In Puerto Rico, Equal Parts Fear and Fellowship After Storm

These are good, decent people. OUR people. I'm donating, today. Please, keep us updated.

It's always heartwarming when people help each other and its to our credit as human beings that is often our first impulse. Eventually, compassion fatigue sets in a we get impatient. Why are those people still complaining? San Juan may have its electricity back and people are returning to normal life, including crime and violence. Why would we think a major disaster would change that? I think Donald Trump deserves censure for a couple of things. He criticized Puerto Ricans for wanting everything done for them. That disrespects the fact that all of them, rich and poor, employed and unemployed, old and young, urban and rural, are dealing with a major disaster. They deserve compassion and help. If the White House can say that now is not the time to talk about gun control because of the Los Vegas tragedy, surely they can muster enough self-awareness to realize that now is not the time to carp about the efforts of local people to respond to their challenges. Trump also brought up the issue of Puerto Rican debt and the bad condition of their infrastructure. Does anyone think it's reasonable to begin the conversation of what comes after this catastrophe by talking about paying on the debt? Does anyone think that, if the electrical grid had been better, the damage would have been avoided? Trump seems to be going in with his typical attitude of taking credit and patting himself on the back while he attacks anyone who dares to be critical.

Q. What are five words Trump won't be repeating in Puerto Rico? A. "I alone can fix it."

The good people of Puerto Rico are making the best of a terribly difficult situation. This is not big surprise. Most people you meet wherever you happen go are helpful, good people. On the other hand helpful good people are in chronic short supply at luxury resorts and destination golf courses. Being helpful and good is strictly a job for the staff.

Trump should be bared from travel, the disruption that it causes, and instead send aid equal to the 10s of millions of dollars that each of his frequent trips costs!

The damage from the hurricanes is tragic, but not surprising as they are on an island in the Caribbean with a long history of near total destruction from hurricanes. It began with hurricane San Ciriaco in 1898, the year Puerto Rico became a territory, again in 1928, and about every thirty years including Hugo in 1995. Why the government and government run power company were seeming so ill prepared for a normal weather event remains puzzling. It is much more complicated to get aid, workers and equipment to a island then driving stuff to Texas and Florida from unaffected states a few hours away by truck. It is logistics,not discrimination or a lack of concern by the federal government.

Oh my god, is anyone watching the prez in Puerto Rico? He is a national disgrace. Opened with praising himself and the generals, paraded General Kelly out like a show pony, talked about how PR was breaking the budget, complained about Mayor Cruz (without using her name), and generally made a fool of himself and by extension, us. DIdn't say a word about the people who are suffering. By the way, OxFam, the International aid organization, is so horrified by our response that they are coming in to help. That never happens in a rich country. https://goo.gl/qGSBHd

Beware, Puerto Ricans! Trump is planning to visit you today, and if you earn his wrath, or touch his wrong nerve, the blowback can be quite unpalatable. He can blow his top, fly off the handle or even flip a bird at you. So it is in every body's interest that you all behave and accept whatever he has to offer, in verbal comments. If he senses an iota of indolence or torpidity in you, his tweeting onslaught will stare you right in your eyes. What a corybantic month it was! Hurricanes and bullets taking heavy tolls, and the POTUS creating a quagmire with his not so sweet tweets. He is the kind of guy who may embrace the ''broken arrows'' philosophy. With his short fuse, which will NOT stand him in good stead in the near foreseeable future, things can turn topsy turvy in a flash. He expresses a gallimaufry of ideas and opinions, none of which seemed to have mattered much, and if made indignant, things will also inch towards imbroglio. Nevertheless, a few, or many of the denizens of Puerto Rico are hardly, if that, enamored by his first official visit 2 weeks after hurricane Maria. Whether his visit will be fruitful or not, will depend on his demeanor and willingness to work with the locals, in order to redress the ravages of the recent calamity. We shall see, won't we?

When I'm feeling bored I watch the earthing news....I must send my construction teams to the southeast...I must build a natural defense against hurricanes...yes I must...when I come back, I'll have another project for me...

If the benchmark is New Orleans, Puerto Rico may be in good shape in 2030.

Trump's spokesfolks will say he was only joking (and we all know about his trademark sense of "humor") when he landed today and told Puerto Rican leaders that they had "thrown our budget out of whack." I'm sure everyone around the table laughed politely, but I doubt anyone missed the undercurrent or hidden message. What he really wanted to say is, "To me, you're not Americans, and we shouldn't be responsible for this mess, but apparently we don't have a choice."

A television report this morning showed the distribution of food. FEMA food was piled up in a warehouse, I hope to be distributed as soon as possible. The emergency rations were in what looked like a styrofoam boxes and consisted of a couple of granola bars or little boxes of cereal and a can of Vienna sausages, and they were running out of these. Food ran out when there was still a long line of people who were waiting for it. Is that the best the US can do? I know it's something, but not nearly enough. This is a terrible disgrace.

Trump's tweets addressing the mayor of San Juan (for her audacity to say this was not a feel-good story) were not directed at the mayor of San Juan. His tweets saying that Puerto Ricans were not pitching in and helping were not directed at them. They were directed 100% at Trump's base, to feed his base with the narrative that Latinos are lazy and takers, who want to sponge off the American taxpayer. That resonates with his base, no less than saying there were "good people" among the fascists in Charlottesville. And, if and when the dilatory response leads to more social disorder on the Island, then Trump will have another way to play to his base, by tweeting that Latinos are violent and not law-abiding.

i feel like the way this storm was reported on and the damage it created is very confusing. i recognize that people have used this disaster and response to criticize Trump, and that's fine. But, what I don't understand is why the media took so long to make this such a monumental story that I cannot escape now, how long after the event? Is it worse now? How much of this is tied into the political aspects of covering it? How many people are dead? How many without power and running water... I feel like the details and specifics of this whole event were and are missing in favor of reporting that just wants to lean towards smearing our idiot President.

I still have the picture in my mind of the San Juan Mayor wading thru the water trying to help people while Trump on his Golf Course degrading her Online. When will Puerto Ricans realize they have to vote and help dump the GOP.

We, the people of PR, are very resilient but the "perfect storm" we'll have to face over the next several years of a man-made crushing debt of 72 billion dollars, a one-two-punch of both acts-of-God monster storms Irma and Maria, plus an old destroyed non-operational infrastructure (communications, water and electricity) and the flight out-of-the-island of lots of highly educated professionals for better jobs in the mainland would challenge the spirit of any nation no matter how prepared. We'll have to deal with depopulation, particularly by younger and better trained "boricuas" (people of Boriken, name the original Taino Indians had for our island), which will strain our resources as there will be a rather reduced tax base on top of our chronically high unemployment and an unlearned nation in matters of entrepreneurship. The interconnected and multinational nature of the world economy with a contracted workforce as well as uncertain loyalties- but the shareholders- is a relatively new paradigm for which our nation hasn't been fully prepared This could had been faced years ago with local entrepreneurs willing to attend our particular needs, promoted by a smaller government with a goal of easing a real free market. Our politicians didn't like this new paradigm because it would mean loss of control so the local economy hasn't been able to raise to the challenge to create more jobs as old ones- like hose provided by pharmaceutical companies- evaporated. God help us!

Even before the storm, Puerto Rico was facing a declining population and severe economic hardship. The present situation will only promote additional immigration.

I am ashamed of America for voting for Trump and embarrassed of our congress. So is the world.

Break my heart to see the great place I visited few years ago like that. Hope PR can recover fast and Government should at least cut taxes on solar tech(solar panel/controller/batteries) to help people get back to the bare minimum life essentials while the infrastructure restoration will take a long time.

Family in Puerto Rico confirms the sentiment expressed in this article. They are happy to help their neighbors and report to me a sense of unity very much like the one in NYC after 911, but are scared that eventually hunger and fear will lead people to do desperate things. Security is a priority in PR now, along with food, drinking water and medical attention.

To push Trump and Republican leadership to think about doing more for Puerto Rico, maybe the Clinton’s going public with everything the Clinton Global Initiative is doing for Puerto Rico would push Trump to be publicly competitive?

This piece gives the lie to Trump's Angry Bird tweets. It doesn't look or sound as if Puerto Ricans "want everything done for them," not that I ever believed that any more than I normally believe a word this travesty of a president speaks. What a disservice he did to these hard-working people with his disrespectful words! As a President, he is as alien to the American tradition as if he had landed from Mars. To the people who voted for him in hopes that he would "shake things up," I say be careful what you wish for. There's a big difference between a reformer and a bull in a china shop.

Maybe donnie should send Chris Meyers to describe the relief effort. Meyers after all has extensive experience in disaster reporting, evidenced by his sterling comments about what happened in New Orleans after Katrina.

While their day-to-day lives are an ongoing humanitarian disaster the likes of which the United States hasn't seen since Katrina, Puerto Ricans are doing pretty well for people completely abandoned by the Federal government and President.

You're on your own, folks, so a good start: Picks & shovels, guns & money and " . .. proud of the way they had helped each other, and anxious about whether the relative peace in battered Puerto Rico would hold."

I sincerely hope that everyone can understand the need for restoring the islands' infrastructure. Neighbors helping neighbors cannot rebuild roads, the electric grid and sewers, and restore water supplies and telecommunications. Why is that so difficult for so many in the mainland population to understand?

It would be nice to see the president not just tour but actually take off his jacket, roll up his sleeves and help out with raking and shoveling and clearing away debris and muck from the streets and avenues. Such actions would go a long way in minimizing the damage he did with ill-timed statements and dilatory actions to aid the island.

maybe the president will inform us that 'many people don't know' just how bad the devastation is in Puerto Rico and send in more help.

I hope that Trump will accept any criticism that he may receive, because it is earned. That being said, I hope that his talks with PR and USVI officials will focus on what more can be done for them and the USVI, not on finger pointing or nasty comments about ingrates.

Thank you NY Times for continuing to report on the situation in Puerto Rico, despite all of the attention on Las Vegas. The problems in Puerto Rico aren't going away anytime soon, and will need our sustained attention as a nation.

Well, Trump is scheduled to visit today and after all his verbal attacks on the San Juan Mayor, and all of the Puerto Rican American people, we will find out if he will say, "Hi, we are from the government, and we are here to help!" Or, not.