or warships filled with medical and emergency personnel. No armies of volunteers have started mucking homes or clearing debris. Residents have no power. Aerial photographs show complete darkness from electricity outages. Complete darkness.
This is not Houston, or even Florida. We’re talking about Puerto Rico.
Puerto Rico is a United States territory. Citizens hold U.S. passports and pay U.S. taxes. The U.S. acquired Puerto Rico in 1898 from Spain under the Treaty of Paris as a result of the Spanish-American War. Earlier this year the citizens of Puerto Rico voted overwhelmingly to become the 51st state of the U.S. There is little appetite for such concession in Congress.
Puerto Rico is an island, 1,600 miles from New York. Far enough away that people who live there might be forgotten. But they shouldn’t be.
Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico last Wednesday, after Hurricane Irma hit the island a few days prior. The situation is so dire that the island is currently under National Weather Service flash flooding warning, because the Guajataca Dam is, if it hasn’t already, about to fail. Seventy thousand people live downstream from the reservoir.
President Trump approved disaster declaration for the island, but so far little has been done.
The storm disabled 85 percent of phone and internet cables. Officials have “had no communication with 40 of the 78 municipalities on the island more than two days after” the storm. In other words, no one knows the full extent of the devastation.
The tragic yet endearing interview of the mayor of Puerto Rico’s capital city San Juan has gone viral. As she said, “The Puerto Rico and the San Juan that we knew yesterday is no longer there.”
The island was already under water in a financial sense. Earlier this year Puerto Rico revealed a $73 million debt crisis. The state power company has not been able to keep up with maintenance under the stress of its $9 billion of debt. Now we know why we should have helped them do so. After declaring several defaults on government-issued bonds, Puerto Rico’s governor filed bankruptcy-like proceedings in May.
Puerto Rico will need money to rebuild. As part of the United States, it deserves at least that.