New reporting has revealed approximately 20,000 pallets of bottled water are just sitting there baking in the sun on a runway in Puerto Rico despite the fact that results in the hurricane-ravaged island are still in need despite President Donald Trump’s boasts about doing an “unappreciated great job in Puerto Rico.” Calling it an example of the governments failed response, CNN’s Bill Weir today talked about the water going unused that they found thanks to a social media post from a local law enforcement officer. “Some 20,000 pallets of bottled water by our back of the envelope math, that’s about 38 million bottles of water, ten for every resident of Puerto Rico or so. Just sitting there. Baking in the sun,” Weir said. “Apparently, it’s — FEMA started delivering to that air strip back in the fall, October or November or so. They didn’t start distributing it until May, and then some residents complained of a foul odor and taste, unsure whether it came that way or got that way from sitting in the sun for months in the heat down there. Then that prompted more water testing, and it’s just been sort of a perfect storm of logistical nightmares.” He added that there was definitely need for the water. “I couldn’t help think back to all the folks I saw a month after the storm drinking rain water, drinking creek water.” The CNN reporter added he also thought of “all the very solid earnest National Guardsmen and FEMA workers who brought that water down here, thinking they were going to save and help lives.” Weir also pointed out that the water still could be used by those in need, noting he’d met a woman yesterday. That woman, he said, “has to go down into town and carry up this cistern in the back of her truck to field her animals, herself and her baby. So there is still plenty of need. But that disconnect is still so vivid a year after.” Trump has praised his own response to Puerto Rico, tweeting out this early Wednesday morning: We got A Pluses for our recent hurricane work in Texas and Florida (and did an unappreciated great job in Puerto Rico, even though an inaccessible island with very poor electricity and a totally incompetent Mayor of San Juan). We are ready for the big one that is coming! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 12, 2018 He also claimed in an Oval Office briefing the relief efforts in Puerto Rico “was an incredible, unsung success.” Watch above, via CNN [image via screengrab] Have a tip we should know? [email protected]<doc-sep>A photographer said Tuesday that a stockpile of bottled water he saw on a tarmac in Puerto Rico a year ago was still there during a recent trip. The Federal Emergency Management Agency reportedly told the CBS News correspondent David Begnaud that it provided the water to the central government in response to Hurricane Maria in 2017, but it is unclear what kept the water from being distributed. Many of the deaths in the aftermath of Maria were attributed to power failures and limited access to healthcare and clean drinking water. A photographer working for a Puerto Rican police agency posted photos online Tuesday that he said showed a stockpile of bottled water on a runway in the city of Ceiba that had gone unused for about a year. The water was believed to be part of relief efforts after Hurricane Maria wrought devastation on the US territory last September. The photographer, Abdiel Santana, said he first spotted the stockpile of what could be millions of water bottles last year but took the photos after seeing it in the same place during a recent trip to the island. The bottles were provided by the US Federal Emergency Management Agency and turned over to the central government last year, according to the CBS News correspondent David Begnaud, who first reported on the revelation. "The water was kept in an area that was pretty hard hit during the storm and could have used all the water they could have gotten," Begnaud said in a video report. Nearly 3,000 deaths have been attributed to Hurricane Maria, making it the second-deadliest storm in the US. Many of the deaths were attributed to power failures and a lack of access to healthcare and clean water, according to a study from the George Washington University. The Puerto Rican government initially linked just 64 deaths to Maria. The government withheld data behind its figures, prompting news organizations like CNN to take legal action. The apparent bureaucratic breakdown comes as another looming natural disaster bears down on the US mainland. Hurricane Florence, a Category 4 storm, is expected to hit the Carolinas and Virginia as early as Thursday night with the potential for strong winds, a massive storm surge, and heavy rain. On Tuesday, President Donald Trump boasted about his administration's response to Maria: "Puerto Rico was incredibly successful," Trump said, pointing to some of the problems the island had before the hurricane. "It was one of the best jobs that's ever been done with respect to what this is all about." Trump earned some heavy criticism for those remarks, including from the outspoken mayor of the capital San Juan, Carmen Yulín Cruz, on Tuesday night.<doc-sep>Instead of being given to hurricane survivors, bottles were left out to rot. At least a thousand pallets of water bottles, meant for Hurricane Maria survivors, were left to rot under the Puerto Rican sun. That is what Angelo Cruz Ramos, the mayor of Ceiba, told ABC News about what happened to thousands and thousands of water bottles that are sitting on the tarmac at the former naval base, Roosevelt Roads. Cruz Ramos did not know the water was there and only found out when the images, posted to Facebook on Sept. 11, went viral, he said. The area is a restricted zone, so he is not been able to approach it. Because the bottled water has been under the sun for months, all the water is contaminated and is not suitable for consumption, Cruz Ramos said. The Federal Emergency Management Agency confirmed to ABC News that the water was purchased by the federal agency and was determined to be a part of a surplus of supplies in April. The excess supply was transferred to the island's General Services Administration, FEMA said. Puerto Rico's General Services Administration said back in May that the agency received around 20,000 pallets of water through a federal government program to distribute excess supplies, the agency said in a statement to ABC News. After delivering more than 700 pallets, they received complaints about the smell and taste of the water from a municipality, the GSA said. The GSA are working with FEMA and the island's department of health to perform water tests on what they got from the federal government, the GSA said. They added that they will be returning the water to the federal government. Ramos is not sure who is at fault. Because there were supply planes arriving at airport in Ceiba hundreds of times after the storm - off loading food and water, he wouldn't know when this water actually arrived on that tarmac, he said. "The government of Puerto Rico did not receive the water to distribute during the emergency, it was under FEMA's custody and it wasn’t until April 2018 that the surplus inventory was available upon request," Hector Pesquera, Puerto Rico’s secretary of public safety, announced at a press conference in San Juan on Wednesday.<doc-sep>
(CBS NEWS) — The federal response to Hurricane Maria is under scrutiny again after photos show what appear to be millions of water bottles meant for victims of the storm still sitting on a runway in Ceiba, Puerto Rico. The photos began circulating on social media Tuesday, the same day President Trump again praised the government’s response to Maria during a meeting with top DHS and FEMA officials. Marty Bahmonde, a senior official at FEMA, confirmed to CBS News’ David Begnaud that the agency delivered the water to the island. From there, the details are unclear. Bahmonde said they don’t track specific shipments of water bottles so it’s not clear when they were delivered or what became of the bottles after the delivery. BREAKING: What may be millions of water bottles. meant for victims of Hurricane Maria, have been sitting on a runway in Ceiba, Puerto Rico, since last year, according to @FEMA, which confirmed the news to me, late tonight, after pictures, posted today on social media, went viral. pic.twitter.com/jidGJAvCyJ — David Begnaud (@DavidBegnaud) September 12, 2018 Begnaud spoke with Abdiel Santana, who works with the Puerto Rico state police agency FURA. Santana says he took the photos on Tuesday because he was angry to still see the bottles sitting there. Santana, who posted the photos to his Facebook on Tuesday, said he first saw the bottles there in either October or November of last year. The General Services Administration (GSA) says it requested excess water inventory from FEMA through the United States GSA Surplus Property program. In total, it claimed about 20,000 pallets of bottled water that the federal government reported having in excess. In a statement, the GSA Administrator for Puerto Rico, Ottmar Chávez, said FEMA “reported that it had an excess of bottled water in May 2018, before I became the agency’s administrator.” Chávez said he only became aware of the bottled water on Tuesday and does not know why it is there, how it got there or how long it has been there. Now, he’d like to give it back to FEMA because his agency has received two complaints about the taste and smell of the water. Chávez added: “These bottles were claimed by [GSA] in May 2018 for delivery to municipalities, agencies and various entities. The delivery that included 12 municipalities and WIPR was initiated. After having delivered more than 700 pallets, [GSA] received several complaints about the smell and taste of the water received from FEMA.” Chavez said he was in contact with FEMA and the Department of Health to test the water. Puerto Rico’s governor last month raised the U.S. territory’s official death toll from Hurricane Maria from 64 to 2,975. The storm, which devastated the territory last September, is also estimated to have caused $100 billion in damage. © 2018 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.