SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico – Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rosselló said the U.S. response after Hurricane Maria's devastation in Puerto Rico, which has been struggling to emerge from a recession, remains inadequate. It's a statement, the White House denies.
Rosselló was also concerned about many of the commenters of President Donald Trump's recent tweets on Puerto Rico who ignored that the Caribbean island has been unincorporated U.S. territory since the U.S. defeated Spain in 1898. Rosselló said this is important because Puerto Ricans need more support from the federal government.
"We have been through a catastrophy of enormous proportions," Rosselló said.
Rosselló also said his office has allocated and disbursed $5.3 billion for emergency purposes, but only about $34 million of those are for permanent work. A Puerto Rico Planning Board report, released December 2018, estimated Hurricane Maria's impact on the island's economy at $43 billion.
According to the White House's Office of Management and Budget, the federal goverment has allocated over $40 billion and could spend up to $91 billion on recovery efforts over time. The estimate includes about $50 billion in future disbursements and $41 billion that were approved. Much less than the $120 billion that the federal government provided for rebuilding efforts after Hurricane Katrina.
Trump's recent tweet about the $91 billion in aid upset San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz Soto, a co-chair for Bernie Sanders' 2020 campaign who is planning to run for Rosselló's seat. She responded on Twitter by writing the president "is unhinged" and "cannot escape the death of 3,000 on his watch."
In September 2018, Trump tweeted 3,000 people did not die in the two hurricanes that hit Puerto Rico in 2017. After Rosselló, a Democrat, ordered a recount of the official death toll, a George Washington University study indicated that 2,658 to 3,290 people died between September 2017 and February 2018, "primarily driven by the effects and aftermath" of Hurricane Maria.
The controversy remains. Rosselló accepted the study, but FEMA officials disagreed saying the study included "indirect" deaths due to stress, failed infrastructure and spousal abuse. Trump classified the estimate as propaganda.
"This was done by the Democrats in order to make me look as bad as possible when I was successfully raising billions of dollars to help rebuild Puerto Rico," Trump tweeted.
Trump has also accused Puerto Rican leaders of corruption and mismanagement. Rosselló said his priority is to make sure that Puerto Ricans get the help they need and not to play politics.
The recent Local 10 News interview with Rosselló, comes as Puerto Rico's bankrupt public electric utility moves closer to privatization. Hurricane Maria decimated the electric grid, which had already been dealing with a lack of maintenance.
Assured Guaranty Corp., a bond insurer, reached a deal to restructure the electric utility's $9 billion debt, a court document filed Tuesday night shows, according to Bloomberg. If the deal is finalized, the power company's transformation process will move forward, the motion filed in U.S. District Court says.