NATION
Saturday, September 30, 2017
East Oregonian
Page 9A
Aid flows to Puerto Rico but Trump’s health
many still lack water and food secretary resigns
in travel flap
Associated Press
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico
— Thousands of Puerto
Ricans were finally getting
water and food rations Friday
as an aid bottleneck began to
ease, but many remained cut
off from the basic necessities
of life and were desperate for
power, communications and
other trappings of normality
in the aftermath of Hurricane
Maria.
There were many people
across the island, especially
outside the capital, unable to
get water, gas or generator
fuel. That was despite the
fact that military trucks laden
with water bottles and other
supplies began to reach even
some remote parts of Puerto
Rico and U.S. federal offi-
cials pointed to progress in
the recovery effort, insisting
that more gains would come
soon.
In some cases, aid that
was being distributed by
the Federal Emergency
Management Agency was
simply not enough to meet
demand on an island of 3.4
million people where nearly
everyone was still without
power, half were without
running water in their homes
and the economy was still
crippled from the effects of
the storm that swept across
the U.S. territory as a fierce
Category 4 hurricane on
Sept. 20.
“I haven’t seen any help
and we’re running out of
water,” said Pedro Gonzalez,
who was clearing debris
to earn some money in
the northern coastal town
of Rio Grande. Increas-
ingly desperate and with
a daughter with Down
syndrome to support, he had
already decided to move
to Louisiana to stay with
relatives. “We’re getting out
of here.”
FEMA sent Rio Grande
officials shipments of food
and water for the past three
days and arrived Thursday
to help distribute meal
packets, water and snacks in
one community. But people
in nearby neighborhoods
AP Photo/Gerald Herbert
Destroyed communities are seen in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria in Toa Alta,
Puerto Rico, Thursday.
complained that they weren’t
told about the aid.
“This has been a complete
disaster,” said 64-year-old
retiree Jenny Cordero as
she filled plastic trash cans
with water at the home of a
neighbor who was among
the lucky ones to have
service restored.
Those who made it,
however, were grateful.
“This will help somewhat,
so we don’t starve,”
said Anthony Jerena, a
33-year-old father of two
teenagers who managed to
get two boxes of water, each
containing 24 bottles and,
three packages of meals-
ready-to-eat.
Yolanda
Lebron,
a
spokeswoman for the Rio
Grande mayor, said they
used a car with a loudspeaker
to announce that FEMA
would be registering people
for aid, but did not mention
there would be food and
water given out. “We didn’t
dare,” she said. “We didn’t
know if we were going to
have enough.”
Gov. Ricard Rossello and
other officials said they were
aware of people’s deepening
frustration and of the diffi-
culty, and danger, of living
on a sweltering tropical
island with no air condi-
tioning and little to no water.
He blamed some of the delay
on the logistical challenge of
getting aid shipments out
of the seaports and airports,
which were knocked out of
commission in the storm,
and then distributing the
supplies on debris-strewn
streets.
Rossello said Friday
that the government would
seize all food still sitting in
containers at the port that
private business owners had
not yet claimed and would
distribute it to people for
free. He said the government
would use FEMA funds to
repay the owners.
He said operations were
also ramping up at the airport
and that the government had
requested drivers and other
workers from various federal
agencies to help distribute
aid, which he expected to
begin flowing within the
next several days. “We know
we have to do more,” he
said. “We’re still not getting
at the optimal point. But
it has been a limitation on
logistics and as soon as we
get those assets we are going
to put them on the ground.”
The governor also said
he would shorten the nightly
curfew by three hours,
requiring people to be off the
streets by 9 p.m. instead of 7
p.m., and would end a ban
on alcohol sales that was in
place since before the storm.
He spoke after touring the
island with Acting Secretary
of Homeland Security Elaine
Duke, who drew criticism
from the San Juan mayor
and others for describing the
recovery effort as a “good-
news story.” She sought to
clarify the statement, saying
she intended to praise the
cooperation among the
federal and local authorities
in responding to a crisis.
“Clearly the situation
here in Puerto Rico after
the devastating hurricane is
not satisfactory, but together
we are getting there and the
progress today is very, very
strong,” she said.
There were signs that the
island was slowly emerging
from the disaster.
Telecommunications
were back for about 30
percent of the island,
giving some people the
critical ability to call rela-
tives and others for help if
needed. Nearly half of the
supermarkets had opened,
at least on reduced hours,
and about 60 percent of
the gas stations, though it
could take hours to buy a
rationed amount.
WASHINGTON (AP) — to explain their own travel.
President Donald Trump’s
Interior Secretary Ryan
health secretary resigned Zinke faced scrutiny over
Friday, after his costly travel three charter flights while in
triggered investigations that office, including a $12,375
overshadowed the adminis- late-night trip from Las Vegas
tration’s agenda
to his home state
and angered his
of Montana in
boss. Tom Price’s
June. On Friday,
regrets and partial
he dismissed the
repayment couldn’t
controversy over
save his job.
charter flights as
The Health and
“a little BS over
Human Services
travel,” but he said
secretary became
taxpayers do have
the first member
the right to know
of the president’s
official
travel
Cabinet to be Tom Price
costs.
pushed out in a
P r i c e ’ s
turbulent young
repayment
of
administration that has seen $51,887.31 for his own travel
several high-ranking White costs did not placate the
House aides ousted. A former White House. The total travel
GOP congressman from the cost, including the secretary’s
Atlanta suburbs, Price served entourage, was unclear. It
less than eight months.
could amount to several
Publicly, Trump had said hundred thousand dollars.
he was “not happy” with
An orthopedic surgeon
Price for repeatedly using turned politician, Price rose to
private charter aircraft for Budget Committee chairman
official trips on the taxpayer’s in the House, where he was
dime, when cheaper commer- known as a fiscal conserva-
cial flights would have done tive. When Price joined the
in many cases.
administration, Trump touted
Privately, Trump has been him as a conservative policy
telling associates in recent expert who could write a new
days that his health chief had health care bill to replace the
become a distraction. Trump Obama-era Affordable Care
felt that Price was overshad- Act.
owing his tax overhaul agenda
But Price became more
and undermining his campaign of a supporting player in
promise to “drain the swamp” the GOP’s futile health
of corruption, according to care campaign, while Vice
three people familiar with the President Mike Pence took
discussions who spoke on the lead, particularly with
condition of anonymity.
the Senate. The perception
On Friday the president of Price jetting around while
called Price a “very fine GOP lawmakers labored
person,” but added, “I to repeal “Obamacare”
certainly don’t like the —including a three-nation
optics.” Price said in his trip in May to Africa and
resignation letter that he Europe— raised eyebrows
regretted that “recent events on Capitol Hill. Price flew on
have created a distraction.”
military aircraft overseas.
The
flap
prompted
Although
much
of
scrutiny of other Cabinet Trump’s ire over the health
members’ travel, as the House care failure has been aimed
Oversight and Government at the Republican-controlled
Reform committee launched Congress, associates of the
a governmentwide inves- president said he also assigns
tigation of top political some blame to Price, who he
appointees. Other department believes did not do a good job
heads have been scrambling of selling the GOP plan.
BRIEFLY
Nebraska court
ends beer sales
near South Dakota
reservation
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) —
Four Nebraska beer stores
criticized for selling millions
of cans each year next to an
American Indian reservation
where alcohol is banned will
remain closed after the state
Supreme Court on Friday
rejected their appeal.
The court thwarted the
last-ditch effort to resume
beer sales in Whiteclay,
Nebraska, a tiny village
on the border of South
Dakota’s Pine Ridge Indian
Reservation. The ruling
upholds an April decision by
state regulators not to renew
the stores’ licenses amid
criticism that the area lacks
adequate law enforcement.
The Pine Ridge Indian
Reservation is plagued by
a litany of alcohol-related
problems, including high
rates of fetal alcohol
syndrome, and activists
complain that Whiteclay
fuels those issues. The four
stores — in a village with
just nine residents — had
sold the equivalent of about
3.5 million cans of beer
annually.
Whiteclay has also
served for decades as a
remote hangout for people
to panhandle, loiter, fight
and pass out on sidewalks.
Its residents rely on a county
sheriff’s office 23 miles
away for law enforcement.
U.S. considers
ending protections
for northwest
Montana grizzlies
BILLINGS, Mont. (AP)
— On the heels of lifting
protections for Yellowstone-
area grizzly bears, the U.S.
government is considering
the same action for bruins
in northwestern Montana,
home to the largest group of
grizzlies in the Lower 48,
federal officials said Friday.
Hunters and trappers
widely exterminated
grizzlies across much
of the U.S. early last
century. But after being
granted threatened species
protections in 1975, the
animals have made a
dramatic comeback around
Yellowstone and a second
area centered on Glacier
National Park, known as the
Northern Continental Divide
Ecosystem.
The mountainous
ecosystem along the
Canadian border has about
1,000 bears. The population
has more than doubled since
1993, and biologists say the
bears now occupy at least
22,000 square miles.
Trump to travel to
5 countries in Asia
in November
WASHINGTON (AP) —
The White House announced
Friday that President Donald
Trump will take a five-nation
trip to the Asia Pacific region
in November as the U.S.
seeks to curb North Korea’s
growing nuclear threat.
The White House
said Trump will travel to
Japan, South Korea, China,
Vietnam and the Philippines
from Nov. 3-14, a trip that
will also include a stop in
Hawaii. It will be Trump’s
first visit to the region as
president, and it comes as
North Korea moves closer to
its goal of having a nuclear-
tipped missile that could
strike the U.S.
The White House
said Trump’s visit would
“strengthen the international
resolve to confront the North
Korean threat and ensure
the complete, verifiable, and
irreversible denuclearization
of the Korean Peninsula.”
Trump has offered fiery
rhetoric and a tough stance
against the North’s nuclear
weapons program, declaring
in a speech to the United
Nations General Assembly
last week that the U.S.
would “totally destroy”
North Korea if provoked.
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