Since Hurricane Maria ripped across Puerto Rico last week, President Trump has tweeted or retweeted more than 50 messages. Just one was about the hurricane.

“Governor @RicardoRossello, We are with you and the people of Puerto Rico,” Trump tweeted Wednesday, hours after Maria made landfall on the U.S. territory. “Stay safe! #PRStrong.”

Since then, Trump has largely focused his Twitter attention on a dispute with National Football League players kneeling during the national anthem, with more than a dozen tweets or retweets related to the protests.

“The issue of kneeling has nothing to do with race,” Trump tweeted early Monday in a flurry of Twitter posts defending his comments. “It is about respect for our Country, Flag and National Anthem. NFL must respect this!”

Many took notice of Trump’s passion for this issue and his relative silence on the ongoing crisis in Puerto Rico.

The Category 4 storm battered Puerto Rico, killing at least 10 people, leaving millions without power and virtually the entire island without cell phone communications. Officials say that 95 percent of the wireless towers were knocked out of service. And a major dam in northwest Puerto Rico holding back the waters of Lake Guajataca suffered a large crack and is threatening to collapse.

“The devastation in Puerto Rico has set us back nearly 20 to 30 years,” Jenniffer González-Colón, Puerto Rico’s nonvoting representative in the U.S. Congress, said Sunday. “The destruction of properties, of flattened structures, of families without homes, of debris everywhere. The island’s greenery is gone.”

A group of Puerto Rico mayors convened an emergency meeting with Ricardo Rosselló, governor of Puerto Rico, on Saturday, describing “apocalyptic” conditions in their communities, many of which have run out of fuel and water.

Last week, Trump declared Puerto Rico a major disaster and pledged the full support of the U.S. government. While basic supplies have begun moving into Puerto Rico, extensive damage to airports, harbors and roads in Maria’s wake has left the island largely isolated — complicating federal relief efforts.

“We still need some more help. This is clearly a critical disaster in Puerto Rico,” Rosselló told the Washington Post on Sunday night. “It can’t be minimized and we can’t start overlooking us now that the storm passed, because the danger lurks.”

One America Appeal — the fundraising effort launched by former Presidents George H. W. Bush, George W. Bush, Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama to support recovery efforts in the wake of recent hurricanes Harvey and Irma — has been expanded to include funds for Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands after Maria, the group said Monday.

Hillary Clinton urged the Trump administration to send the U.S. Navy to aid in the response.</s>North Carolina's Outer Banks are bracing for the effects of Hurricane Maria, even though the storm is expected to pass the state at least 150 miles offshore.

North Carolina's Outer Banks are bracing for the effects of Hurricane Maria, even though the storm is expected to pass the state at least 150 miles offshore.

(AP Photo/Evan Vucci). Rep. Richard Neal, D-Mass., left, and Rep. Kevin Brady, R-Texas, right, listen as President Donald Trump speaks during a meeting with members of the House Ways and Means committee in the Roosevelt Room of the White House, Tuesday...

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Donald Trump says he'll visit Puerto Rico next Tuesday to survey damage caused by Hurricane Maria.

Trump announced the visit after the administration was criticized for the pace of its response to widespread damage on the Caribbean island that is home to more than 3.4 million U.S. citizens. Puerto Ricans have been coping with shortages of food, drinking water, electricity and various forms of communication ever since the Category 4 storm slammed into island last week.

Trump said Tuesday is the earliest he can visit without disrupting recovery and relief operations.

He pushed back against the notion that the administration wasn't acting quickly enough to help, saying supplies could be delivered by truck to Texas and Florida after recent hurricanes in both states, but that Puerto Rico is unique because of its location.

"The difference is this is an island sitting in the middle of an ocean and it's a big ocean, it's a very big ocean," Trump said Tuesday during a White House meeting with lawmakers about the tax plan he's rolling out this week. "We're doing a good job."

Trump said the administration has shipped "massive amounts" of food, water and other supplies to Puerto Rico.

"We are continuing to do it on an hourly basis but that island was hit as hard as you can hit," he said.

FEMA Director Brock Long and Tom Bossert, Trump's homeland security adviser, were in Puerto Rico on Monday to assess the situation and report back on the island's needs, said White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders.

The president was also to be briefed later in the day on the administration's hurricane recovery efforts.

Trump said next week's trip may include a stop in the U.S. Virgin Islands, which were also ravaged by recent hurricanes.

Trump said Puerto Rico is important to him. He noted that he grew up in New York City, which has a large Puerto Rican population, and that he has Puerto Rican friends. "These are great people and we have to help them," he said.

Trump had planned to visit Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands earlier this month, but the trip was delayed after Hurricane Maria formed and became a threat to the region.

Copyright 2017 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.</s>Washington (CNN) The US military is planning to deploy the USNS Comfort hospital ship to assist with FEMA's response efforts in Puerto Rico a week after Hurricane Maria smashed the island as a Category 4 storm, several defense officials told CNN.

The Comfort is a seagoing medical treatment facility "capable of providing resuscitation and stabilization care; initial wound and basic surgery; and postoperative treatment," according to the US Navy.

Puerto Rican officials asked for additional medical assistance from the ship after initially indicating that they wanted to focus on getting power restored to damaged hospitals on shore, US officials told CNN.

CARIBBEAN SEA (April 10, 2015) Military Sealift Command (MSC) hospital ship USNS Comfort (T-AH 20) sits anchored off the coast of Belize for it's first mission stop during Continuing Promise 2015.

While the Comfort is on the way, according to FEMA administrator Brock Long, it may not deploy for another week -- within five to nine days as additional forces are activated to help man the ship along with its current crew of about 18 civilian mariners.

The crew is expected to grow to as many 60 and the medical crew could increase from the approximately 65 now with the ship to as many as 1,200, according to officials.

Hillary Clinton urged the Defense Department to send a Navy medical ship, while Democratic House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi called for Republicans to join with Democrats to pass a robust relief package.

The Navy hospital ship is just one part of the military's humanitarian assistance effort -- deploying assets to both Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands after the storm decimated critical infrastructure in the region.

The USS Kearsarge Amphibious Ready Group has already been conducting rescue operations in the region, including eight medical evacuations and 148 airlifts, and delivered 44,177 pounds of relief supplies and cargo to Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands since Maria struck, according to the Pentagon.

The US Air Force is also sending additional aircraft to Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands to ramp up the volume of daily relief missions.

Speaking on Capitol Hill Tuesday, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Joseph Dunford said the priority is making sure airfields can operate.

"The responsibility is primarily DHS, but at this point we're not trapped in bureaucratic niceties, what we're trying to do is make sure that we get the people of Puerto Rico the support they need when they need it," he said.

"All the other support they need can't come in until we get the ports and airfields open, so that's why Northern Command has placed that at the top of the list in terms of the support we're providing," he added.

Dunford said he expects more military aircraft will be used particularly for "generators, water, food, those kind of immediate needs."

In addition to deploying the USNS Comfort for additional medical assistance, the Defense Department is supporting FEMA's immediate priorities for Puerto Rico including: debris and route clearance of critical transportation routes; re-opening air and sea ports; re-establishing utilities, and implementation of a commodities distribution plan.

"Northern Command continues to conduct 24-hour operations, aggressively conducting search and rescue operations, bringing additional essential commodities to the islands, and restoring power at hospitals, ports, airports and other critical facilities," according to the service.

The US military is sending a variety of additional aircraft vehicles to assist with ongoing missions aimed to deliver critical supplies and capabilities to Puerto Rico:

One C-17 Globemaster with the remaining Contingency Response Element to establish airport operations. This unit includes more than 50 personnel.

One C-17 and one C-5 with the Mobile Emergency Response Support unit to provide mobile telecommunications, life support, logistics, operational support and power generation.

One C-17 with the 3rd Expeditionary Sustainment Command from Fort Bragg, North Carolina. This unit includes approximately 20 personnel with tactical trucks and utility trailers to provide site assessments.

One C-17 with the 63d Signal Battalion from Fort Stewart, Georgia. This unit includes approximately 15 personnel, tactical trucks and utility trailers to provide satellite ground communications capabilities.

Two C-5s with the 101st Combat Aviation Brigade from Fort Campbell, Kentucky, to provide tactical airlift with eight helicopters.

Two C-130s with the FAA's Incident Staging Base Cache from Dobbins Air Reserve Base, Georgia. This unit includes approximately 50 personnel and four heavy duty trucks and equipment.

The Air Force is also further increasing airport throughput capacity in San Juan by assisting the Federal Aviation Administration with air traffic control repairs.

The US military is also deploying additional aerial and medical assets to the Virgin Islands to assist in ongoing relief efforts:

Four C-17s with water and meals to St Croix.

Two C-17s and one C-130 to St Thomas with National Guard units that include approximately 120 personnel.</s>President Donald Trump posted a trio of tweets Monday night that appeared to center on Puerto Rico's fiscal debt, as the devastated U.S. territory struggles to recover from powerful Hurricane Maria.

After commending the recovery of Texas and Florida — which were lashed by Hurricanes Harvey and Irma, respectively — Trump tweeted Monday: "Puerto Rico, which was already suffering from broken infrastructure & massive debt, is in deep trouble."

Trump continued , "It's old electrical grid, which was in terrible shape, was devastated. Much of the Island was destroyed, with billions of dollars owed to Wall Street and the banks which, sadly, must be dealt with."

"Food, water and medical are top priorities - and doing well," Trump added.

Hurricane Maria, the strongest storm to hit Puerto Rico since 1928, killed 16 people and left millions without power or communications when it battered the island last week. Beset by food and water shortages, Puerto Rico Governor Ricardo Rosselló issued a statement appealing for help for his "essentially devastated" island.

"My petition is that we were there once for our brothers and sisters, our other U.S. citizens, now it's time that U.S. citizens in Puerto Rico are taken care of adequately, properly," Rosselló wrote Sunday. On Monday, he called for greater federal aid and appealed to Congress to pass a relief package and treat Puerto Rico like any other U.S. state, Politico reports.

According to the Associated Press, 3.4 million U.S. citizens in the territory are without adequate food, water and fuel. Communications are still lacking and electrical power may not be fully restored for a month.

Trump's response, which appeared to put the issue of the island's bank loans before emergency supplies, provoked consternation among some diplomats. "Is the President of the United States saying that the mammoth hurricane damage is Puerto Rico's fault?" posed Samantha Power, the former U.S. ambassador to the U.N.

Before the Category 4 storm struck, Puerto Rico was suffering from a $73 million debt crisis , that had left agencies like the state power company broke.

The U.S. Federal Emergency Management said aid was getting to the island, and that the agency had more than 700 staff on the ground in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, delivering diesel, food and water to communities, reports AP.</s>U.S. President Donald Trump says he plans to visit Puerto Rico next Tuesday and praises the federal effort so far for the U.S. territory after it was devastated by Hurricane Maria.</s>It took Donald Trump five full days to respond to the devastation wrought by Hurricane Maria on the lives of 3.5 million Americans in Puerto Rico, and when he finally did so his comments on Twitter were so devoid of empathy it threatened to spark a new controversy.



Hot on the heels of the billowing dispute he single-handedly provoked over African-American sporting figures protesting racial inequality during the national anthem, Trump launched another provocation on Monday night with a belated and lacklustre response to the Puerto Rican disaster. In a series of three tweets he effectively blamed the islanders – all of whom are American citizens – for their own misfortune.

“Texas & Florida are doing great but Puerto Rico, which was already suffering from broken infrastructure & massive debt, is in deep trouble,” he said, without offering any additional federal government assistance for the stricken US territory, which was hit by Hurricane Maria soon after those two states were struck by Harvey and Irma.

Trump acknowledged that “much of the island was destroyed”, but caustically went on to say that its electrical grid was already “in terrible shape” and that Puerto Rico owed billions of dollars to Wall Street and the banks “which, sadly, must be dealt with”.

It was the first comment Trump has made on Puerto Rico since hours before Maria made landfall as a category four hurricane pummelling the island and destroying its entire power network with winds of up to 155mph (250km/h). On that occasion he told the people of Puerto Rico: “We are with you.”

But for many Puerto Ricans the reality five days after the hurricane struck is that the US president has not been with them. Some 700 Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema) staff are on the island, and a total of 10,000 federal workers, carrying out search and rescue missions and supplying basic food and water.

But at the same time Trump himself has spent the past five days mired in his self-made battle with African-American sports stars while seemingly oblivious to the plight of millions of Hispanic Americans in peril in a natural disaster zone. The Trump administration has also refused to waive federal restrictions on foreign ships carrying life-saving supplies to Puerto Rico – a concession it readily made for Texas and Florida in the cases of hurricanes Harvey and Irma respectively.

In the last of his three tweets, Trump said that “food, water and medical are top priorities – and doing well”. But that may not tally with experiences on the ground where the governor, Ricardo Rosselló, has warned that Puerto Rico is on the brink of a “humanitarian crisis”.

In the hard-to-reach interior of the country, thousands of people are struggling with destroyed houses, a heat wave, and rapidly depleting supplies of clean water and food.

Earlier on Monday, Rosselló made a point of thanking former US president George H Bush and former Texas governor Jeb Bush for their calls of support.

Most Puerto Ricans were spared the experience of reading Trump’s tweets as a result of the ongoing total blackout of the island. But condemnation was swift in mainland US.

Juliette Kayyem, a former senior official in the department of homeland security under President Obama, said that Trump’s response to the Puerto Rico disaster showed “a lack of empathy of epic proportions”.</s>To get an idea of how dire the situation is in hurricane-battered Puerto Rico, take a look at these before-and-after photos.

The images, from a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration satellite, offer aerial views of the island. One was taken on July 24. The other on Monday.

Normally the island’s coastal towns and cities glimmer in a ring of light. Not anymore.

Puerto Rico’s energy grid took such a severe blow from deadly Hurricane Maria that the entire system is down. That means more than 3 million American citizens on the US commonwealth are without electricity.

Restoring power to the island could take months, Gov. Ricardo Rossello says.

“Damage is catastrophic,” Ricardo Ramos, CEO of the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority told CNN. “Transmission lines on the ground and conductors on the ground, and distribution poles broken in half. [It’s] very, very disconcerting.”</s>The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration released powerful images showing what Puerto Rico looked like from space before and after Hurricane Maria devastated the region.

The satellite images, which were released Monday, juxtapose the island the night before the hurricane hit and four days after it made landfall. With the exception of a glow from the capital city of San Juan, Puerto Rico remains nearly completely blacked out after the hurricane knocked out the entire island's power.

Authorities say that Puerto Rico could be without power for months. Even San Juan, which has restored some of its power lines, is noticeably darker in the aftermath of Maria. "The San Juan that we knew yesterday is no longer there," Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz told NBC last week. "We're looking at four to six months without electricity" in Puerto Rico, she added.

The U.S. commonwealth's governor, Ricardo Rosselló, described Maria as the "worst hurricane in modern history." He is now pleading for the federal government to step up its humanitarian efforts, emphasizing that Puerto Ricans are American citizens .

"We need something tangible, a bill that actually answers to our need right now," he told CNN Monday. "Otherwise, there will be ... a massive exodus to the [mainland] United States."

President Donald Trump, whose administration has been criticized for its response to the crisis, is scheduled to visit Puerto Rico next Tuesday.

"Texas & Florida are doing great but Puerto Rico, which was already suffering from broken infrastructure & massive debt, is in deep trouble.." he tweeted Monday morning.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency said Tuesday in a tweet that "10 [thousand] federal staff" have been deployed to Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, another victim of Maria, to assist with search and rescue and power restoration.</s>Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands both suffered substantial damage from Hurricane Maria, although Puerto Rico took the bigger hit, and it is there that Amateur Radio has begun to fill a huge telecommunications gap. According to the FCC, service is out for 96% of the cellular telephone sites in Puerto Rico — and it’s out completely for sites in 78 Puerto Rico counties. In the US Virgin Islands, the overall percentage is 66%.

“The situation in Puerto Rico is very devastating across all the island,” Puerto Rico SM Oscar Resto, KP4RF, said over the weekend. “Communications via land phone or mobiles are almost null.” Repeaters are down, he said, and hams have been using the 2-meter simplex frequency of 146.52 MHz, although he hoped to have a few local ham radio repeaters “working partially with damaged antennas.” With police repeaters also down, law enforcement has been using 2 meters as well.

American Red Cross Headquarters suffered the loss of its emergency generator due to flooding. A temporary ARC headquarters has Internet and cell service, he said.

Over the weekend, the American Red Cross (ARC) asked the ARRL for assistance in recruiting 50 radio amateurs who can help record, enter, and submit disaster-survivor information into the ARC Safe and Well system. That request was fulfilled today. In the nearly 75-year relationship between ARRL and ARC, this is the first time such a request for assistance on this scale has been made.

Resto said radio amateurs have also been assisting Puerto Rico’s Electric Power Authority (Autoridad de Energía Eléctrica) using 146.52 MHz to dispatch line crews and coordinate fuel deliveries for the authority’s offices at the Monacillo Control Center and at several power plants. “The power system is fully shut down for all the island,” he said. Drinking water and proper sanitation facilities are also in very short supply. Resto said Puerto Rico needs “everything…solar panels, repeaters, and most important, transmission lines and antennas. Some base or mobile VHF/UHF radios, a 1 to 2 kW power generator.” Fuel for generators as well as vehicles is running low on Puerto Rico, however.

Radio amateurs in Puerto Rico have been operating a brisk and busy ad hoc health-and-welfare traffic nets on 7.175 and 14.270 MHz, as has the Salvation Army Team Emergency Network (SATERN) on 14.265 MHz. Nets are handling only outgoing traffic. Resto said checking on individuals’ welfare typically requires attempting to visit them in person, since telecommunications are down nearly everywhere.

Gerry Hull, W1VE, reports that Herb Perez, KK4DCX, in San German, had been operating 6 to 8 hours a day, working dozens of operators, taking numbers and calling families. “I’ve done at least 200 messages with him,” said Hull, who has also been active on the SATERN net. Another station in Puerto Rico was operating from solar power.



“Calls to family are very emotional,” he told ARRL. “I am getting all kinds of calls day and night for people desperate to hear about family in Puerto Rico, but hams cannot provide inbound traffic.” He directs them to the Red Cross website to submit inquiries. “Lots of contesters are helping with their big stations,” he said.

US Virgin Islands Section Manager Fred Kleber, K9VV, said the USVI are in much better shape than Puerto Rico. “They really got slammed hard,” he said. Kleber said he still has antennas that were not destroyed by the storm and that he can hit Puerto Rico on 2 meters from his location. He also has announced plans to deploy some 20 mesh wireless network nodes in the US Virgin Islands.

“We have used every trick in our comms bag of tricks to make stuff work,” Kleber said.

Kleber said pictures in the news and social media don’t do justice to the wholesale devastation, which Caribbean radio amateurs also must deal with at their homes and in their communities. He told ARRL late last week that trees, power poles, transformers, and telephone lines are down all over, debris is blocking roadways, and it takes a long time to get anywhere. He and others have been staffing the emergency communications center 24/7.</s>Elvia Diaz: 3.5 million Puerto Ricans are American citizens. But you'd never know it in the wake of Hurricane Maria.

The Spanish-speaking Puerto Ricans fronting Hurricane Maria’s devastation have been merely an afterthought of their motherland – the United States.

A week after the hurricane slammed the Caribbean island, residents are without water, electricity and food, and are completely isolated. Completely alone.

You haven't seen the round-the-clock television coverage or gripping images of people agonizing over the rubble where their home or a business once stood.

For all practical purposes, President Donald Trump, Congress – the entire nation, really – is miserably failing Puerto Rico, and you've got to question why.

Remember Harvey battering Houston or Irma approaching Florida? You couldn’t turn anywhere without being inundated with every detail of the hurricanes on television, radio, social media and in newspapers.

The coverage of Houston and south Florida as well as the prompt federal financial aid was fitting and necessary. But what about Puerto Rico? A huge collective yawn, at best. And when cable news finally ramped up coverage, newscasts found it necessary to scroll headline saying “Americans” in Puerto Rico.

No, folks, they don’t mean Americans from the mainland living there. They mean the 3.5 million residents on the island are Americans, as in U.S. citizens.

It pains me to see congressmen like Ruben Gallego, Raúl Grijalva and others clamoring for help for Puerto Rico, which is on the brink of disaster. Theirs is a cry for attention to the fact that Puerto Ricans are U.S. citizens, too.

The island is officially a commonwealth state – an unincorporated territory of the United States. Its residents are U.S. citizens, but they cannot cast a ballot for president or vice president. The island doesn’t have a vote in Congress.

Statehood has been a perennial fight within Puerto Rico. The island has been split between those who want to become the 51st state and those who prefer the status quo.

Either way, the U.S. Congress officially governs the island and thus it should treat the territory as it would any other state when it comes to caring for its people. It's unclear how much it will cost to rebuild but it'll be a long and costly recovery. On Tuesday, Trump announced he'll visit the island next week to survey the damage.

The federal government should provide federal relief funds immediately and Americans should respond with the same fervor and generosity, too.

If this won't get attention, what will?

Hurricane Maria flattened homes and left the island without electricity and communication.

“Hot, isolated and running out of supplies,” read The Washington Post headline of its Sunday story about Puerto Rico’s predicament.

“Four days after a major hurricane battered Puerto Rico, leaving the entire island in a communications and power blackout, regions outside San Juan remained disconnected from the rest of the island,” reported The Post.

It pains me that Latinos have to cry out for attention, for help. It pains me to see they're the afterthought of everyone, including their own countrymen.

If only Puerto Rico had an NFL team, oil, cigars, political clout – anything with commercial appeal to draw attention to itself in this time of need.

Elvia Díaz is an editorial columnist for The Republic and azcentral. Reach her at 602-444-8606 or elvia.diaz@arizonarepublic.com. Follow her on Twitter, @elviadiaz1.

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Puerto Rican officials request aid from the United States federal government for welfare in the aftermath of the hurricane-induced humanitarian crisis on the island.