Page 18 - Relief Workers News Today

Puerto rico, there are 3,000 containers stuck in ports, some may not be related to kurk hurricane relief, earlier cnn had been told buy shipping officials as many as 10,000 containers were stuck. >> the pentagon has just appointed jeffrey buchanan to lead relief efforts. listen to the presidents homeland security adviser when he was asked why it took so long to appoint buchanan. >> do you acknowledge it was a mistake looking back to not have this on the ground earlier? >> no. not at all. in fact...

This on the ground earlier? >> no. not at all. in fact that doesnt affect it the way we stage equipment and the way we handle commands. this is textbook and its been done well. >> buchanan will join "new day" later this morning. about 7500 u.s. troops and 10,000 federal relief workers are on the ground in puerto rico, right now there are over 10,000 people in 160 shelters. the islands power grid not expepgtded to come back fully on line for months. 90% of the cell sites also out of service. >> a...

The good news is theres boots on the ground and people from fema has the heart in the right place and the hhs people know what to do. for heavens sake, somebody, let them do their job. let them get the food and the water in the hands of people and then lets talk about good news. im really sorry, but you know, when you have -- when you have people out there dying, literally, scraping for food, where is -- where is the good news? >> that is san juans mayor. here is the very latest on the relief re...

Do you expect miss duke to address that? >> reporter: yes. its a nightmare getting to the aid to the people needing it. many folks still need it. we were in a town not far from san juan a few miles away, a makeshift distribution center set up. they were handing out the bottled waters and mres and the supplies people so desperately need. one of the shipping containers is there at the distribution center. the aid is starting to flow out. is it happening fast? we spoke to several people in that lin...

People are going to suffer. >> reporter: but the white house says there are now enough resources on the ground including 10,000 federal relief workers and 7200 troops. >> our message to the incredible people of puerto rico is this, the president is behind you. >> reporter: overnight the president tweeting, fema and first responders are doing a great job in puerto rico. massive food and water delivered. docks and electric grid dead. acting homeland security secretary elaine duke is flying into pu...

Them in the wake of hurricane maria. a distribution bottle neck stifling relief efforts in. >> we have not scaled up quick enough. >> the former general who coordinated military relief efforts after katrina says maria is a bigger challenge and the trump administration isnt doing enough. >> we have to do better than now, otherwise we wont get this done and more people are going to suffer. >> the white house says there are now enough resources on the ground, including 10,000 federal relief workers...

Remote areas that are hard to access. people that do need medical attention, people that are on ventilators. people that have asthma or other debilitating diseases are having a hard time. and people are, as the mayor is saying, dying. hospitals are running on generators. that cannot happen endlessly. generators burn out. access to fuel. its just layer upon layer of challenge. and right now, we only have 10,000 between troops and relief workers, 10,000 people on the ground. that general that you ...

These localized areas causing flash flooding. the night is going to be long and people are starting to heed the call to stay inside if not evacuated. >> you look at some of the islands that werent hit particularly hard by irma less than two weeks ago they are the base for recovery operations where a lot of relief workers have been and many people who fled irma took shelter and now they are in the path. clearly a lot of the work done in the last couple of weeks are going to be severely impacted i...

Add on top of that the 6 to 9 feet of storm surge from the national hurricane weather center, thats a recipe for disaster, john. you remember storm surge and water related deaths, thats where we find the highest number of fatalities during a tropical system such as this. >> thank you for that. relief workers have been hit with the 1-2 punch of irma and maria as well. the mobile response team arrived in the virgin islands in the aftermath of irma now to be caught in a second storm. it was irma an...

Basically humanitarian crisis. you have police here joined by military. joined by local, state, federal. all law enforcement on scene here, to try to help as best they can to get people out of there. and part of that work is to identify whos already been found in this crisis. you can see back here, some of the relief workers with their helmets. people bringing food and relief supplies. but also you see signs up here, these are people that have been discovered in the rubble. and so that work will...