Posted on 08/10/2018 6:45:27 PM PDT by yesthatjallen
Several trailers filled with donations for Hurricane Maria victims were found rotting at a state elections office in Puerto Rico this week.
The New York Times reported Friday that at least 10 trailers full of food, water and baby supplies were broken open and overrun with rats.
The Times noted that local radio station, Radio Isla, published a video showing cases of items such as beans, Tylenol and water covered in rat and lizard droppings.
According to the Times, the Puerto Rico elections commission offices were used as a collection center for donations from private entities and nonprofit groups after the island was ravaged by Hurricane Maria last year. Once they were collected, the donations were then distributed by the National Guard.
As the severity of the crisis diminished, the donations were then reportedly stored in trailers in the parking lot of the election bureau’s San Juan offices, where they remained despite continued problems in the region.
Officials confirmed to The Times that the items had remained in trailers for almost a year.
“I agree, it should have been handed out as soon as possible,” Maj. Paul Dahlen, a spokesman for the National Guard, told The Times, adding that some of the materials were received after the National Guard ended its mission in May.
Nicolás Gautier, interim president of the elections council, told CBS News that "whatever was left after the National Guard left was put in those containers.”
“In one of these containers was food for dogs and apparently several of the boxes were broken," he added. "After the placement in the van, that brings a lot of rats and it infected everything.”
In a statement to The Times, the National Guard also said the containers seen in the video were being used to store food that had arrived after its expiration date. The statement also said items in the trailers that were not spoiled would be delivered to nonprofit groups soon.
The Times report comes almost a year after Hurricane Maria devastated the region and left many without power and electricity. Many have argued the Trump administration's response to the disaster was too slow and not extensive enough, and helped play a role in the island's ongoing fight to restore normality.
On Thursday, the Puerto Rican government acknowledged that more than 1,400 people likely died on the island because of the storm, roughly 20 times the previous official estimate.
Disgraceful! All of that is the fault of the Puerto Rican Government. The United Stated did it’s part. Now the local PR politicians need to get their own act together. Come on, the hurricane was a long time ago. What is this place, Venezuela?
These shiftless bums wanted people from the U. S. to come and do all the work for them in rebuilding after the storm. They didn’t have a decent electrical grid working before the storm, and it was always a run-down place.
People who couldn’t even count the dead correctly after the storm are not competent people.
Why am i not surprised.
I am sorry that all that food went to waste.
But I have to ask are the Puerto Ricans helpless little babies?
They cant unload food from a trailer? How hard is it to distribute food?
I am sure there were still people going hungry. That Marxist Mayor says she is for the poor. Where was she?
Making love to her Che Guevara sex doll?
This food was purposefully locked up and NOT distributed so that it would like the federal government (i.e. Trump) was not doing enough.
The femaNazi mayor of San Juan was behind this scheme.
It’s no different than the democRAT party not really wanting to end poverty because otherwise they would lose their constituents.
YOU are DEAD to me & millions of others over your unspeakable behavior.
Do NOT allow PR statehood! They are welfare leeches and leftists!
Yes, Venezuela with a giant US subsidy check.
Places are shithole because of the people that infest them.
Ran by Unions thugs.
And your point is....
In my opinion the only way to fix PR political problems? Make them an independent nation. They refuse to speak the language of the USA so fine no problem give them nation status and see how much the citizens are willing to put up with.....
The single best destiny for Puerto Rico would be as a state in the United States of the Caribbean. The logical capital of the USC would be Havana, which means that we have to wait for the last Castro to shed his mortal coil.
That rotting food should be rubbed in that dumbass’s face.
There were plenty of supplies shipped in - the truck drivers in Puerto Rico would not move any loads unless they were paid in cash on the spot.
Did they find any ballots in those trailers, too? These are Democrats, after all....they always find things after the fact.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.