in puerto rico, over 2,000 fema personnel in puerto rico, emax, almost 3,000 in puerto rico as well. some of the assets coming here from the federal government and the private sector. we have resources to work. we need to execute and we need to do more. certainly saying help is not arriving is inconsistent with everything that we re observing. neil: do you and the mayor work with each other on this? the reason why i ask, she s been a frequent critic of the aid and president trump in particular. seems like a nasty relationship. is it? well, my job here, neil, is to work with everybody. i need to make sure my only focus is results for the people of puerto rico. i called the mayor as i called other mayors. i worked with the federal government. i want to make sure that outcomes are our focus.
she was appreciative of the fema presence. fema is there to coordinate. there are not hundreds of thousands of fema personnel. the people in puerto rico now are suffering immeasurably, they just want help and don t want it to be about politics at all, and the president started talking about their debt and the infrastructure already in place. that s not a solution looking forward. not only is it not a solution looking forward, it is important that the president s literal focus and the words he says on television and the words he says to the press are about puerto rico, because it s not just the federal government that needs to respond to puerto rico. if the american s people attention is not on it because the president s attention and the media s attention is not on it, the people of puerto rico
having to work on multiple disasters at the same time. there are dozens of federally declared federal disasters every year. some of these can be a flood or a fire that you maybe see coverage on for one day, but those represent months and months of recovery efforts that are done by fema personnel throughout the year. so fema is used to doing that. that said, these are two major disasters. while response efforts are going on with irma right now, there are ongoing recovery efforts with harvey where thor than 600,000 people have registered for federal assistance, and more than $200 million has been approved to go to disaster survivors there. so those efforts are definitely ongoing while preparations are going on for irma. former fema spokesperson,
forward with such professionalism and such consistency in this historic storm. secondly, a word of gratitude to all of your first responders here in texas. those who at this very hour are continuing to put themselves in harm s way to rescue people and deliver them from danger. they and you have inspired the nation, and we commend them on behalf of our president. i m also here to express our appreciation and admiration for the federal team, some 21,000 federal officials that are here on the ground in texas. department of defense personnel, fema personnel, our president and our entire administration are proud of the long hours and the efforts that each of you have put in to this effort to date and the commitment you have to see this through. and lastly, as the governor
professionalism and such consistency in this historic storm. secondly, a word of gratitude to all of your first responders here in texas. those who at this very hour are continuing to put themselves in harm s way to rescue people and deliver them from danger. they and you have inspired the nation and we commend them on behalf of our president. i m also here to express our appreciation and admiration for the federal team, some 21,000 federal officials that are here on the ground in texas, department of defense personnel, fema personnel, our president, our entire administration are proud of the long hours and the efforts that each of you have put into this effort to date and the commitment you have to see this through. and lastly, as the governor eluded i think karen and i today