Amnesty Calls for Accountability for Hurricane Maria Using Projection on Trump Hotel
- by Jerome Frank
- in World News
- — Sep 22, 2018
On Thursday, the one-year anniversary of last year's devastating storm, news media from across the globe reported stories and images of an island still deep in the throes of disaster relief.
Hurricane Maria hit the island just two weeks after another powerful storm, Hurricane Irma, passed Puerto Rico as it swept through the Caribbean.
Last month, the U.S. Commonwealth's government sharply raised the official estimate of Maria's death toll to nearly 3,000 after an independent study.
Florida Governor Rick Scott, in San Juan to attend the memorial event "One Year After Maria", which was sponsored by the local government, told Reuters he disagrees with Trump's comment on Maria's death toll, and vowed to continue helping Puerto Rico.
"We've had some great anecdotal stories coming out of Puerto Rico", Dr. Pruitt said. It has been planning budget cuts across various public sectors, but the effects of Hurricane Maria a year ago have made things even worse.
The island's economy is far from stable as Hurricane Maria has further exacerbated Puerto Rico's precarious financial debt of almost 74 billion dollars.
In Yabucoa, tarps still covered many homes that have yet to be rebuilt even as the hopeful strains of "Amanecer Borincano" - "Puerto Rican Dawn" - resonated at the spot where Maria first unleashed its fury.
Ben Carson, the secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, was in San Juan to announce President Donald Trump's administration released $1.5 billion to Puerto Rico.
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State media made a somber announcement of his death Friday and celebrated his long commitment to public service. The national assembly is set to meet in late October, but the date could be brought forward, he added.
Rosselló, who has been reluctant to contradict the President in the past over his handling of the hurricane, previously disputed Trump's statement on the revised death toll, telling CBS News, "Neither the people of Puerto Rico nor the victims deserve their pain to be questioned".
Samaritan's Purse has been a part of the relief effort for the US territory since day one. "And, that was not easy", she said.
Morales said it was an emotional day for her since she and many of her neighbors lost everything when the storm made landfall at 6:15 a.m.
"It provides hope. It provides what they see as a bright future", School District Chief Human Resource Officer Dr. Angela Pruitt said. A year after Maria, the island is far from prepared for the next big storm, with an ever-fragile power grid, damaged infrastructure and the same crippling debt. In reality, the Commission has done much less for Puerto Rico post-hurricane Maria than past Commissions (both Republican-led and Democrat-led) have taken.
After more than a quarter-century of teaching, in year 26, she has found her dream job in Lee County.
Cruz-Torres added those in the coastal areas, fishermen in particular, were among the hardest hit because of the gear and boats they lost.
Torres wants Puerto Ricans living on the mainland to know they can do something about the government's response.
Those at the vigil said they do plan on having more demonstrations until they get a better response from the federal government.
