The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) faced tough questions Friday from lawmakers who said Vieques still doesn’t have a functioning hospital, while thousands of other Puerto Ricans continue to wait for their homes to be rebuilt almost three years after Hurricane Maria.
Congresswoman Nydia Velázquez, DN.Y., questioned FEMA administrator Pete Gaynor about both issues as the agency prepares for a hectic hurricane season amid the coronavirus pandemic.
“Puerto Rico has an increase in infections that is one of the highest, if not the highest, on the continent,” Velázquez said during a hearing of the Oversight and Reform Committee of the House of Representatives. “But my question is why do thousands of families in Puerto Rico still not have a home, especially during this hurricane season?”
Gaynor responded by saying that “although there are no easy answers,” FEMA’s commitment to Puerto Rico is demonstrated by the agency’s more than 2,000 federal employees on the island. He also added that Puerto Rico’s recovery depends on “a partnership between FEMA, which does temporary work to keep people in their homes” and the Department of Housing and Urban Development “to do permanent work at home,” as well such as the cooperation of the local government in Puerto Rico.
“I think the association with Puerto Rico, the governor and his staff has never been stronger,” he said.
Maria damaged approximately 800,000 houses on September 20, 2017, causing minor damage to some and sweeping many of its foundations. A federally funded program run by local officials made relatively small repairs to around 108,000 homes in 2018, while churches and nonprofits patched up thousands with private funds.
Puerto Rico’s first major program to rebuild houses has not completed a single one, even though tens of thousands of houses have still damaged roofs nearly three years after Maria. Miguel Soto-Class, founder and president of the Center for a New Economy, a nonpartisan group of experts, estimates that around 20,000 people in Puerto Rico still live under blue tarps.
The HUD-funded R3 program is the largest effort by the local government to carry out major repairs and rebuild destroyed homes. Almost 27,000 homeowners have applied since federal funds to run the program were released to the island a year and a half ago.
Puerto Rican authorities said they have almost finished repairing the first 45 homes that will benefit from the program, but the reconstruction work has not yet been completed.
The slow progress in helping homeless Puerto Ricans after María has become a symbol of the inability of officials to address the long-term effects of the disasters and crises that plague Puerto Rico, Velázquez said.
Puerto Rico has faced a cascade of crisis in recent years as it continues to recover from Maria, who became the deadliest natural disaster in the United States in 100 years after killing at least 2,975 people, while It also works to get out of the bigger ones. municipal bankruptcy in the history of the United States.
Last year, hundreds of thousands of Puerto Ricans marched in the largest protest in recent history to overthrow the then-governor. Ricardo Rosselló due to a political scandal involving him and a dozen members of his cabinet. Puerto Rico was hit by a seismic sequence that began on December 28, causing multiple strong earthquakes that brought down hundreds of homes, schools, and small businesses in January. Since then, more than 9,800 tremors have been recorded on the island.
About 140,000 residents in the Puerto Rico metropolitan area are now subject to government-ordered water rationing as the island faces drought conditions and also faces a resurgence of COVID-19 cases.
Over the past week, the number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 increased by more than 1,500, while the number of probable cases increased by almost 1,330. The island of 3.2 million people reported nearly 4,800 confirmed coronavirus cases on Friday, more than 9,100 probable cases and at least 191 deaths, according to the Puerto Rico Department of Health.
Gaynor said he was committed to continuing to help Puerto Rico and other US jurisdictions as they face the coronavirus pandemic while still recovering from previous disasters. He said FEMA is funding an average of 550 recovery projects per month in Puerto Rico and has authorized the use of $ 25 billion to help the island recover from various disasters, including $ 39.5 million to help Vieques rebuild its only hospital, which was destroyed by Maria.
The hospital has not yet been rebuilt, despite the funds being approved in January.
“Seven months ago, money was approved for a hospital that was promised to the people of Vieques,” which is a smaller island located about seven miles off the east coast of Puerto Rico, Velázquez said, adding that a 13-year-old boy years old The girl lost her life during that period of time after the lack of adequate medical equipment and facilities in Vieques, where she lived, to treat flu-like symptoms.
“With the COVID pandemic, what are we saying to children and the elderly in Vieques?” Velázquez said.
Gaynor responded by saying that the funding process for the hospital is still underway and that they continue to work with local officials on the project. In the meantime, they will continue to provide funds to maintain a functioning $ 4 million temporary hospital in Vieques.
José Ventura, a cousin of the 13-year-old girl who died in Vieques, told NBC News in January that the facility was not well equipped to save his life when his symptoms worsened and he began to seizure.
“Building a $ 40 million hospital doesn’t happen overnight, but we are committed to making sure we have adequate medical care in Vieques, as long as it takes,” Gaynor said.
“We are the most powerful country in the world and every time there has been a natural disaster in other countries, we have moved federal assets to make this happen. Make it happen for the people of Vieques,” Velázquez replied.
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Associated Press contributed
