Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator Brock Long on Sunday swiped at San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz and others he claimed “spout off” about relief efforts in Puerto Rico after the island was devastated by Hurricanes Irma and Maria.
“What I don’t have patience for is the fact that what we’re trying to do and what we have successfully done is we have established a joint field office within San Juan,” Long said on “Fox News Sunday.”
He said the agency is “having daily conversations with all of the mayors” and “working with the governor and his leadership to be able to create unified objectives.”
“If mayors decide not to be a part of that, then the response is fragmented,” Long said. “And the bottom line is, is that we’re pushing everybody, we’re trying to push her, in there.”
“Is Mayor Cruz not participating in the FEMA effort?” Fox News’ Chris Wallace pressed Long, who did not answer.
“You know, we can choose to look at what the mayor spouts off or what other people spout off, but we can also choose to see what’s actually being done, and that’s what I would ask,” Long replied.
President Donald Trump attacked Cruz on Saturday and Sunday after she criticized Acting Department of Homeland Security Secretary Elaine Duke’s description of relief efforts on Puerto Rico as a “good news story.”
Trump accused Cruz of “poor leadership ability” and continued to attack “politically motivated ingrates” on Sunday.
For her part, Cruz said she has “only one goal, and it’s saving lives” and said she has “been quite complimentary of the people from HHS and FEMA.”
“Their heart is in the right place. But we have to cut the red tape,” she said on ABC’s “This Week.”
On the same show, Long said island residents are “pulling their weight,” contrary to Trump’s accusation that Cruz and other Puerto Rican leaders “want everything to be done for them.”
“I believe the Puerto Ricans are pulling their weight. I mean, I think they’re doing what they can,” he said. “The bottom line is, the question is, a local mayor’s job is to push commander’s intent down to his or her troops.”
FEMA chief @FEMA_Brock to @GStephanopoulos: "I believe the Puerto Ricans are pulling their weight." https://t.co/CDds7xi2iG #ThisWeek pic.twitter.com/T9hog7whMK
— This Week (@ThisWeekABC) October 1, 2017
But Brock, “Brownie” himself said you’re great, not a political hack!
Of course The guy might feel he needs to kowtow to the Commander in Cheat just to do a decent job.
That’d be par for the course.
“The bottom line is, the question is, a local mayor’s job is to push commander’s intent down to his or her troops.”
Say what?
Mayor Cruz and Congressman Gutierrez did meet with several federal officials, including FEMA, as recently as Friday. They received specific commitments on volume of needed supplies like water and food. They reported to the gov’t officials about the inadequacy of supply to meet the demand. The military seems to acknowledge this as the number of people without potable water has increased in the last few days. That percentage should be going down, not up. I do believe the military will be able to stabilize this situation with a good, solid week of effort, but FEMA appears more like they are fearing congressional hearings and looking for scapegoats. There is a design flaw in their role which PR exposed. They don’t take enough direct hands on control for response delivery. They view themselves as coordinators. It doesn’t work if the first responders are completely devastated and there is no infrastructure for them to use to execute. FEMA should take responsibility for not demanding more military assistance early on in the process. Their handling of this is definitely open to scrutiny and criticism.
Just fuck you. Can you eat a field office?
Trump and FEMA Boy can both STFU. The response to PR has been inexcusably horrible. Weather models showed PR getting a direct hit from Maria (and serious glancing blow from Irma), so there was plenty of time to prepare for the inevitable disaster. Drumpf could have easily sent ships south of PR, out of the storm’s path, waiting for it to pass so the ships could immediately come into the harbor. Anyone professing to be a FEMA pro or disaster relief pro could have easily put ships in place to be in PR at the earliest safe opportunity. I guaran-effing-tee you that had Mar-a-Lago been in the cross hairs of a hurricane, Drumpf would have had scores of emergency personnel and equipment standing by. This is Drumpf’s Katrina and we can never let him wiggle out of it.