JUDY WOODRUFF:
It has been nearly a month since Hurricane Maria destroyed a lot of Puerto Rico and killed not less than 48 folks. The island and its residents are nonetheless coming to grips with the size of the devastation.
William Brangham brings us the newest.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM:
Many Puerto Ricans are nonetheless in the dead of night, with out electrical energy. A whole lot of 1000’s nonetheless haven’t any entry to operating water, and the rebuilding of the numerous broken properties, roads and services is simply starting.
The Related Press reported yesterday that nearly half the sewage remedy vegetation on the island are nonetheless out of service, rising the danger of contamination and illness.
I am joined now by David Begnaud. He is a correspondent from CBS Information who’s been performing some very sturdy reporting there from since when the storm hit, and is simply again from his newest journey to the island.
David, welcome to the NewsHour.
I’m wondering. We noticed a lot of your reviews and others of individuals nonetheless three weeks out from the storm who’re nonetheless consuming from streams and creeks. You heard — I discussed this AP report about fears of contamination.
Are you able to simply inform us what’s going on there? How are folks getting water now?
DAVID BEGNAUD, CBS Information:
Nicely, let me let you know this.
The governor of Puerto Rico mentioned this morning that he is conscious of these reviews and that they are wanting into it. What’s regarding, William, is that three weeks after the storm and not less than every week after the allegations first surfaced that individuals is likely to be attempting to drink from poisonous wells at what’s generally known as Superfund websites, the governor of Puerto Rico remains to be saying, we’re wanting into it and telling folks to remain out of rivers the place sewage could also be spilling into the river.
And, he mentioned, we wish them to keep away from the coastal areas.
How are folks doing? They’re nonetheless determined to get water. Nobody appears to have the ability to work out the best way to get sufficient water to each single particular person on that island who wants it. And so long as folks want water, it is nonetheless an emergency section.
Almost 4 weeks later, nobody appears to have the ability to transfer from the emergency to the restoration.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM:
So, people who find themselves — we see them consuming out of those PVC pipes that they’ve type of rigged and kind of poked into the facet of a creek.
Persons are simply consuming that water straight, with out purification, with out boiling it; is that proper?
DAVID BEGNAUD:
Completely.
Look, they have the PVC pipes tapped into the mountains in order that it is popping out of the stream that method. And so they actually are — I noticed a girl stroll as much as a potable water tank that the navy had introduced in, and he or she had a Clorox bottle.
And I mentioned, “Ma’am, you are placing drinkable water in a Clorox bottle?”
And he or she mentioned, “It is all I’ve bought.”
Now, that was an excellent state of affairs. The opposite eventualities are folks proper now who’re consuming from streams and creeks and rivers who haven’t any water filters, who don’t have anything, proper? They’re simply taking this water.
Now, pay attention, the federal government bought 1,000,000 water-purifying tablets throughout the final week. It took nearly three weeks to get these. Now there’s a big push to usher in water filters.
I’ve bought to let you know, many of the water filters I am seeing introduced in are coming from the personal sector, and civilian samaritans who’re getting 1,000 or extra from the mainland and flying them over to Puerto Rico and personally hand-delivering them.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM:
That is actually unimaginable.
Medical services had been one other huge — simply an enormous devastation on the island. I do know you’ve gotten been doing numerous reporting on the USS Consolation.
DAVID BEGNAUD:
Sure.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM:
That is the massive Naval hospital that’s now simply offshore Puerto Rico.
However I perceive it hasn’t been totally utilized. Are you able to inform us what your reporting has discovered there?
DAVID BEGNAUD:
The 2 males operating the ship instructed us that just about 87 % of the ship is empty. Sounds alarming, proper? They’ve 200 beds, and 87 % are empty.
Now, here is what they mentioned: We stand prepared for regardless of the authorities needs to do. We’re ready to be instructed by the federal government.
So, I went to the governor, and mentioned precisely what’s taking place. And he mentioned: “Look, I am not happy with what the protocol was from the start.”
He mentioned, initially, they had been prioritizing solely probably the most critically in poor health sufferers go to the Consolation. And he mentioned there was a layered course of that was complicating issues.
So, the governor, Ricardo Rossello, mentioned: “I began to take out a few of these layers, and I, mentioned, pay attention, take folks on the ship who is probably not critically in poor health, however want good medical care and might’t get it on the hospital, the place the lights are flickering and the A.C. shouldn’t be operating.”
That is what the governor mentioned.
Inside a matter of hours, I bought a tweet from a third-year medical scholar who mentioned: “Let me let you know what a nightmare it has been to succeed in the Consolation.”
He mentioned: “We have now bought a pediatric affected person who desperately must get off this island, both to a hospital on the mainland or to the Consolation.”
And he mentioned: “I went by Google and the native newspaper to seek out the quantity. I could not discover it.”
Now, right here is how issues work. Inside about half-hour of that tweet going out and that medical scholar’s story being posted, the governor’s spokesperson responded with numbers that ought to be capable of assist.
The underside line right here, William, is that asking relentless questions and the nice work of journalism is what’s making a distinction there. It is nobody particular person. There is no heroic work that is being achieved by any journalist, apart from people who find themselves going again to the identical officers and asking among the identical questions, relentlessly in search of the proper reply that can make a distinction.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM:
One of many different items of reporting that you simply did that was very early within the story was this backlog of provides trapped in container ships on the ports in Puerto Rico.
I perceive a few of that — a few of these provides at the moment are transferring. Are you able to inform us, are they attending to the place they have to be all through the island?
DAVID BEGNAUD:
So, the delivery containers you are speaking about, about 3,000 sitting within the Port of San Juan, have been moved out, not all of them, however a majority of them.
And so they had been supposed for grocery shops across the island. Proper? So, these had been personal corporations that had introduced in these delivery containers, paid for the provides, however could not transfer them as a result of their truck drivers had been both at house, as a result of the house had been destroyed, or the highway was impassable.
Increasingly provides are getting out. However let me let you know, the grocery shops across the island, they’ve numerous nonperishables, Pringles, sweet, cookies, all on the shelf.
However while you go to the meat part, it is almost 75 % empty on the shops now we have been to, the produce part 90 % empty. And discovering bottled water there’s nearly like enjoying a recreation.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM:
David Begnaud, CBS Information, thanks a lot in your reporting. Thanks in your time.
DAVID BEGNAUD:
You guess.
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