Puerto Rico could use more big government

Youcan’t blame Ana Rodriguez for feeling bitter. In her hillside home inCidra, Puerto Rico, a mountain town south of San Juan, she relies on agenerator and doesn’t think she’ll have electricity for another year –despite Gov. Ricardo Rossello’s recent promise to have 95 percent ofPuerto Rico’s power generation restored by Dec. 15. Bent and toppledutility poles and licorice strands of downed power lines still embroiderlocal roads nearly two months after Hurricane Maria roared through.“Thereare lots of problems and no solutions,” Rodriguez said, noting thatlooters have been stealing batteries from cars and stripping copper fromfallen power lines for resale on the black market. “We don’t have hopebecause we don’t believe in the government.”Cynicism aboutgovernment was the product for sale by Donald Trump during hisdrain-the-swamp presidential campaign last year, and it’s turning into aself-fulfilling prophecy here in Puerto Rico.Trump and his WhiteHouse have been duly lambasted for their initial lackadaisical responseto Puerto Rico’s needs. And the president has routinely undermined hisown emergency response teams here by reckless tweeting, errant publicstatements and an unwillingness to use his bully pulpit to focusattention on Puerto Rico.To Rodriguez and her neighbours, it’s allenough to conclude that their governor is incompetent and that Trumphates Puerto Ricans.Rodriguez and others in Cidra aren’t waiting forthe government to arrive. They’re banding together informally to sharefood, water, supplies and support. But until the full force ofgovernment action is felt across the island, most of the 3.4mn Americansin Puerto Rico will be caught in a vice created by a decaying andoutdated electrical grid, the ravages of a mammoth storm, and thereality that public utilities and public leadership – in San Juan and inWashington – offer the only major short-term fixes.Rossello hasprovided frequent communiques about San Juan’s efforts. But whateverbucking up he extends to his voters, Rossello’s agenda – unless hedecides to act more forcefully – is at the mercy of the Puerto RicoElectric Power Authority, or Prepa, a government-controlled butapparently relatively independent agency that oversees the antiquatedgrid.Rossello’s own emergency-response agency, an umbrella groupcalled AEMEAD that is meant to knit seven security agencies into afast-response team, has been hampered by resignations, inexperience andbureaucratic infighting.Rossello was in Washington this week askingfor more money and greater federal support to rehabilitate the islandand prevent an emergency from becoming a long-lasting humanitariancrisis. But his frequent lobbying of Congress and the Trumpadministration also highlights the other force hamstringing him: aninescapable need for federal expertise and funding.Trump has beenabsent over the last month and his lack of interest in highlightingPuerto Rico’s woes is at odds to a certain extent with the efforts ofsome of the federal government’s emergency responders on the ground.They say they’ve been doing as much as they can, as quickly as they can,and that media criticism of Trump (from observers like me) unfairlyovershadows their dedication and accomplishments.“It’s hard to sayhow we could convey any more sense of urgency than we already have,”said Brigadier General Diana M Holland, who is overseeing the US ArmyCorps of Engineers’ pivotal role in helping repair the power grid, cleanup tonnes of wreckage and debris and assess the condition of theinfrastructure. “We’re the preponderance of the effort here and we haveleveraged all of our capability.”“We have been so focused on thisand asking how we can make it go faster while doing this the right way,”she added. “We’re very critical of ourselves and how we can do better.We think it’s gone as fast as it possibly can.”Holland said that anearly lack of access to ports and airstrips, and a complex supply chainstretching across an ocean, hasn’t just complicated her mission – it’ssometimes simply prevented her from getting things done. She alsopointed out that the Army Corps wasn’t assigned grid repair work inPuerto Rico until September 30, 10 days after Hurricane Maria hit theisland. Operating out of a makeshift command centre in a Sheraton Hotel,she said she remains amazed at the “magnitude, just the sheermagnitude” of the challenges her team faces repairing things here.Visits to towns far away from San Juan, along the coasts and in the mountains, prove Holland’s point.InYabucoa, where Hurricane Maria made landfall along Puerto Rico’ssoutheast coast on Sept. 20, portions of the local baseball stadium’smetal roof are strewn like crumpled box tops around the building. Acresof trees remain brown and white spindles, stripped of their leaves. Innearby Guayama, some cell phone towers have been twisted into giantorange and white pretzels. In San Juan, the lights went out again lastWednesday, only hours after Rossello boasted on his Twitter feed thathalf the island’s power generation was finally back online (which alsomeans, of course, that half still isn’t).Meanwhile, residents likeRodriguez remain on the blunt end of the crisis. She has lived in hercurrent home, with sweeping views of a valley below it, for 26 years.She and her husband have made improvements to the property as time andmoney have allowed. They’ve raised two children there, including adaughter who is going to graduate school to study finance andaccounting. But she said that after the hurricane her husband had todrain his retirement account to build a retaining wall around theirhillside property to prevent any more land from slipping out frombeneath her home when the next storm arrives.Small expenses wearaway at her as well. The price of staples like rice and water havejumped due to price-gouging. Generators are selling at a premium, andplugs that once sold for $16 now cost about $60. Cell phone service ishaphazard and her landline is dead. Long queues for food and gas arecommon, the post office is off-kilter, the local hospital only got itselectricity online recently and suicides seem more frequent. Rodriguezworries about the vulnerability of babies and senior citizens, and herfriends and neighbours remain traumatised.She says she’s grateful for the presence of troops and emergency workers, but she’s scornful of her governor and her president.“Thegovernment uses the argument that the geography here is difficult as anexcuse for why it’s taking so long to rebuild,” she said. “If you cansend people to the moon, how come you can’t bring electricity to thelocal people?”“I don’t know why Donald Trump hates Puerto Ricans,”she added, in what is a common refrain among the locals here. “We needhelp. We are US citizens, even if Trump doesn’t know that.” – TribuneNews Service* Timothy L O’Brien is the executive editor ofBloomberg Gadfly and Bloomberg View. He has been an editor and writerfor the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, HuffPost and Talkmagazine. His books include TrumpNation: The Art of Being The Donald.