Biden Releases $1.3 Billion in Delayed Storm Aid for Puerto Rico

$1.3 billion

“The Biden administration said it would release $1.3 billion in aid that Puerto Rico can use to protect against future climate disasters, and is starting to remove some restrictions put in place by the Trump administration on spending that was to help the island after Hurricane Maria in 2017,” the New York Times reports.

Bloomberg Backs Statehood for Puerto Rico

“I’ll state it clearly: I support statehood for Puerto Rico. And as president, I will work to pass a bill making it a reality, subject to approval by the people of Puerto Rico — who will make the ultimate decision. … We believe taking Puerto Rican voters seriously starts in the Democratic primary, and that’s why I’m opening up an office in San Juan and building a ground operation — because the best way to stop Puerto Rico from being ignored in the future is to stop ignoring it right now.”

— Michael Bloomberg writing in the Orlando Sentinel

Fox News: Trump May Take Current Disaster Funds from Florida, Texas to Build Wall

Event canceled due to emergency in Trump’s base
It wasn’t surprising to hear that Trump was targeting disaster relief funds earmarked for victims of Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico and the wildfires in California. After all, Hillary Clinton won handily in both those places in 2016 and punishing them by taking away desperately needed funding is exactly the kind of mean-spirited, cold-hearted retribution we’ve come to expect from Trump.

But now even Fox News is reporting that Trump will also strip disaster recovery funds from two big states he won: Florida and Texas.

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New Figures Now Reveal More Than 5,000 Were Killed When Maria Hit Puerto Rico

As we debate whether the numbers of people who were killed when Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico in September, 2017 were deliberately under-reported or just badly counted, there’s one thing Trump knew. It was nothing compared to a “real catastrophe like Katrina.”

Even as Trump made that insulting comment the following month, average Puerto Ricans were certain that many more than the 16 people he touted had been lost.

A new study from the New England Journal of Medicine estimates the actual death toll to be closer to 5,000. Even worse, “one third of the deaths were attributed to delayed or interrupted health care.”

Hurricane Katrina, which hit South Florida and Louisiana in August, 2005, resulted in 1,833 fatalities.

Trump made no secret he considered money spent in Puerto Rico to be both unnecessary (since he believed it to be full of non-citizens) and an annoyance. Could his attitude have led to a tightening of the purse strings that contributed to the death toll?

Puerto Rican Climate Refugees to Tilt Florida Politics

168,000

New York Times: “More than 168,000 people have flown or sailed out of Puerto Rico to Florida since the hurricane, landing at airports in Orlando, Miami and Tampa, and the port in Fort Lauderdale. Nearly half are arriving in Orlando, where they are tapping their networks of family and friends. An additional 100,000 are booked on flights to Orlando through Dec. 31… Large numbers are also settling in the Tampa, Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach areas.”

Majority: Federal Government Not Doing Enough for Puerto Rico

62%

A new Kaiser Family Foundation poll finds that 62% of Americans think that people in Puerto Rico are not yet getting the help they need in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria. In terms of the federal government’s response, 52% feel the federal government is not doing enough to restore electricity and access to food and water and 52% think the response has been too slow.

Donald to Puerto Rico: Drop Dead

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