Puerto Rico - Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association

White House announces $13B aid package for Puerto Rico

Adam Shaw, John Roberts | Fox News — Fri, 18 Sep 2020 00:42:49 +0000

Aid package comes three years after Puerto Rico was hit by Hurricane Maria.

The White House on Friday announced a $13 billion aid package for Puerto Rico, three years after the territory was hit by Hurricane Maria.

“Under the leadership of President Trump, FEMA will award almost $13 billion to help rebuild Puerto Rico’s electrical grid system and spur recovery of the territory’s education system—the largest obligations of funding ever awarded,” the statement from the White House said, adding that it includes a federal share of $11.6 billion for the projects.

“Together, these grants exceed the total Public Assistance funding in any single federally-declared disaster other than Hurricanes Katrina and Sandy,” the statement said.

The aid package will be to assist Puerto Rico’s energy and education systems as the island continues to deal with the aftermath of the devastation brought by the 2017 hurricane.

Of the funding, $9.6 billion will go to Puerto Rico’s electric power authority so it can repair transmission lines, substations, buildings and make other grid improvements. An additional $2 billion goes to the territory’s Department of Education to restore school buildings and educational facilities.

SUPREME COURT UPHOLDS OBAMA APPOINTMENT OF OVERSIGHT BOARD DEALING WITH PUERO RICO’S FINANCIAL CRISIS

“With the grant awards announced today, the Federal Government will have obligated approximately $26 billion for Puerto Rico’s recovery from Hurricane Maria,” the White House said.. “Today’s grant announcements represent some of the largest awards in FEMA’s history for any single disaster recovery event and demonstrate in the Federal Government’s continuing commitment to help rebuild the territory and support the citizens of Puerto Rico and their recovery goals.”

It comes after President Trump last week approved a disaster declaration for the island, following Hurricane Isaias over the summer. That declaration made funding available to affected areas for housing, loans to cover uninsured property losses and to help individuals and businesses recover.

But the territory had still been recovering from the aftermath of Maria, particularly due to its outdated energy system — which had been wrecked by the hurricane.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, in a statement Friday morning, said the funds were “overdue” and criticized the response by the Trump administration.

“Long before the hurricanes, Puerto Rico had a crumbling and dirty energy grid. After the storms utterly destroyed the grid, it created an opportunity to rebuild a cleaner, cheaper and more resilient energy system, but the Trump administration dithered and delayed and refused to deliver timely disaster aid for the people of Puerto Rico,” he said.

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“I will work with the Puerto Rican community to see that these long overdue and desperately needed funds are put to use in a wise way building the cleaner and more resilient energy grid the island deserves.”

The move comes as polls for the presidental race show a tight race in Florida between Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden. This aid package could potentially move Puerto Rican voters in the state towards Trump.

Fox News’ Mark Meredith contributed to this report.

Adam Shaw is a reporter covering U.S. and European politics for Fox News.. He can be reached here.

Source: https://www.foxnews.com/politics/white-house-aid-package-puerto-rico

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Magnitude 5.9 shock again rocks quake-stunned Puerto Rico

Danica Coto — Sun, 12 Jan 2020 10:55:39 +0000

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — A magnitude 5.9 quake shook Puerto Rico on Saturday, causing millions of dollars of damage along the island’s southern coast, where previous recent quakes have toppled homes and schools.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the 8:54 a.m. (1254 GMT) quake hit 8 miles (13 kilometers) southeast of Guanica at a shallow depth of 3 miles (5 kilometers). It was followed by several aftershocks, including a magnitude 5.2 temblor less than two minutes later.

No injuries or deaths were reported, officials said.

Saturday’s quake occurred four days after a 6.4 magnitude quake in the same area and amid a spate of more than 1,200 mostly small quakes over the past 15 days, all at shallow depths.

Gov. Wanda Vazquez estimated damage from Tuesday’s earthquake at $110 million, with a total of 559 structures affected. She said her administration was immediately releasing $2 million to six of the most affected municipalities.

Vázquez is seeking a major disaster declaration from the U.S. government, which would free up more federal funds.

As a result of Saturday’s quake, Puerto Rico’s Electric Power Authority said outages were reported across much of southern Puerto Rico and crews were assessing possible damage at power plants. Officials said they also were going back to reassess all structures previously inspected, given the strength of Saturday’s quake.

Deputy Mayor Elizabeth Ocasio in the southern coastal city of Ponce told The Associated Press that officials closed the city’s downtown area and two other nearby areas because of weakened infrastructure.

“One building completely collapsed,” she said. “There is a lot of historic infrastructure in Ponce.”

Bárbara Cruz, a prosecutor who was in Ponce when the new quake hit, said concrete debris hit the sidewalk as buildings continued to crumble.

“Everyone is out on the street,” she said.

More landslides and damaged homes were reported, along with severe cracks on a bridge in the southwest coastal town of Guanica, where Aurea Santiago, a 57-year-old resident, said she saw big boulders falling on a nearby road.

“We have been through a lot, but what’s important is that we are alive, and people are helping us,” she said.

The quake, which initially had been calculated at magnitude 6.0, was the strongest shake since Tuesday’s magnitude 6.4 quake — the most potent to hit the island in a century. That temblor killed one person, injured nine others and damaged or destroyed hundreds of homes and several schools and businesses in the island’s southwest region.

More than 4,000 people have been staying in shelters, many fearful of returning to their homes, and others unable to because of extensive damage.

The director of Puerto Rico’s Electric Power Authority, ordered the temporary closure of the company’s largest plant, which crews had been inspecting for damage caused by earlier quakes.

The ground in southwest Puerto Rico has been shaking since Dec. 28, with more than 1,280 earthquakes, of which more than 100 were felt and more than 70 were of magnitude 3.5 or greater.

NASA reported Friday that the quakes had moved the land in parts of southern Puerto Rico as much as 5.5 inches (14 centimeters), based on satellite images before and after the temblors.

Víctor Huérfano, director of Puerto Rico’s Seismic Network, told the AP that he expects still more aftershocks as a result of the latest large one.

“It’s going to re-energize an unstable situation,” he said, adding that seismologists are studying which faults were activated. “It’s a complex zone.”

Source: https://apnews.com/fd6b234395379a876bddc74e1b882d43

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Puerto Ricans Left Homeless After Biggest Quake in Century

VOA News — Wed, 08 Jan 2020 20:24:07 +0000

Neighbors remain outdoors using camping tents and portable lights for fear of possible aftershocks on their first night after a 6.4-magnitude earthquake struck in Guanica, Puerto Rico, Jan. 7, 2020.

GUANICA, PUERTO RICO – Cars, cots and plastic chairs became temporary beds for hundreds of families who lost their homes in southwest Puerto Rico as a flurry of earthquakes struck the island, one of them the strongest in a century.

The magnitude 6.4 quake that struck before dawn on Tuesday killed one person, injured nine others and knocked out power across the U.S. territory. More than 250,000 Puerto Ricans remained without water on Wednesday and another half a million without power, which also affected telecommunications.

In addition, more than 1,000 people were staying in government shelters in the island’s southwest region as U.S. President Donald Trump declared an emergency and Puerto Rico Gov. Wanda Vazquez activated the National Guard.

The hardest-hit municipality was the southwest coastal town of Guanica. More than 200 people had taken shelter in a gymnasium after a quake on Monday, only for the latest shake to damage that structure — forcing them to sleep outside.

Among them was 80-year-old Lupita Martinez, who sat in the dusty parking lot with her 96-year-old husband by her side. He was sleeping in a makeshift bed, a dark blue coat covering him.

“There’s no power. There’s no water. There is nothing. This is horrible,” Martinez said.

The couple was alone, lamenting that their caretaker had disappeared and was not answering their calls. Like many Puerto Ricans affected by the quake, they had children in the U.S. mainland who urged them to move there, at least until the earth stops shaking.

Governor Wanda Vazquez inspects an earthquake-damaged house in Guanica, Puerto Rico, Monday, Jan. 6, 2020. A 5.8-magnitude quake hit Puerto Rico before dawn Monday, unleashing small landslides, causing power outages and severely cracking some homes. …

While officials said it was too early to estimate the total damage caused by the string of quakes that began the night of Dec. 28, they said hundreds of homes and businesses in the southwest region were damaged or destroyed. Just in Guanica, a town of roughly 15,000 people, nearly 150 homes were affected by the quake, along with three schools, including one three-story structure whose first two floors were completely flattened.

In Guanica itself, “We are confronting a crisis worse than Hurricane Maria,” said Mayor Santos Seda, referring to the 2017 storm that devastated the island. “I am asking for empathy from the federal government.”

He said officials believe the homes of 700 families in his municipality are close to collapsing.

Tuesday’s quake was the strongest to hit Puerto Rico since October 1918, when a magnitude 7.3 quake struck near the island’s northwest coast, unleashing a tsunami and killing 116 people.

More than 950 quakes and aftershocks have been recorded in the area of Tuesday night’s event since Dec. 31, though most were too weak to be felt, according to U.S. Geologic Survey.

The USGS said that while it’s virtually certain there will be many aftershocks in the next week, the chance of a magnitude 6 quake — similar to Tuesday’s — or stronger is around 22 percent.

In Guanica, some people dragged mattresses outside their homes or set up small tents.

Authorities were trying to figure out where to shelter them all as they handed out blankets, food, and water to families gathered at the gymnasium for a second night in a row. Many had their belongings in large garbage bags as they sat haphazardly on unstable plastic chairs. Some slept. Others cradled their dogs and many simply stared listlessly into the distance. One elderly man spent an entire day in his wheelchair, refusing to lay down on a cot.

Meanwhile, a handful of people slept in their cars, in chairs or on the ground as cots ran out.
“Now I’m afraid of the house,” said 49-year-old Lourdes Guilbe as she wiped away tears and confided that she felt overwhelmed caring for the nearly dozen relatives gathered around her, including her more than 90-year-old grandfather, who sat in a wheelchair wearing green pajamas and socks.

Guilbe said her home is cracked and her daughter’s home collapsed, so they weren’t sure where they would live in upcoming days.

Psychologists met with Guilbe and dozens of other people affected by the earthquakes, going door-to-door on Monday in affected neighborhoods and then visiting people in shelters on Tuesday. Among them was Dayleen Ortiz, who set up a speaker on the roof of her car to blast uplifting salsa music and provided crayons and paper to children and urged adults to shake their fears.

“There is a lot of uncertainty,” she said. “We don’t know if this is going to continue.”

One young girl tapped Ortiz on her leg repeatedly: “I want to play beautician,” she said.

Ortiz dug behind cases of water bottles, chairs, and blankets in her car and produced eight small new nail polishes and the girl smiled wide. It’s a trick the psychologist learned to entertain children after Hurricane Maria hit, causing an estimated 2,975 deaths and more than $100 billion in estimated damage.

Reconstruction has been slow, and the earthquake was the newest blow to an island where thousands of people have been living under blue tarps since the hurricane and the power grid remains fragile.

“I can’t stand this,” said 64-year-old Zenaida Rodriguez as she sat under a tree and the ground again rumbled. “Did you feel that?”

Source: https://www.voanews.com/americas/puerto-ricans-left-homeless-after-biggest-quake-century

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Puerto Rico hit with 6.5 magnitude earthquake, island-wide blackout reported

David Aaro | Fox News — Tue, 07 Jan 2020 13:36:47 +0000

A 6.5 magnitude earthquake was registered off the coast of Puerto Rico on Tuesday that reportedly caused an island-wide blackout.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake hit just south of the island at a shallow depth of roughly 6 miles. A tsunami warning was not issued. There was no immediate report of injuries or damage.

Jose Ortiz, the CEO of the Electric Power Authority in Puerto Rico, confirmed there’s damage to the Central Costa Sur power plant in the southern part of the island and they expect the system to reenergize later today. The authority said all of their power plants had gone offline due to a self-protective feature that was activated following the earthquake.

rob@rosesweave

Destructions of what the 6.5 earthquake brought to the south of Puerto Rico. we are scared.

CaribNews@caribnews

PR Emergency Manager confirms that an islandwide blackout is happening across the island.

The latest earthquake comes less than 24 hours after a 5.8 magnitude quake struck before dawn on Monday. The earlier quake caused damage to the coastal town of Guanica. It also destroyed the famous Punta Ventana stone arch, an iconic landmark described as a “natural wonder.”

Governor of Puerto Rico Wanda Vázquez Garced asked residents to remain calm and safe as they receive updates from local emergency departments.

NWS PTWC@NWS_PTWC

No tsunami threat to #PRVI from a nearby magnitude 6.6 #earthquake http://tsunami.gov #PTWC

The flurry of quakes in Puerto Rico’s southern region began the night of Dec. 28. Victor Huerfano, director of Puerto Rico’s Seismic Network, told The Associated Press that shallow quakes were occurring along three faults in Puerto Rico’s southwest region: Lajas Valley, Montalva Point and the Guayanilla Canyon.

LOUISIANA COUPLE DEAD IN PUERTO RICO AFTER CATAMARAN CATCHES FIRE ON NEW YEAR’S EVE

He said the quakes overall come as the North American plate and the Caribbean plate squeeze Puerto Rico.

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One of the largest and most damaging earthquakes to hit Puerto Rico occurred in October 1918, when a magnitude 7.3 quake struck near the island’s northwest coast, unleashing a tsunami and killing 116 people.

The Associated Press contributed to the report.

David Aaro is a Reporter at Fox News Digital based in New York City.

Source: https://www.foxnews.com/us/6-6-magnitude-earthquake-rattles-puerto-rico

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Study: Hurricane Maria killed nearly 3,000

BBC — Tue, 28 Aug 2018 03:31:18 +0000

The post Study: Hurricane Maria killed nearly 3,000 first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

Puerto Rico governor raises Hurricane Maria death toll from 64 to 2,975

Nicole Darrah - Fox News — Tue, 28 Aug 2018 03:16:03 +0000

In this Oct. 5, 2017 file photo, a Puerto Rican national flag is mounted on debris of a damaged home in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria in the seaside slum La Perla, San Juan, Puerto Rico. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)

Puerto Rico’s governor on Tuesday raised the official death toll from Hurricane Maria from 64 to 2,975, in response to a new study that found the initial numbers reported were undercounted.

The study, an independent investigation ordered by the local government, found that nearly 3,000 people died in the hurricane, which hit the island in September 2017.

Gov. Ricardo Rossello responded to the study by the Milken Institute School of Public Health at George Washington University by officially raising the toll.

The number is more than double the government’s previous estimated death toll of 1,400.

“We never anticipated a scenario of zero communication, zero energy, zero highway access,” Rossello said. “I think the lesson is to anticipate the worst.”

A previous study led by a team of Harvard scientists found that more than 4,600 people were killed in the devastation, dismissing the initial toll of 64 as a “substantial underestimate.”

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Rossello said he’s forming a commission to study the response to the storm. He said a registry of vulnerable people will also be created prior to any future hurricanes.

There’s no national standard for how to calculate disaster-related deaths. While the National Hurricane Center (NHC) reports only direct deaths, such as those caused by flying debris or drowning, some local governments may include indirect deaths from things as heart attacks and house fires.

This photo, from NOAA, shows Hurricane Maria at its strongest on Sept. 20, 2017. (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration)

Researchers with George Washington said they counted deaths over the span of six months — a much longer period than usual — because so many people were without power during that time.

The number of dead has political implications for the Trump administration, which was accused of responding half-heartedly to the disaster. Shortly after the storm, when the official death toll stood at 16, President Trump marveled over the small loss of life compared to that of “a real catastrophe like Katrina.”

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Hurricane Katrina, which struck New Orleans in 2005, was directly responsible for about 1,200 deaths, according to the NHC. That does not include indirect deaths of the sort the George Washington researchers counted in Puerto Rico.

In response to the death roll rise, the White House said Tuesday that “the federal government has been, and will continue to be, supportive of Governor Rosselló’s efforts to ensure a full accountability and transparency of fatalities resulting from last year’s hurricanes – the American people, including those grieving the loss of a loved one, deserve no less.”

The administration said they’re “focused on Puerto Rico’s recovery and preparedness for the current Hurricane season.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Nicole Darrah covers breaking and trending news for FoxNews.com. Follow her on Twitter @nicoledarrah.

Source: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2018/08/28/puerto-rico-governor-raises-hurricane-maria-death-toll-from-64-to-2975.html

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The new report of the world’s most common pesticides harm the global bee population, confirmed

News Today — Thu, 01 Mar 2018 09:31:10 +0000

The post The new report of the world’s most common pesticides harm the global bee population, confirmed first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

Five weeks after Maria most of Puerto Rico remains an island in the dark

Oren Dorell, USA TODAY — Mon, 23 Oct 2017 14:49:10 +0000

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — They’re still in the dark. Lady Lee Andrews doesn’t know how much longer she can keep her Poet’s Passage souvenir shop afloat without electricity — or tourists.

Sonia Rodriguez relies on a generator to power the elevator in her five-story assisted living center so residents can get down for their outdoor meals and some relief from the lack of air conditioning.

More than a month after Hurricane Maria ravaged this island with 155-mph winds, three-quarters of the residents are still without power, lining up at banks for cash and gathering at shopping malls, hotels or government buildings just to charge their cellphones.

Police are directing traffic at major intersections without working traffic lights. Water plants are still out of commission, forcing people to gather water from roadside streams and then boil it to be safe from bacteria. Those without home generators are living without refrigeration, air conditioning and anything but natural light. Those with generators need to pay for gasoline or diesel fuel, and haul those volatile liquids in their cars, along with water and daily groceries.

“Nowadays businesses run with the rising sun and close as soon as whatever they have runs out, or they don’t open at all,” said Andrews, 45, as she sat in a dark hall of her shop in Old San Juan. “Now a business of my caliber, which depends on tourism, is completely affected. It’s on total shutdown.”

Even Gov. Ricardo Rosselló admits that his pledge to restore 95% of power by mid-December is “aggressive.”

The task is daunting as the Puerto Rico faces challenges not seen on the U.S. mainland after other recent storms devastated Texas and Florida.

• The entire island lost power after the Sept. 20 Category 5 storm damaged power plants and 80% of the island’s electrical grid, which includes 2,400 miles of transmission lines and 30,000 miles of distribution lines, according to the Army Corps of Engineers.

• Getting help to the island is cumbersome. Supplies and people to fix the power problems have to travel through ports and airports that are overwhelmed by aid deliveries, building materials, bucket trucks, helicopters, and every other necessity, slowing the delivery of supplies where needed.

• Puerto Rico’s power grid, saddled with years of financial mismanagement, was already weakened because preventive maintenance and upgrades were deferred to save money.

Col. Jeff Lloyd of the Army Corps of Engineers in Puerto Rico, which the federal government is relying on to help the U.S. territory restore power, would not commit to Rosselló’s mid-December timeline. The Corps has ordered $130 million worth of supplies, including 62,000 telephone poles from the U.S. mainland.

“The governor said that’s an aggressive estimate,” Lloyd said. “We’re going to do everything we can to make it possible. … What’s going to be most challenging is the rugged terrain in restoring the grid.”

The power restoration project is focused on three tracks, giving priority to critical life-saving, health and public safety facilities.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency, working with the governor’s office, has identified 537 sites for emergency power generators that are still being delivered and installed across the island.

Most generators are delivered by trucks, which are sometimes delayed by landslides, missing road signs and cellular service that would help GPS-aided navigation, said Lisa Hunter, a Army Corps spokeswoman. A recent rain storm delayed sending a generator by Chinook helicopter to a government-funded health clinic on the island of Culebra.

PREPA employee Jose Colon Maldonado waits for Governor Ricardo Rossello and staff from the army engineers corps to take a tour thru the facilities of the Palo Seco Thermal Power Plant, which the Electric Power Authority plans to activate in order to energize different areas of the metropolitan area, 28 days after the passage of hurricane Maria, in Catano, Puerto Rico, Wednesday, Oct. 18, 2017. A month after Hurricane Maria rolled across the center of Puerto Rico, power is still out for the vast majority of people as the work to restore hundreds of miles of transmission lines and thousands of miles of distribution lines grinds on. (Photo: Carlos Giusti, AP)
Larger generators have been delivered to power stations to help stabilize the grid, Lloyd said. Two General Electric mobile gas turbines that can provide at least 50 megawatts combined, roughly enough to power 50,000 homes, were delivered to the Palo Seco power plant near San Juan. Once that part of the grid is powered, workers can determine damage to distribution lines and fix them, Lloyd said.

Transmission lines that deliver electricity from major power stations are also under repair across the island. Much of that work is being done by Montana-based Whitefish Energy, which specializes in rugged, mountainous terrain.

“The interior of the country is all mountains with minimal road access,” said Whitefish CEO Andy Techmanski. “This is why we use helicopters to access points.”

The company brought four helicopters to Puerto Rico, to carry workers to the tops of transmission towers and to act as sky cranes for equipment and lines. The National Guard and PREPA, the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority, have more helicopters to support Whitefish operations.

Techmanski said recent rains are hampering his 300 workers now on the island. Helicopters can’t be used in pouring rain. And an access road his crews built flooded a few days later.

“You can’t drive a vehicle up a road when it has 3 feet of running water on it,” Techmanski said.

And the power company will have to rebuild the smaller lines that deliver power to neighborhoods, homes and businesses.

As Puerto Rico’s electric grid is rebuilt, some planning is needed to include new technology, said Tom Lewis, president of Louis Berger, a New Jersey-based contractor helping PREPA and the Army Corps. Solar power, wind power and smart micro grids can operate even when other sections of the grid shut down.

That would be “putting something back that is more sustainable and resilient for the next storm,” Lewis said.

He predicted that restoring 95% of the island’s power will probably happen in late December or early winter.

“The last mile is always the distribution network,” Lewis said. “Whether it’s more difficult in terms of access or dollars I don’t know, but it’s certainly the last part of the process.”

In the Égida Señora Perpetuo Socorro assisted living center, the 67 residents have power from a generator for about four hours in the morning and four hours at night. That’s when they have running water and an elevator, but still no air conditioning.

They have their meals on an outdoor patio sheltered from the sun. But administrator Rodriguez points out she doesn’t always have enough money to buy diesel for the generator.

“Sadly, if there comes a time all our resources end, those with nowhere to go would have to be relocated to a shelter,” she said. But so far they have managed. “While there’s diesel there is hope.”

Contributing: Atabey Nuñez

Source: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2017/10/23/storm-whipped-puerto-rico-power-restoration-plagued-problems-after-maria/792376001/

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Puerto Ricans Are Still Without Food, Water, and Power One Month After Hurricane Maria

Isis Briones — Mon, 16 Oct 2017 07:19:08 +0000

RICARDO ARDUENGO/AFP /Getty Images

Puerto Rico was hit by Hurricane Maria nearly a month ago, but recovery from the Category 5 storm is just beginning.

“People are dying in this country,” San Juan Mayor, Carmen Yulín Cruz Soto, pointed outon September 30 — prior to President Trump’s visit two weeks after the disaster. “I am begging, begging anyone that 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 and the bureaucracy.”

There’s no food and no water

According to a news release published by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), water safety in Puerto Rico is critical. All water, whether it’s being used for drinking, bathing, or brushing teeth, must still be boiled before use, as livestock waste, human sewage, and chemicals may have contaminated all major water supplies.

And many Puerto Ricans are relying on rations for food. Manuel Reyes, the vice president of Puerto Rico’s chamber of marketing, industry, and distribution of food told a local CNN affiliate that “resupplying [the food supply chain will] take some time.”

Until then, many grocery store shelves will remain barren.

Everyone’s living without power

Hurricane Maria knocked out all of Puerto Rico’s electric grid — and since then, not much has changed. Puerto Rico Governor Ricardo Rosselló announced on Sunday, October 15 that he plans to restore power to 95 percent of the island by December 15.

“This is an aggressive agenda, but we cannot be sort of passive in the face of Puerto Rico’s challenges,” Rosselló told CNN. “We are going to need all hands on deck.”

Some estimates suggest Puerto Ricans may still be without power in five or six months.

Generators are running on empty

According to Vox, leaving the island is almost impossible, with some airlines reporting waiting lists of more than 20,000 people. In most areas, private generators are the only power source, but fuel shortages mean they may not be running for much longer.

Even hospitals are affected. No generators mean patients with life sustaining devices like dialysis machines won’t be able to get the treatment they need. Miami-born performer, Pitbull, was so moved by the situation that he recently lent his private jet to to Puerto Rico to help evacuate Puerto Rican cancer patients to Fort Lauderdale, so they can resume treatment.

People can’t communicate

The restoration of cell service continues to be a slow process. On October 6, the FCC reported that 83 percent of Puerto Rico’s cell sites are still not working. “It is critical that we adopt a coordinated and comprehensive approach to support the rebuilding of communications infrastructure and restoration of communications services,” said U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman, Ajit Pai, when he announced his plan to create a Hurricane Recovery Task Force.

Google’s parent company, Alphabet, also has a plan to bring back service through giant floating balloons. Called “Project Loon,” the experimental effort will supposedly provide a network to the 3.4 million residents stranded in the area. The balloons are able to remain airborne for 100 days or more. It’s unclear exactly when the devices will arrive at the Caribbean island, but the FCC allowed Alphabet to drop 30 of them on October 7.

But people are coming together

On Saturday, October 14, celebrities including Jennifer Lopez, Demi Lovato, Gwen Stefani, and others came together for the One Voice: Somos Live, a hurricane relief concert that raised $20 million. Even more impressive, a junior college student at Carnegie Mellon University crowdfunded more than $82,000 to fill up a plane with supplies and deliver it to Puerto Ricans in need.

Source: http://www.travelandleisure.com/travel-tips/weather/puerto-rico-hurricane-maria-aftermath-update

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Storms, earthquakes, North Korea and now the Las Vegas massacre. We have to wonder: ‘What’s next?’

Rick Hampson - USA Today — Tue, 03 Oct 2017 00:43:05 +0000

When the month began, a confluence of hurricanes, floods, earthquakes, wildfires and a brewing international nuclear confrontation already had some Americans thinking about End Times.

Then Las Vegas, the nation’s playground, witnessed the worst mass shooting in U.S. history — the latest in this peerless series of catastrophes. Some were natural, some man-made. Together, they’ve shadowed a usually optimistic nation with a cloud of sorrow and anxiety.

You didn’t have to be in Vegas, Seattle, Houston, Key West or San Juan, or have relatives in Mexico, or live in the Inter-mountain West with a respiratory condition, to be worried. A nation that had thought itself numbed to tragedy is realizing that no matter how bad things are, they apparently can always get worse.

“Why?’’ asked country music star Blake Shelton in a tweet after the shooting. That was one question, shared many times by many others. There was another: “What’s next?’’

A summer that seemed destined to be remembered for its magnificent solar eclipse had lurched suddenly toward the eve of destruction. And autumn hasn’t been much better.

So much has gone wrong so fast it’s fair to review the overlapping calamities:

In the span of two weeks, two major hurricanes, Harvey and Irma, hit the continental U.S., the first time two category 4 storms have ever done so in a single season. Then a third storm, Maria, clobbered the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico, producing a level of misery that still may not have crested.
Mexico was shaken by two earthquakes 12 days apart that killed hundreds of people. The second occurred on the anniversary of the 1985 Mexico City earthquake that killed thousands. That quake had been commemorated, and a national earthquake drill held, just two hours before the ground again began to shake on Sept. 19.
Wildfires, spurred by some of the driest, hottest late summer weather on record, consumed an area in the West 50% larger than the state of New Jersey. As air quality plummeted across Washington State, the governor declared a state of emergency and told everyone in some areas to stay indoors.
The leaders of the U.S. and North Korea traded insults and threats. President Trump ridiculed his own secretary of state’s efforts to negotiate with the Kim Jong Un regime to peacefully resolve the nuclear faceoff. Trump tweeted that Rex Tillerson “is wasting his time trying to negotiate with Little Rocket Man…’’

The natural disasters produced images that unsettled even those nowhere near them. Consider just the wildfires.

In normally wet Seattle, which on Aug. 8 recorded its record 52nd straight day without rain, ash from Central Washington fires fell like snow and covered the city with a dense smoke cloud. In Montana, wildfires closed the western part of Glacier National Park’s famous Going-to-the-Sun Road …. while the eastern portion was closed by ice and snow. In Oregon, a photo showed golfers in the foreground playing through as a huge forest fire roared in the background.

“Yes,’’ the Dallas Morning News editorialized last month, “it does feel like Mother Nature is just done with us.’’

Her children were not. In Las Vegas, a man rich enough to have two planes and an arsenal of guns opened fire Sunday night from the upper floor of a luxury hotel, hitting or injuring hundreds of concertgoers across the street. As of this writing, 59 had died.

The crises brought out the best in some people. Texas saw an American Dunkirk, with more than 15,000 rescued from high waters by a motley array of craft. And Mexicans spontaneously formed bucket brigades to remove rubble and search for survivors in the ruins of hundreds of collapsed schools and other buildings.

More: September was a hellish month for hurricanes. What will October bring?

More: The land of the stars & stripes has become a country of stress & strife.

More: Las Vegas shooting now tops list of worst mass shootings in U.S. history

More: Here are the worst hurricanes and floods in U.S. history

But for all too many, it was all too much.

Tamara Harpster, 54, of Lakeside, Calif., wrote on Facebook that when she learned of the shooting “I felt numb.’’ After the last month, “it seems like ‘Oh well, just another day in a sucky world now.’ … I feel such a loss of control and a realization that there is nothing an individual can do to stop these horrible things from happening.’’

And yet, she wrote, “I want somehow to fix things and make them stop.’’

Daniel Gardner, who teaches communications at Mississippi State, says that while most people in the rural South shake their heads over the troubles and move on, the millennials he teaches are different: With instantaneous communication via social media, they are “easily shaken emotionally, and prone to be more naive and gullible. … So the confluence of bad events makes them feel more vulnerable.’’

A 15-year-old with the Twitter handle of Mickel made a similar point: “i don’t like the general direction of where the world is going.’’

The question was why it seemed to be going there.

There was an obvious answer — coincidence — and on one level, it was all explicable.

Storms? That’s why they call this hurricane season. And until 2017 it had been 12 years since any hurricane of such intensity made continental U.S. landfall.

Quakes? Mexico sits on unstable tectonic plates.

Fires? Forests have been burning in North America since before any civilization.

Korea? The Korean War never officially ended when hostilities ceased in 1953. Sabers have been rattling ever since.

As for Las Vegas, America since Columbine has repeatedly demonstrated what happens when a wealthy, historically violent nation with many angry, mentally disturbed residents has loose gun laws.

Some blamed global warming for the storms and the fires; some blamed Trump for Korea and the halting Puerto Rico relief effort.

Others saw a higher authority in control.

‘What else is needed to get our attention?’’ asked Michael L. Brown, the conservative host of the nationally syndicated radio show, The Line of Fire.

“We need to get on our faces before the Lord, acknowledging our own sins and shortcomings, not pointing the finger at others but rather at ourselves. And whatever our views on climate control and gun control and immigration reform and President Trump, we need to implore the only one who can heal our land.’’

In a video he posted online, actor Kirk Cameron (Growing Pains) called the hurricanes “a spectacular display of God’s immense power” and said, “weather is sent to cause us to respond to God in humility, awe and repentance.”

Was Judgement Day at hand? Several who studied the question had set the date at Sept. 23. But as the day passed and the tribulations continued, some didn’t need obscure scriptural passages or complicated astrological projections to feel the end was near.

That’s one theology. Another is held by the Rev. Ryan Moore of First Presbyterian Church in Tulsa. He told the Tulsa World that he doesn’t spend much time trying to predict when The End is coming, because a daily faith matters more.

“But with all that’s going on in the world,’’ he admits, “you can’t help but be a little bit apocalyptic.”

Source: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2017/10/03/storms-quakes-fires-korea-and-now-vegas-shooting-whats-next/725889001/

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The post Storms, earthquakes, North Korea and now the Las Vegas massacre. We have to wonder: ‘What’s next?’ first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.