"
data-check-event-based-preview=""
data-is-vertical-video-embed="false"
data-network-id=""
data-publish-date="2018-08-28T21:59:50Z"
data-video-section="health"
data-canonical-url="https://www.cnn.com/videos/health/2018/08/28/puerto-rico-hurricane-maria-new-death-toll-santiago-lead-vpx.cnn"
data-branding-key="the-lead"
data-video-slug="puerto rico hurricane maria new death toll santiago lead vpx"
data-first-publish-slug="puerto rico hurricane maria new death toll santiago lead vpx"
data-video-tags="accidents, disasters and safety,caribbean,continents and regions,deaths and fatalities,george washington university,government and public administration,government bodies and offices,governors,heads of government,hurricane maria,hurricanes,latin america,natural disasters,north america,puerto rico,severe weather,society,the americas,tropical storms,united states,universities and colleges,weather"
data-details="">
"
data-check-event-based-preview=""
data-is-vertical-video-embed="false"
data-network-id=""
data-publish-date="2018-06-02T17:06:31Z"
data-video-section="us"
data-canonical-url="https://www.cnn.com/videos/us/2018/06/02/puerto-rico-hurricane-maria-death-toll-rise-santiago-sot.cnn"
data-branding-key=""
data-video-slug="puerto rico hurricane maria death toll rise santiago sot"
data-first-publish-slug="puerto rico hurricane maria death toll rise santiago sot"
data-video-tags="accidents, disasters and safety,caribbean,deaths and fatalities,experimentation and research,hurricane maria,hurricanes,latin america,leyla santiago,natural disasters,north america,puerto rico,science,severe weather,society,tropical storms,united states,weather"
data-details="">
"
data-check-event-based-preview=""
data-is-vertical-video-embed="false"
data-network-id=""
data-publish-date="2018-06-07T01:08:31Z"
data-video-section="politics"
data-canonical-url="https://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2018/06/07/san-juan-mayor-trump-neglect-hurricane-maria-bts-ac.cnn"
data-branding-key=""
data-video-slug="san juan mayor trump neglect hurricane maria bts ac"
data-first-publish-slug="san juan mayor trump neglect hurricane maria bts ac"
data-video-tags="caribbean,carmen yulín cruz,donald trump,government and public administration,government bodies and offices,latin america,north america,political figures - us,puerto rico,san juan,united states,us federal government,white house,accidents, disasters and safety,hurricane maria,hurricanes,natural disasters,severe weather,tropical storms,weather"
data-details="">
"
data-check-event-based-preview=""
data-is-vertical-video-embed="false"
data-network-id=""
data-publish-date="2018-06-01T11:20:10Z"
data-video-section="us"
data-canonical-url="https://www.cnn.com/videos/us/2018/06/01/puerto-rico-governor-ricardo-rossello-hurricane-maria-death-data-intv-new-day.cnn"
data-branding-key=""
data-video-slug="puerto rico governor ricardo rossello hurricane maria death data intv new day"
data-first-publish-slug="puerto rico governor ricardo rossello hurricane maria death data intv new day"
data-video-tags="accidents, disasters and safety,alisyn camerota,caribbean,deaths and fatalities,government and public administration,government bodies and offices,governors,hurricane maria,hurricanes,latin america,natural disasters,north america,puerto rico,severe weather,society,tropical storms,united states,weather"
data-details="">
"
data-check-event-based-preview=""
data-is-vertical-video-embed="false"
data-network-id=""
data-publish-date="2018-06-01T11:25:05Z"
data-video-section="us"
data-canonical-url="https://www.cnn.com/videos/us/2018/06/01/hurricane-season-puerto-rico-santiago-dnt.cnn"
data-branding-key=""
data-video-slug="hurricane season puerto rico santiago dnt"
data-first-publish-slug="hurricane season puerto rico santiago dnt"
data-video-tags="caribbean,latin america,north america,puerto rico,united states,accidents, disasters and safety,hurricanes,natural disasters,severe weather,tropical storms,weather,business and industry sectors,business, economy and trade,electric power industry,electric transmission,electricity production and distribution,energy and resources,energy and utilities,leyla santiago,utilities industry,hurricane maria"
data-details="">
"
data-check-event-based-preview=""
data-is-vertical-video-embed="false"
data-network-id=""
data-publish-date="2018-04-18T16:30:28Z"
data-video-section="us"
data-canonical-url="https://www.cnn.com/videos/us/2018/04/18/puerto-rico-mass-power-outage-ip.cnn"
data-branding-key=""
data-video-slug="puerto rico mass power outage ip"
data-first-publish-slug="puerto rico mass power outage ip"
data-video-tags="business and industry sectors,business, economy and trade,caribbean,electricity production and distribution,energy and resources,energy and utilities,energy and utility law,latin america,law and legal system,leyla santiago,north america,puerto rico,united states,utilities disruptions,utilities industry"
data-details="">
"
data-check-event-based-preview=""
data-is-vertical-video-embed="false"
data-network-id=""
data-publish-date="2018-03-20T12:05:55Z"
data-video-section="us"
data-canonical-url="https://www.cnn.com/videos/us/2018/03/20/puerto-rico-6-months-after-maria-santiago-dnt-new-day.cnn"
data-branding-key=""
data-video-slug="puerto rico 6 months after maria santiago dnt new day"
data-first-publish-slug="puerto rico 6 months after maria santiago dnt new day"
data-video-tags="accidents, disasters and safety,business and industry sectors,business, economy and trade,caribbean,energy and utilities,hurricane maria,hurricanes,latin america,leyla santiago,natural disasters,north america,puerto rico,severe weather,tropical storms,united states,utilities disruptions,utilities industry,weather"
data-details="">
"
data-check-event-based-preview=""
data-is-vertical-video-embed="false"
data-network-id=""
data-publish-date="2018-03-16T02:31:47Z"
data-video-section="us"
data-canonical-url="https://www.cnn.com/videos/us/2018/03/16/puerto-rico-death-toll-hurricane-maria-santiago-ac-pkg.cnn"
data-branding-key=""
data-video-slug="puerto rico death toll hurricane maria santiago ac pkg"
data-first-publish-slug="puerto rico death toll hurricane maria santiago ac pkg"
data-video-tags="accidents, disasters and safety,business and industry sectors,business, economy and trade,funeral homes and services,funerals,health and medical,health care,hurricane maria,hurricanes,leyla santiago,natural disasters,personal and business support services,physician practices,primary health care,severe weather,tropical storms,weather"
data-details="">
New: Island is in "emergency mode," governor says, as residents wait for aid
About half of island's 3.4 million residents lack running water
CNN
—
Puerto Rico’s governor said officials were working to get food, fuel and water “everywhere on the island” as millions of people continued to suffer without the basics and reports emerged of vital supplies stranded at Puerto Rico’s main port.
About 97% of the US commonwealth’s 3.4 million residents were still in the dark Wednesday, one week after Hurricane Maria slammed into Puerto Rico, Gov. Ricardo Rosselló said. About half the residents do not have running water.
Puerto Ricans are waiting hours in line to get gas, food and cash. Gas stations and supermarkets are rationing supplies, while banks are running low on cash.
“Right now we are in emergency mode,” Rosselló said on Wednesday afternoon. “Our focus is not necessarily restoring energy. The energy grid has been destroyed. … And we need to rebuild it. That does not get rebuilt in days.”
Asked if he thought the federal government was doing everything it can to help the island, Rosselló said, “Well, they are. This is an unprecedented event. President Trump has been in close communication with me practically every day making sure we have the assets, giving orders to his team so that they can execute.”
The governor said getting aid where it’s needed has been a challenge because of the magnitude of the destruction on the island.
“This has been the biggest catastrophe in the history Puerto Rico in terms of natural disasters,” he said.
Critics said the government’s aid effort could be improved if Washington lifted the Jones Act, an obscure, nearly 100-year-old law that requires all goods ferried between US ports to be carried on ships built, owned and operated by Americans. The law had the unintended consequence of making it more expensive to ship things from the US mainland to Puerto Rico. Trump said Wednesday “we’re thinking” about lifting the Jones Act for Puerto Rican ports in the wake of Hurricane Maria, but he said a “lot of shippers” don’t want it lifted.
Rosselló said he had not asked the President to lift the Jones Act so aid might flow more fully to Puerto Rico. “I did not solicit that to him personally but it is something that would help Puerto Rico, certainly, at least in the short run,” Rosselló said.
As desperate Puerto Ricans wait for aid, there’s not enough food to go around. In the town of Utuado, Lydia Rivera has started to ration crackers and drink rainwater to keep her two grandchildren alive.
“No water, no food,” Rivera told CNN.
People carry water in bottles retrieved from a canal this week in Toa Alta, Puerto Rico.
Hector Retamal/AFP/Getty Images
The hurricane killed 16 people in Puerto Rico, 27 in the island nation of Dominica and one in the US Virgin Islands. As Puerto Rico attempts to recover from the disaster, there were signs that aid sent from the US mainland isn’t making it to people in need. And the US recovery efforts in Puerto Rico have been markedly different from the recent responses to other Americans in hurricane-stricken Texas and Florida.
Federal relief efforts
With supplies running out, many Puerto Ricans are collecting water from mountain streams.
Harry Torres said the water is all they have for cleaning and drinking until help comes. They’ve heard on the radio that trucks loaded with supplies from the Federal Emergency Management Agency have arrived on the island.
“We haven’t seen any,” Torres said.
Some help began arriving. On Wednesday, a plane carrying 3,500 pounds of water, Army meals ready-to-eat, diapers and other supplies headed from Florida to Puerto Rico. The plane, which usually carries out intelligence missions, returned to the US mainland with dozens of family members of federal employees.
Two military officials told CNN on Wednesday that another 2,000 to 3,000 US troops will be sent to Puerto Rico in the coming days to assist with aid. One official with US Northern Command said there are approximately 2,500 active-duty troops in Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands. This does not include National Guard forces.
“We are getting help from the federal government, but this is an unprecedented set of circumstances,” Rosselló said Wednesday. “We want to make sure that we recognize that a lot of resources are coming in. They are coming in by air or by boats. But they are starting to execute.”
Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands have seen fewer personnel since Hurricane Maria hit than Texas and Florida did during recent hurricanes in those states.
FEMA said more than 10,000 federal staff members were on the ground in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands assisting search-and-rescue and recovery efforts.
Trump announced he will visit Puerto Rico next Tuesday, nearly two weeks after Maria struck the US commonwealth.
“Puerto Rico is a very difficult situation,” he said Wednesday. “I feel so badly for the people.”
With nearly all Puerto Ricans still without power Wednesday, the lack of electricity and fuel have yielded dire consequences.
At a hospital in San Juan, two people died in an intensive care unit after it ran out of diesel, San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz said.
An apartment building is missing a wall in San Juan, Puerto Rico, on Monday, September 25, nearly a week after Hurricane Maria devastated the US commonwealth. Power is still out in most places, and communications remain almost nonexistent on the island of 3.4 million people.
Carolyn Cole/LA Times via Getty Images
Yancy Leon rests at the Luis Mu?oz Marin International Airport near San Juan on September 25. She's been waiting in line for two days to get a flight out.
Joe Raedle/Getty Images
An aerial view shows the flooding in San Juan on September 25.
Carolyn Cole/Los Angeles Times/Getty Images
People collect water from a natural spring created by landslides in Corozal, Puerto Rico, on Sunday, September 24. Puerto Rican Gov. Ricardo Rosselló said the island faces a humanitarian crisis.
Ricardo Arduengo/AFP/Getty Images
An aerial view shows a flooded neighborhood in Catano, Puerto Rico, on Friday, September 22.
RICARDO ARDUENGO/AFP/Getty Images
A man cleans a muddy street in Toa Baja, Puerto Rico, on September 22.
HECTOR RETAMAL/AFP/Getty Images
A man walks on a highway divider while carrying his bicycle through San Juan, Puerto Rico, on Thursday, September 21.
RICARDO ARDUENGO/AFP/Getty Images
A shack is destroyed in San Juan on September 21.
HECTOR RETAMAL/AFP/Getty Images
A gas station's sign is damaged in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, as the hurricane passed just north of the country on September 21.
ERIKA SANTELICES/AFP/Getty Images
Rescue workers drive through a flooded road in Humacao, Puerto Rico, on Wednesday, September 20.
Carlos Giusti/AP
A mattress that fell from the third floor is surrounded by debris outside a San Juan apartment complex on September 20.
The Washington Post/Getty Images
Damage is seen in Roseau, Dominica, on September 20.
STR/AFP/Getty Images
People walk through the destruction in Roseau on September 20.
STR/AFP/Getty Images
San Juan is shrouded in darkness after the hurricane knocked out power to the entire island of Puerto Rico.
Alex Wroblewski/Getty Images
Power lines are scattered across a road in Humacao, Puerto Rico, on September 20.
Carlos Giusti/AP
Residents move aluminum panels from an intersection in Humacao on September 20.
Carlos Giusti/AP
Rescue vehicles are trapped under an awning in Humacao on September 20.
Carlos Giusti/AP
Trees are toppled outside the Roberto Clemente Coliseum in San Juan on September 20.
HECTOR RETAMAL/AFP/Getty Images
Members of a rescue team embrace as they wait to help in Humacao on September 20.
Carlos Giusti/AP
A tree is damaged in Fajardo, Puerto Rico, on September 20.
RICARDO ARDUENGO/AFP/Getty Images
Debris is strewn across a Fajardo street on September 20.
RICARDO ARDUENGO/AFP/Getty Images
A woman closes her property in Naguabo, Puerto Rico, hours before Maria's arrival.
Carlos Giusti/AP
People take shelter at Puerto Rico's Humacao Arena on Tuesday, September 19.
Carlos Giusti/AP
Two girls play on cots at the Humacao Arena.
Carlos Giusti/AP
Waves crash in San Juan as the hurricane neared Puerto Rico on September 19.
Jose Rodrigo Madera for CNN
People pray in Humacao on September 19.
Jose Rodrigo Madera for CNN
A street is flooded in Pointe-a-Pitre, on the French Caribbean island of Guadeloupe, on September 19.
Sipa/AP
People stand near debris at a restaurant in Le Carbet, Martinique, on September 19.
LIONEL CHAMOISEAU/AFP/Getty Images
People in Luquillo, Puerto Rico, board up windows of a business on September 19.
RICARDO ARDUENGO/AFP/Getty Images
A boat is overturned off the shore of Sainte-Anne, Guadeloupe, on September 19.
Dominique Chomereau-Lamotte/AP
Cars line up at a gas station in San Juan on September 19.
Jose Rodrigo Madera for CNN
A motorist drives on the flooded waterfront in Fort-de-France, Martinique, on September 19.
LIONEL CHAMOISEAU/AFP/Getty Images
Floodwaters surround cars in Pointe-a-Pitre on September 19.
Sipa/AP
Soldiers patrol a street in Marigot, St. Martin, as preparations were made for Maria on September 19.
HELENE VALENZUELA/AFP/Getty Images
People buy provisions in Petit-Bourg, Guadeloupe, as the hurricane approached on Monday, September 18.
CEDRICK ISHAM CALVADOS/AFP/Getty Images
Customers wait in line for power generators at a store in San Juan on September 18.
RICARDO ARDUENGO/AFP/Getty Images
Hurricane Maria slams the Caribbean
Residents are relying on generators to keep appliances such as air conditioners, medical devices and refrigerators running.
At the San Jorge Children’s Hospital in San Juan, 12 children depend on ventilators to survive, but the hospital has only a limited amount of fuel for generators, said Domingo Cruz Vivaldi, the hospital’s executive director.
The hospital is the largest private children’s medical center in the Caribbean. When the hospital ran out of diesel Monday, the ventilators had to run on batteries for hours until another hospital offered them fuel.
“We were very thankful for that. We were very lucky,” Cruz Vivaldi said.
The hospital is working to secure more gas, he said, because that diesel will only last about two days.
‘People are starting to get desperate’
Before sunrise every day, dozens of people hauling red plastic gas cans start lining up at gas stations. They need fuel to power their cars in case of an emergency or to keep generators running at home.
People wait in line to buy gas in Bayamón, Puerto Rico.
Hector Retamal/AFP/Getty Images
Some wait for up to six hours armed with lawn chairs and umbrellas.
“If the gasoline arrives, it will fix our problems,” Utuado Mayor Ernesto Irizarry said. “People are starting to get desperate,”
At least 60 people have been arrested for violating the overnight curfew ordered by the governor to keep the island safe.
And 36 have been arrested for looting and theft in Humacao, Caguas, San Juan and Bayamón, said Michelle Hernandez, superintendent of the Puerto Rico police.
While Puerto Ricans await more government help, some companies and a Florida college are stepping up.
Telecommunications giant AT&T is bringing floating antennas to help re-connect Puerto Ricans, said Rosselló, the governor.
And Miami Dade College will offer in-state tuition to displaced college students from Puerto Rico, the college said via Twitter.
Rosselló said he hopes the kindness shown by Puerto Rico during Hurricanes Harvey and Irma will be returned.
“The people know that Puerto Ricans are proud US citizens,” he said.
“After Irma, we helped out others – about 4,000 US citizens that were stranded. We gave them shelter and food. During Harvey, we sent out resources to Texas as well. … And now it is time to take a quick decision and help out Puerto Rico as others have done.”
Maria and another storm continue to churn in the Atlantic Ocean but are not expected to threaten the US mainland.
Now a Category 1 hurricane, Maria is 165 miles east of North Carolina and is expected to move northeast and then east out into the Atlantic. Hurricane Lee, a Category 3 storm, is 485 miles east-southeast of Bermuda and will likely move north and northeast.
CNN’s Bill Weir, Brian Vitagliano, Mallory Simon, Eric Levenson, Leyla Santiago, Jason Kravarik, Rosa Flores, Deborah Bloom and Amanda Watts contributed to this report.
