“That’s what didn’t happen in Puerto Rico. People who had the ability to help in their communities instead left for the mainland, and haven’t returned to help. Local officials had no plans or interest in doing what had to be done on the ground so the death total after the storm isn’t worse than during it”.
The second part of your statement is true. The local government collapsed. The first part is not true. people here helped each other immensely, and did so for many months under dire conditions, and learned to survive without the government. I know. I was there.
I was on a cruise in January and the day in San Juan left a bad impression. There were eight ships in port. Other affected ports only had two ships and everything else was dedicated to recovery. There was a festival going on in San Juan. I get it that a few ships should be there to bring back the tourism industry as recovery was done. But so many? A festival draining resources and effort that could've been used toward recovery?
The ship I was on had a real good passenger base. So many wanted to learn about the recovery and help if we could. The other two impacted-area stops gave us that. It isn't the fault of the good people of PR; I know that. But somehow, you've got to get better leadership.
FWIW, I was scheduled for a walking tour of Old San Juan with a lunch at a small local restaurant. It was cancelled. With any innovation from liason with the cruise ship, the owners could've been brought on board to supervise a meal for us. In another port, a school full of children took a tour of the boat. Cruisers shared boat transportation to a beach that was available to taxi both residents and cruisers to a beach that had been cleaned up. That kind of connection was real healthy.