We are dying, and you are killing us with the inefficiency

9/29/2017

Carmen Yulín Cruz, mayor of Puerto Rico’s capital San Juan, pleaded with the White House for immediate aid.

“This is a ‘people are dying’ story,” she told CNN Friday morning. “Dammit, this is not a good news story,” Cruz said. “This is a people-are-dying story. This is a life or death story. . . . When you have people out there dying, literally scraping for food, where is the good news?”  Her comments seemed intended to correct the record after acting Homeland Security Secretary Elaine Duke claimed Thursday afternoon that a “limited number of deaths that have taken place,” and overall, Puerto Rico was “a good news story.”

In her interview, Cruz went on to say  “I am begging, begging anyone who can hear us to save us from dying. If anybody out there is listening to us, we are dying, and you are killing us with the inefficiency.”  The Miami Herald “confirmed that there are dozens of hurricane-related deaths and the number could rise to the hundreds.”

Cruz also pleaded with the federal government to remove “red tape” that is slowing down the relief efforts.  “The FEMA people have their hearts in the right place,” she said of the Federal Emergency Management Agency. But, “there is a bottleneck somewhere.”  Cruz said it is critical to find an immediate solution: “People will die. People have died.”