September 20, 2017

"Once we're able to go outside, we're going to find our island destroyed."

Said Puerto Rico's Emergency Management Director Abner Gómez Cortés, quoted in "All Power Out as Hurricane Maria’s Winds, Floods Crush Puerto Rico" (NBC).

41 comments:

Big Mike said...

It's probably worse for the Virgin Islands -- they were hit pretty hard by Irma and now Maria has hammered them.

rcocean said...

BTW, I notice that whenever there's flooding in the Midwest or Hurricanes/Tornadoes in Texas, then you get people on NPR tut-tutting about whether we should pay for flood insurance and asking "Should the Federal Government encourage people to live there?"

But when its Puerto Rico or a blue state - that never gets asked.

tim in vermont said...

Suddenly that name, will never be the same...

rhhardin said...

A huge loss for PR's creditors, whose island it was.

rcocean said...

Its like the St. louis riots which got almost no coverage. If the same thing had happened in LA, DC, or NYC would've have gotten wall to wall coverage and lots of "What does this mean for the Country?" articles in the MSM.

But its the Midwest, so who cares?

tim in vermont said...

Sorry, writing this from a metal tube 7 miles high.

exiledonmainstreet, green-eyed devil said...

Doesn't John Henry live in PR? I hope he's OK.

rcocean said...

"A huge loss for PR's creditors, whose island it was."

Its a huge loss for the US taxpayers, because we'll end up paying for everything.

rhhardin said...

t's probably worse for the Virgin Islands -- they were hit pretty hard by Irma and now Maria has hammered them.

There's not much left to destroy, so it's a minor hit.

Paco Wové said...

"A huge loss for PR's creditors"

Ahh, we were only getting pennies on the dollar anyways.

Gahrie said...

Congress should mandate that any Puerto Rican aid package include language that dissolves the current government of Puerto Rico and returns it to federal control. Once the islands has been rebuilt, and it debts repaid, we can discuss allowing the people living there to govern themselves again.

FullMoon said...

Np power means no refrigeration, no communication. No lights No way to pump gas.

holdfast said...

Trump better get Federal help moving PDQ, or the MSM will turn this into his Katrina. And maybe rightly so - those people are completely fukt.

holdfast said...

Sorry, the MSM is of course, completely fukt-up.

The Puerto Ricans are just fukt right now.

buwaya said...

I suggest that its an opportune time to give it back to Spain.
I am not sure that Spain would take it, but who knows.

Mr. Majestyk said...

Since the federal government will never take control and clean up the mess that is the government of PR, we should just make them an independent country. Better that than letting them become the 51st (or would it be the 58th?) state.

rcocean said...

"Congress should mandate that any Puerto Rican aid package include language that dissolves the current government of Puerto Rico and returns it to federal control."

No, we should give them a big aid package and then TOTAL and COMPLETE independence. If the Marianas and Monaco can be independent so can Puerto Rico.
Why the hell we ever made them a colony is a mystery and we someone kept them as a territory commonwealth because no one was paying attention.

Get rid of Puerto Rico and annex Tahiti - that's one beautiful place and won't cost us anything more than peanuts.

rcocean said...

The Dem's and dumshits like McCain and Mitt Romney want PR as the 51st state. Because we need 2 more ultra liberal Senators.

rcocean said...

Before Jerry Ford left the POTUS in '77 he recommended we adopt the metric system and make PR the 51st state.

Judas Priest, he was dumbass. LBJ said Ford was so dumb he couldn't fart and chew gum at the same time.

glenn said...

Shoulda given PR independence Bach when those terrorists shot up congress back in the day.

gspencer said...

No power in any part of the island?

Expect looting of course, but also expect plenty of shootings.

David said...

"he Dem's and dumshits like McCain and Mitt Romney want PR as the 51st state."

How about a trade for giving California back to Mexico.

Because reparations.

Molly said...

I'm in my mid-60s and thinking seriously about retirement. And over the past 10 years or so, I admit i've thought a lot about whether it wouldn't be nice to retire to a place close to a beach. And i probably can't afford delaware (for example, but an example because that is where Joe Biden bought a retirement home and quite recently). But maybe I could afford Puerto Rico or Virgin Islands, certainly as a first (only) home, or possibly as a second home.

I have to say these news reports get me to look back at the Althouse blog and think: you know retirement in Wisconsin looks pretty good. (Check back with me in February to see if I've changed my mind.)

Big Mike said...

@David, we need to keep our military bases in and around San Diego.

Jay Vogt said...

""exiledonmainstreet said..."Doesn't John Henry live in PR? I hope he's OK.""

Me too. Good Commenter, I think he's referenced living on east coast just up from Puerto Del Rey Marina.

No power there now, but it would be great to get word from him.

Sprezzatura said...

"(or would it be the 58th?)"

If you folks want to imply that BHO's error means that he's a dummy, ya may want to avoid erroneously stating what his error was.

Based on BHO's error it would be the 61st state.

BudBrown said...

The storms hit and powers out and electric company trucks from all over arrive
to restore the power. Interbay in Tampa wasn't hit too hard but a lot of power outages
and anytime driving around there'd be these electric company truck convoys passing by.
And bless them every one. Cant drive down to help out Puerto Rico. Hope they've got a plan
to get the guys and equipment there quick.

Trey said...

Hell? This is real people.

Tonight, and for the foreseeable future, our American brothers and sisters are hopefully alive in Hell, Puerto Rico.

What can we, those who don't believe in hell, do?

We can get on our knees, to the Father of all, and pray.

Because, unless we command the hosts of heaven, I do not know how else to help alleviate the massive suffering, at this moment, in a very real place that usually is a Garden of Eden.

Heavenly Father, speaking for myself and all men and women of goodwill, we humbly pray your mercy and grace upon all the people of Puerto Rico and other islands, that you alone hear their cries, and you alone have the power to restore all of them to all, in all. We know that you have no will for misery, but have all power to stop it. Please move in the hearts of all people, in all places, for the love of our brothers and sisters. That we stop and stand with those who now suffer greatly, and that their actions towards each other reflect your great love, now their only hope. And we pray in the name of your Son and our brother, Jesus the Christ, that His Spirit allows all of them to overcome this great tragedy.

jaydub said...

Molly, take a look at Panama. Hurricane free; currency is tied to/interchangable with the dollar; they have a pensionista program for foreign retirees that gives large discounts on such things as transportation, taxes, resturants, shopping, etc; very reasonable housing costs; climate ranges from tropical at the coast to San Diego-like in expat mountain towns like Boquete; over 30 years of stable government thanks to Ronald Reagan taking care of Noriega and the drug lords and restoring democracy; and liberal requirements for pemanent residency for foreign retirees (i.e., income of about $1500/month the last time I looked). I know several people who have retired there and love it, including a cousin. I looked hard at it myself before temporarily settling on Spain. May look at it again in a couple of years.

Humperdink said...

"Ahh, we were only getting pennies on the dollar anyways."

That's the typical ROI from our tax dollars.

AllenS said...

There are plenty of lake cabins for sale in Wisconsin, Molly.

tim in vermont said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
tim in vermont said...

Who doesn't want to spend their retirement ice fishing!!?!

MadisonMan said...

John Henry lives in northeast PR -- he mentioned this during Irma, and that was a very bad place to be for Maria. I hope we hear from him soon -- but given the infrastructure and damage, that's doubtful.

Always the Hurricanes blowing indeed.

There was a collection at Church for Harvey. I think donations for Maria will be asked for as well.

Roughcoat said...

thanks to Ronald Reagan taking care of Noriega

In my universe, Bush (G. H. W.) was the POTUS who took down Noriega.

rehajm said...

If your inside wasn’t turned into outside you fared better than many.

Jay Vogt said...

Thinking it might be a long time before we do hear from John Henry. But I hope and pray we do. I'm sure he has many more important issues than reassuring us for the time being.

Now is the time to help and contribute relief efforts for our fellow citizens on that beautiful island. But sometime there should come a public reconning with respect to the the apparent criminality of the executives and board of directors of the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA), the government owned recipients of in excess of $9 billion. That money had vanished into thin air long before Maria made landfall. Thats around $15k per household in PR. This is the infrastructure improvement they got for it! Even by agency debt standards the uses and controls on these funds were laughably opaque.

I hope those who were fiduciaries can't sleep at night, and I hope (but don't expect) that they are indicted.

Gahrie said...

Panama has been remarkably prosperous and peaceful ever since the US removed Noriega with an invasion.

Joe said...

Why the hell we ever made them a colony is a mystery

Not really; it was the result of the Spanish-American war.

newton said...

"Doesn't John Henry live in PR? I hope he's OK."

Yes. He lives in my hometown. In fact, his wife was my high school teacher (American History).

newton said...

My mother still lives there, in the same town. She's incommunicado. Apparently, a lot of cell towers are down and/or damaged. The phone lines are down as well.

If she's isolated right now, so is he.

Based on what y'all are telling me, he lives not too far from my uncle's.