RICARDO ARDUENGO/AFP/Getty Images More than a month after Hurricane Maria ripped across Puerto Rico with 155-mph winds, the recovery effort is moving excruciatingly slow.
Three-quarters of the island’s residents are still without power, forcing them to wait in long lines wherever power is available, so they can charge their cell phones.
And that’s if they can get service.
Simply put, every day is a bare bones struggle for Puerto Ricans, many of whom essentially are living like they are camping outside.
According to Oxfam America, less than half the population has access to potable water, and there is a developing risk of being exposed to cholera from drinking water contaminated with raw sewage.
As of last week, dozens of the island’s water treatment plants were inactive—that runoff was either seeping or pouring into drinking creeks, rivers and other drinking-water sources for the general population.
“At this stage in the humanitarian response, these conditions are unacceptable, and we need to see a more robust and efficient response from the U.S. government now.” Receive important daily stories covering politics and influential opinion leaders.
And because there isn’t electricity, most of that segment is also unable to boil water or cook.
So many structures were damaged or destroyed in the storm that many people sleep outside without tarps to cover them, without which they are exposed to the ongoing rains, rodents and mold.
Privately-formed volunteer groups like the Kennesaw, Georgia-based We Do Better and Chicago-based Puerto Rico Rising have been shipping supplies to villages on the island themselves, subverting the Jones Act and trumping (pun intended) Washington’s lackluster effort thus far.