Trump lifts foreign shipping restrictions for storm-hit Puerto Rico

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump temporarily lifted restrictions on foreign shipping from the U.S. mainland to Puerto Rico on Thursday to help get supplies quickly to the U.S. territory as it reels from the devastation of Hurricane Maria.

Even so, the island still faces huge logistical hurdles to distribute badly needed food, fuel and drinking water. Most of the Caribbean island’s 3.4 million people are without electricity.

Shipping containers have been piling up at Puerto Rico’s ports in the aftermath of Maria. The most powerful hurricane to hit the island in nearly 90 years, Maria struck on Sept. 20, causing widespread flooding and damage to homes, roads and other infrastructure.

Trump’s Republican administration has faced steady criticism over its response to the disaster. On Thursday, critics called for greater resources and a single authority to oversee relief efforts.

Puerto Rico’s governor, Ricardo Rossello, had sought a waiver of the Jones Act, which limits shipping between U.S. ports to U.S. owned-and-operated vessels. Acting Department of Homeland Security Secretary Elaine Duke on Thursday signed the waiver, which will be in force for 10 days and will cover all products shipped to Puerto Rico.

The U.S. government has lifted the Jones Act for a temporary period following violent storms in the past, including after hurricanes Harvey and Irma, which hit Texas and Florida in late August and earlier this month.

Critics had charged the government was slow to do this for Puerto Rico.

Even as the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the U.S. military have stepped up relief efforts, many residents have been exasperated at the prolonged lack of electricity, drinking water and other essentials.

Radamez Montañez, a building administrator from the municipality of Carolina, east of San Juan, said he had been without water and electricity at home since Hurricane Irma grazed past the island earlier this month. “It’s chaos, total chaos,” he said.

The U.S. military, which is pouring resources into the relief effort, appointed a general on Thursday to oversee its response on the island. A U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Lieutenant General Jeffrey Buchanan would arrive in Puerto Rico later in the day.

Senator Marco Rubio, like Trump a Republican, earlier called on the government to appoint a single authority to oversee all relief efforts and said the Defense Department should mostly be in charge.

Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal said the government’s response had been “shamefully slow and undersized and should be vastly upgraded and increased.”

An aerial photo shows damage caused by Hurricane Maria in San Juan, Puerto Rico, September 27, 2017. Picture taken September 27, 2017. REUTERS/DroneBase

White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders told reporters that 10,000 federal government relief workers were now in Puerto Rico, including 7,200 troops, and that 44 of the island’s 69 hospitals were now fully operational.

Overall, the island is likely to need far more than $30 billion in long-term aid from the U.S. government for disaster relief and rebuilding efforts following Maria, a senior Republican congressional aide said on Thursday.

The aide, who asked not to be identified, said that while Congress has quickly fulfilled Trump administration requests for disaster assistance, there are concerns that government agencies have not acted quickly enough and bureaucratic requirements may have slowed work of the Department of Defense and other offices.

PORT CONGESTION

Even if the Jones Act waiver helps speed cargo to the island, Puerto Rico is still struggling to move supplies around.

Discharging at the San Juan port remains slow, and there are several tankers carrying fuel waiting to unload that have not yet been able to do so, according to Thomson Reuters shipping data.

“Really our biggest challenge has been the logistical assets to try to get some of the food and some of the water to different areas of Puerto Rico,” Rossello told MSNBC on Thursday. He has staunchly defended the Trump administration for its relief response.

Brock Long, the FEMA administrator, told CNN he was dissatisfied with the federal response to Maria, but that relief operations had been hampered by damage to the air traffic control system, airports and ports.

Duke, the DHS head, told reporters she was “very satisfied” with the federal response. “The relief effort is under control. It is proceeding very well,” she said.

The military had delivered fuel to nine hospitals and helped establish more than 100 distribution centers for food and water on the island, the Pentagon said on Thursday.

It also was shipping a large generator to power a radar center to help air traffic control in San Juan and other airports. A barge with 100 defense trucks carrying diesel and gasoline was expected to arrive in San Juan by Monday.

In Washington, the Transportation Department on Thursday made $40 million in “quick release” Emergency Relief funds to help restore essential service on roads and bridges.

Reporting by Robin Respaut and Dave Graham in San Juan and Doina Chiacu and Susan Heavey in Washington; Additional reporting by Makini Brice, Roberta Ramptonm Richard Cowan and Idrees Ali in Washington; David Gaffen in New York; Writing by Frances Kerry; Editing by Bill Trott and Howard Goller

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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