Nowzarada n not now. Nothing. Nothing. From a jurisdiional basis, even though supports are in the capital city and im the mayor of the city, i have no jurisdiction over the ports. Nothing will happen. It is not complicated. Politics need to be put aside and we need to get the job done now. We have a massive team of correspondents in puerto rico right now. In the coming hours and days, each of them will bring stories of survivor, recovery, hope, and loss. Lets begin with Boris Sanchez who is joining us on the phone at the port. Give us an update on the situation there. Hey there, wolf. It is staggering to see the amount of containers her at the port. Thousands and thoandss you said. Food, water, clothing, Construction Equipment and things that people in communities that have been decimated by Hurricane Maria need desperately and they are sitting here baking in the sun. I spoke to the Vice President in puerto rico. He was very emotional talking to me about the people that need these goods. There are tremendous logistical issues and gridlock in trying to get the goods to where they need to go. Part of the problem is communication. They are unable to contact Truck Drivers that need to come here to pick up the goods and unload them elsewhere. The Truck Drivers may well be at home that are uninhabitable. They may not have gasoline to get to the trucks or the businesses may be in a bad state. They may not have fuel to drive their trucks over to pick these goods up. There is a series of problems that stand in the way of getting these supplies to where they need to go. And undoing them is a major task. I spoke to a mother of two young girls who became overwhelmed talking to me. She said her children keep asking for food and cold water and she doesnt know what to tell them. It stings you when you see all the supplies here in puerto rico and the fact that they are not moving from the port is keeping others from coming in. Im staring at a barge with hundreds of containers that have not been unloaded because they are over capacity at the port. They havent been able to move the containers that are here. It is a serious problem that requires a series of layers of issues to be resolved and one we may not see resolved for weeks to come. What are a heart breaking development s thathat is. Even when supplies finally do make it out of the ports, they are going to be a major struggle to get the aid to the devastated cities and towns across puerto rico. Its also a very dangerous trek right now for people to get out of so many towns that are now cutoff from virtually everything. Lets go to ivan watson about 35 miles from the capital of san juan. Tell us about how people are making that journey. We are going to zoom in here right away on this river and you can see thats a man named manolo gonzalez. He just forted the river that cutoff this community of more than 1,000 people from basically civilization. From the rest of puerto rico. It was washed out in hours after the hurricane by flash floods. I will show you where the bridge used to be and you can see how high up it is and that the water ripped away huge segments of concrete and has essentially cutoff this community fromhe rest of the area. There is another Mountain Road that people can use. The residents tell me its two to three hours to get out to the bigger state. Who has the fuel to drive two to three hours when fuel is being rationed . Its hot right now. Its high noon and the traffic is subsided, but throughout the morning, we watched residents. Women, children, wading across this river on foot to try to get out to the outside world. It only took us about 45 minutes from san juan to drive here, but as you can see, then the road is cutoff. And they say the community has been visited in the days after the hurricane by a team from fema once. They say the mayor of municipality visited once as well. The communities on that have no electricity and no Running Water and no telecommunications. As you can see, a transport ey described how a couple of days ago they had to move somebody who was in dire need of dialysis on a makeshift raft and drag them across the river and they say they need other supplies like insulin because there is no refrigeration. Eight days after the hurricane, an American Community cutoff by a collapsed bridge. Wolf . They are in desperate need of basic provisions. Are they able to get out or are they trapped . We will forward the river to check up on the community there. Residents say that there are bedridden elderly and are in a tough position. Heres the most frightening thing. If somebody has a medical emergency, you cant call 911. There is no radio in the neighborhoods and the villages over there to call for emergency help. In the hours we have been here, we have seen helicopters fly overhead and not seen any official from the outside world come out. The community over there, the residents there, they themselves strung up thisab across the river and peoplere hanging on to i when they go across on foot. They strung it up to try to keep from losing footing and being swept away. This is entirely a volunteer effort. 100 improvised by the residents to get in and out from this isolated community to the outside world and recall even on roads that have been cleared leading up to here, its only about 45 minutes by car if you have fuel to reach this location. We are not hundreds and hundreds of miles away in the mountains. This is a u. S. Community that is cutoff. We have seen somebody leading a horse across in the last couple of hours. Thats the situation they are in. Ivan watson on the scene for us. We will get back to you as well. I want to discuss all of this with the military response to hurricane katrina. Thanks for joining us. What do you think fema could be doing to speed up the delivery of this aid . Well, get troops in there from the seventh transportation unit on the east coast and the job to run ports. They could have been in there since last sunday. Thats the s thing. Bring an air for outfit and run an air field. They should have been there since sunday. To bring the United States army and you open the other ones around and none of that has been done. It has been slow to deploy in the military. It took us seven days to appoint the general and 24 hours for them to make a decision at the pentagon. I dont know what the hell is going on. They are using words i dont understand. We never use that to win wars like partners. Im not your partner, fema. Im a command that you give me a mission and say take water and fuel and save the people of puerto rico, thats what we operate on. Its a mission. The military didnt get that mission until yesterday. Up until yesterday, there was only 2200 federal troops in and around puerto rico including those out on ships. We have to do better than pushing. After this is over, we will try to work with them on legislation. Never let this happen again. Something happened since katrina. His headquarters exist 365 days a year just for this mission. It took us eight days to mobilize him to tell him to come do it. In the last hour did we learn that the pentago appointed the Lieutenant General to lead all military hurricane efforts in puerto rico and expected to arrive in puerto rico later today. We know that his First Priority will need to be a distribution and saving lives. Walk us through what general buchanan is about to do. He should have been on the scene a week ago. He is the right man. Thats his job as a fifth army commander. He had multiple experiences in fifg ar fifth army and the priority of work and figure out what rules he had to break. We would never have evacuated if i listened to the tsa and the pilots. They wanted manifests and the tsa wanted ids. The next thing he needs to have the authority to command, is he a jtf commando or a partner. They need authority to make decisions for the president. He said look, you get this done and whatever it takes to get it done. You look to the governor and Homeland Security said let the general get this thing evacuate and get it settled down and we will go back to normal stuff. Thats what he did. He needs to get that call from the president who said you do what you haveo do to make it happ and save lives. Bring in troops from the transportations. Bring in the marines. They know how to do clearing of the temporary air fields and parts of the air field clearing unit. The United States air force has been sitting down and they want to get in there. They can put people there that can run that air field and 10 others. Get this. In hurricane irma, we had an Aircraft Carrier that came over the horizon that could have run all of the air in and out of puerto rico. The second day they could have run the air field 247. The military has the capacity to do this. And the department of defense and three back to back and florida was a text book operation. The general put his guard in and the federal troops came in by sea and air. It was a difficult operation. We needed even more than that. Scale up, wolf. They need to scale up. Katrina had 20,000 federal troops. Not federal workers, federal troops. I have 20 ships and over 240 helicopters and puerto rico is bigger than katrina. If someone called me from northern command, i will give you the damn numbers. Lesson learned. It doesnt look like we learned anything. The issue with the United States is we always do the right thing, but we do it slow and late. Right now the people of puerto rico are paying that bill. I have been speaking to the people. If you had 20,000 troops helping you during katrina which was a smaller area, you need 50,000 troops on the ground right now and at sea and in the air trying to save the lives of these people right now. Its a mission that u. S. Military is ankz to undertake. I want to bring in another guest. The Democratic House minority. You made an impassioned plea. 3. 5 million americans are in puerto rico right now. Give me your reaction to the federal response so far. I agree. They went into new orleans and got the job done and we havent done that. We havent deployed enough resources at this point and he said katrina was a more contained geographical area and this is a larger one. Frankly, the general said it all. We need to deploy every resource necessary. Very frankly that Aircraft Carrier that went into florida should be diverted down to puerto rico now. The air assets and requisite personnel. I hope general buchanan has all of the authority he needs to get this job done. We have people i talked to secretary price early this morning about people who are dying because of their inability to get to a Dialysis Center that works. They cant get anywhere. The Dialysis Centers are up and running in the urban areas. Folks cant get to it. We need to have enough personnel on the ground working every day to make sure that we can save lives. We ought to have legislation to give the resources to rehabilitate. This is about saving lives in the face of one of the biggest humanitarian crisis we had in this country. We ought to respond as we respond to any other crisis in the world or here on the mainland. We deployed the Abraham LincolnAircraft Carrier to florida and would not be all that difficult to move the carrier to puerto rico right now. I was going to say we should have done that days ago. The general is correct. Yesterday we started mobilizing and the day before that or two days before that, i called for appointing an individual similar to the general to be in charge of coordination and very frankly of getting the job done without having to worry about any red tape or buy or leave comments. We need to be in there with full resources. The armed forces can get the job done if they are given full authority and the resources to get it done. If it requires more than one carrier, send in two or three or four. Whatever it takes with the troops to save these peoples lives. Thats why i say whatever resources are neededught to be deployed days ago, but now. Very quickly. When are you going to vote on legislation to fund this massive reconstruction effort in puerto rico . This is not going to be cheap as you know. Its not cheap, but it needs to be done. These are american citizens and just as we did in new orleans and will do in houston and will do in florida, we need to make sure that with the states and texas has resources and florida as resources and puerto rico is stretched. We had great difficulties. We need to make sure that we build back better. We dont put in second rate systems that will be subject to devastation by a category four or five hurricane. We have to expect its going to happen again and we need to prepare for the devastation. When are you voting for the funding some. Hopefully voting before we leave here in the next two weeks. One of the things that has to be done is assessment of what spending is needed. We need to do it before and we hope and urge before we leave here. We have a week break again, but before we leave, we ought to have a bill that appropriates the funds. Not all of what is necessary, but whatever is needed in the shortterm, we ought to provide authority for before we leave here in two weeks. All right, congressman. Thanks for joining us. The people are counting on all of us to help in this desperate situation. Appreciate it very much. Much more on the breaking news. I will speak live with the family over there stranded and he saw what he is afraid of happening next. He is standing by owls. Live on the ground, these are live pictures. Thousands and thousands of desperate people want to get out of puerto rico right now to save their life. They are waiting to get on a cruise ship clearly designed to save lives. Are you new to medicare . Thinking about retiring . Do you have the coverage you need . Nows the time to get on a path that could be right for you. With plans including aarp medicarecomplete insured through unitedhealthcare. Call today or go online to learn more. These Medicare Advantage plans can combine your hospital and doctor coverage with Prescription Drug coverage, and extra benefits all in one complete plan for a low monthly premium, or in some areas no plan premium at all. Other benefits can include 0 copays for an annual physical and most immunizations, routine vision and hearing coverage, and youll pay the plans lowest prescription price, whether its your copay or the pharmacy price. Or pay zero dollars for a 90day supply of tier 1 and tier 2 drugs, delivered right to your door. Call unitedhealthcare or go online to learn more or even enroll. The situation in puerto rico seems to be geing worse. They want to board a cruise ship heading to the United States. Explain to our viewers what you are seeing on the ground. Layla . We have thousands of people in the line. At the end of the line, it wraps around the block for the general public. This line is for those who already have reservations. Those who are showing up are begging to get on that cruise ship that can take thousands of people will not make it on. The number one question is can they get on. Number two, is there cold water . Let me see if i can get this. Sonia is hoping to head to fort lauderdale. Son sonia, can you me how long you have been in this line and what its like to wait here not knowing whats next. In the line about two hours. Something like that. With the heat its pretty bad. Why is it so important for to you get on the ship . The situation here without power and without Running Water in the houses very uncomfortable and the it gets to a point where you want to just cry start running and get out of here. You are from where . What can you me about your area . Its a disaster. Almost all the trees are down. Every house that had metal in the roof is gone. A lot of houses flatten completely. There is this custom to build wood houses on top of concrete houses. The rain and the wind destroyed them. We are certainly hoping you can get the relief you need. Thank you. What i saw when i get here was heart breaking. I watched an elderly man carrying an oxygen tank, trying to get inside. I watched another man as he lifted his shirt to show the scar from his operation to prove he is special needs. He needs to get on that ship. I have been told by organizers here if you are not registered, you will not get on this ship. That will take hours to load. I asked what time the ship is leaving and they said whenever its at full capacity is when it will leave hoping to get these people with special needs some help in florida. Parlayul layla, you have been all week and seen the disaster that clearly is unfolding. Is it getting worse . Do you see any signs of progress . Reporter as far as the people go, i think we are going through what you typically see when you are coping with grief. And now there is the frustration is actually on the other side of the port. It is blocked by a lot of the cars, but over there on that side of the port, there are more than 9,000 containers. According to the government with relief aid sitting over there. These people are trying to get off the island and the relief is sitting in more than 9,000 containers and they dont have the drivers to get that stuff out and about. If they find the drivers, wolf, they dont have enough diesel and then the communication issue. Because we were just over there where the Hurricane Relief is, i ran into four drivers and asked every one of them, are you taking relief out, and not one knew they needed drivers to do that. You are dealing with lack of manpower. Lack of communication, and an entire island in need of help. The government is saying they reached 35 municipalities. It sounds like a lot, but its less than half of the island. U. S. Citizens do not have the help they need right now. Its an awful situation. Back to you at the port. They are at least partially operational and a doctor is warning that a medical crisis is about to explode all across the hospitals and clinics. Desperately depending on diesel fuel to at least keep generators running. Our chief medical correspondent is at a clinic in san juan and made his way to puerto rico. What are the conditions like where you are right now . First of all, wolf, this number of hospitals that are up and running and we have been looking at the different clinics. Its very hard to know if a hospital is functioning. You cant communic