Why is there no Puerto Rico thread

[Thumpalumpacus]

Actually, we're NOT expected to be hurricane-ready. Did you forget Houston already?

ETA: The fact that you don't like the answers does not mean they weren't given.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Built for bottleneck: Is Florida growing too fast to evacuate before monster storms?

BY NICHOLAS NEHAMAS

SEPTEMBER 15, 2017 9:00 AM
Hurricane Irma mercifully weakened before it swept much of Florida with hurricane-force gusts. But the gridlocked madhouse caused by the largest evacuation in Florida’s history shows just how vulnerable runaway development has made one of the nation’s fastest-growing states, emergency planners say.
“We have to stop and take a deep breath and ask, ‘What are we doing?’ ” said David Paulison, a former Miami-Dade County fire chief brought in to run the Federal Emergency Management Agency by President George W. Bush after the agency’s response to Hurricane Katrina was harshly criticized. “The more people we put here, the worse it’s going to be for evacuation.”
Irma could have been Florida’s worst nightmare: A massive Category 5 hurricane wide enough to hit both of the state’s densely populated coasts, where growth has boomed despite the obvious risks of living on the water in an area regularly walloped by storms. The push for more development — one of Gov. Rick Scott’s central policies in his successful effort to revive Florida’s economy — is elevating the risks to both people and property, said Craig Fugate, FEMA chief under President Barack Obama and the state’s emergency management director under Gov. Jeb Bush.

[Minimalist]

The WLB didn't forget Houston.  Nice white republicunts assholes got his attention in a bigly hurry.  Puerto Ricans?  Not so much.

BTW, the USNS Comfort was operating off Haiti within two days of the earthquake.  It still hasn't reached PR.  Are they zig-zagging to avoid submarines?

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Comfort is due to leave for Puerto Rico today. They had to resupply before going to another disaster.

[Minimalist]

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/usns-comfor...erto-rico/

The USNS Comfort set off from Norfolk, Virginia, to Puerto Rico Friday afternoon as the situation on the island remains dire in the wake of Hurricane Maria.

It sailed Friday from Norfolk..... where it had been all along.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/usns-comfor...erto-rico/

The USNS Comfort set off from Norfolk, Virginia, to Puerto Rico Friday afternoon as the situation on the island remains dire in the wake of Hurricane Maria.

It sailed Friday from Norfolk..... where it had been all along.

They moved fast than expected, my last info was they were 96 hours out, this on the 26th.

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Deploying COMFORT has nothing to do with the Jones Act which covers the use of foreign ships in the intra-US port trade. She is in 5 day layup (IIRC) at Norfolk. Once a decision is made to deploy her which comes from the Joint Staff (someone asks the JS for her), it takes approximately 5 days to activate her, find all the medical personnel to crew the ship, and move them to Norfolk. This means that the Naval Hospital ashore establishment will be stripped (primarily from Bethesda, Portsmouth and Jacksonville Naval Hospitals) and lots of reservists will be called up. Then you have to get the people to the ship either in Norfolk or via air once she is underway. Deploying her or MERCY (West Coast hospital ship) is not a simple thing, and does not happen overnight even if you wanted to deploy her early in a crisis. The people costs are tremendous. Yes, the ships are old and need to be recapitalized. Replacement has been under study at Military Sealift Command (who owns the ships) for years.

[Minimalist]

Considering the storm hit on Sept. 20th an argument could be made that they could have rowed there faster.

Of course the problem is not the ship.  The problem is the lack of political will to dispatch the ship.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Ships are big machines, so it's nice to know everything is working. And there's food, do they have enough for the crew and the patients? Civies don't get it.

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One other thing to remember, well two. First, she was going to Houston, and some of the medical people predeployed there. Then that was canceled and they had to get back to Norfolk from a disaster area.

Second, sending Comfort out immediately had a small problem, Maria. We didn't know exactly where she was going next and sending an asset without know if it would be caught in a Cat 5 is dubious.

And finally, Comfort is not a first responder. We have amphib ships there who are fulling that mission. They're trained to handle mass combat casualties, into blood, guts and gore to their elbows, on a routine basis. The morgue on USS Peleliu had a handmade label: Marine R&R Area.

[Rev. Rye]

You know, it's times like this that it seems like Donald Trump is doing what he does so he can give the far right exactly what they want, and showing how Horrible it is, and ensuring that they stay marginalized for good by 2020.

I think that, but then, I look at what he was like before embracing right wing politics and figure out he probably isn't even capable of planning such an plot.

[Minimalist]

Some republicunts are noticing.

https://www.rawstory.com/2017/10/we-have...n-twitter/

‘We have a high school girl as president’: GOP strategist ridicules ‘valley girl’ Trump for whining on Twitter

The man-baby in action.