(Bloomberg) – President Donald Trump defended his administration's handling of the crisis in Puerto Rico following Hurricane Maria, saying the federal government is fully engaged in responding to storm damage of "historic and catastrophic severity."
"We're literally starting from scratch," Trump said Friday in a speech to the National Association of Manufacturers. He said the hurricane had damaged roads and sewage systems and knocked out the electric power grid. "Nobody has ever seen anything like it."
Impassable roads
A week after Maria slammed into the bankrupt U.S. commonwealth, Puerto Ricans continued to endure sweaty, dark nights with a resolution to the near-total power outage nowhere in sight. Mobile-phone coverage improved gradually, but many residents still had no way of reaching loved ones outside their communities, and rural areas still had impassable roads.
Trump is scheduled to visit the island on Tuesday.
The administration has come under criticism from some Republicans as well as Democrats in Congress. Republican Senator Marco Rubio of Florida said Thursday that the White House hasn't grasped the significance of the damage in Puerto Rico compared with recent hurricane damage in his state and Texas. Thirty-seven Democrats and one independent in the Senate signed a letter urging Trump to take steps including a broader disaster declaration, a White House coordinator for rebuilding and increased assistance to restore electricity.
A car tries to make its way through debris along a mountain road in Montebello, Puerto Rico, in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria, Tuesday, Sept. 26, 2017. Five days after the Category 4 storm slammed into Puerto Rico, many of the more than 3.4 million U.S. citizens in the territory were still without adequate food, water and fuel. Flights off the island were infrequent, communications were spotty and roads were clogged with debris. Officials said electrical power may not be fully restored for more than a month. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
Rebuilding effort
The president said Puerto Rico, which already was a $74 billion mountain of debt and a shrinking economy, will need a costly recovery. The territorial government will have to work with federal authorities to determine "how this massive rebuilding effort — it will be one of the biggest ever — will be funded and organized, and what we'll do with the tremendous amount of existing debt already on the island." he said.
The situation is dire for the most vulnerable: Dialysis and cancer patients needing radiation faced countless obstacles to getting essential treatments, as some clinics and nursing homes went without generator fuel and bottlenecks formed at the main hospitals. The emergency room was reportedly packed at the main public hospital, Centro Medico de Rio Piedras.
This Wednesday, Sept. 27, 2017, aerial photo shows buildings still surrounded by flood water, a week since the passing of Hurricane Maria, in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Maria was the strongest hurricane to hit Puerto Rico in nearly 100 years and officials say the cost of recovery will dwarf that of the punishing Hurricane Georges in 1998. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)
'People will die'
"People will die if they don't get these treatments," said Maria Ivelise Martinez Colon, a dermatologist who works at Clinica Las Americas in the Hato Rey section of San Juan, referring to radiation patients there. She said the clinics closed without power, overwhelming the limited number of facilities that are operational.
Carlos Martel-Fernandez heard on the radio that Trump was coming. It didn't mean much to him.
"We don't need him. We need fuel," Martel-Fernandez said as he inched along in a line to to fill up his two red gas tanks. "If he's going to make a mess here, then stay home. We don't need the traffic. We have enough of our own."
'People not getting food or water'
While Puerto Rican officials have publicly lauded the administration's response, San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulin Cruz blasted acting Homeland Security Secretary Elaine Duke for telling reporters at the White House that the relief efforts were "a good-news story in terms of our ability to reach people and the limited number of deaths that have taken place."
In an interview on CNN, Cruz called Duke's remarks "irresponsible."
"This is a people-are-dying story," Cruz said. "This is a story of devastation that continues to worsen because people are not getting food or wate.r"
She added that Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and other officials "have their heart in the right place" and have people to assist with distributing supplies and getting to areas hardest hit.
Homes in the Juana Matos community are surrounded by flood waters in Catano, Puerto Rico, Thursday, Sept. 28, 2017, one week after the passage of Hurricane Maria. (AP Photo/Carlos Giusti)
10,000 federal personnel on island
White House Homeland Security Adviser Tom Bossert said Thursday that 10,000 federal personnel, including from the military, are on the island. Duke is traveling there Friday.
Trump said the island's police and truckers are "very substantially gone" taking care of their own families and that the federal government has had to bring in drivers, security and other personnel.
$7.1B available Oct. 1
Bossert said the administration will ask Congress in the next two to four weeks for additional funding on top of an existing $7.1 billion appropriation to the FEMA that becomes available on Oct. 1. That money covers initial request for the hurricanes that hit Texas, Louisiana and Florida as well as Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Continue for more photos of conditions in Puerto Rico:
In this Wednesday, Sept. 27, 2017, file photo, people sit on both sides of a destroyed bridge that crossed over the San Lorenzo de Morovis River, in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria, in Morovis, Puerto Rico. Maria has thrown Puerto Rico's already messy economic recovery plans into disarray. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert, File)
People walk by buidling that was destroyed in the community La Perla in Old San Juan during Hurricane Maria in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Monday, Sept. 25, 2017. The island territory of more than 3 million U.S. citizens is reeling in the devastating wake of Hurricane Maria. (AP Photo/Carlos Giusti)
In this Wednesday, Sept. 27, 2017 photo, Ruby Rodriguez, 8, looks back at her mother as she wades across the San Lorenzo Morovis river with her family, since the bridge was swept away by Hurricane Maria, in Morovis, Puerto Rico. They were returning to their home after visiting family on the other side. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
This undated photo provided by Hector Alejandro Santiago shows his farm in Barranquitas, Puerto Rico, destroyed by September 2017's Hurricane Maria. For 21 years Santiago raised poinsettias, orchids and other ornamental plants which were sold to major retailers including Costco, Walmart and Home Depot. In a matter of hours Maria wiped it away. (Héctor Alejandro Santiago via AP)
Damaged and destroyed homes are seen in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria in Toa Alta, Puerto Rico, Thursday, Sept. 28, 2017. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
Residents look over the edge of a bridge that was swept away by Hurricane Maria, which traversed the San Lorenzo de Morovis river, in Morovis, Puerto Rico, Wednesday, Sept. 27, 2017. A week since the passing of Maria many are still waiting for help from anyone from the federal or Puerto Rican government. But the scope of the devastation is so broad, and the relief effort so concentrated in San Juan, that many people from outside the capital say they have received little to no help. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
Hector Rosa wades through a flooded area in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria, in Catano, Puerto Rico, Wednesday, Sept. 27, 2017. (AP Photo/Carlos Giusti)
A man and child walk down street strewn with debris and downed power lines in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria, in Yabucoa, Puerto Rico, Tuesday, Sept. 26, 2017. Governor Ricardo Rossello and Resident Commissioner Jennifer Gonzalez, the island's representative in Congress, have said they intend to seek more than a billion in federal assistance and they have praised the response to the disaster by President Donald Trump, who plans to visit Puerto Rico next week, as well as FEMA Administrator Brock Long. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
Evan Mandino stands among debris outside his destroyed home as sun sets in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria, in Yabucoa, Puerto Rico, Tuesday, Sept. 26, 2017. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
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