It has been one week since Hurricane Maria devastated the island of Puerto Rico. And inside hospitals and clinics, doctors have limited supplies and will soon run out of diesel to power the buildings.
The looming medical crisis is set to explode at any time. Dr. María Rodríguez is the medical director of Concilio de Salud Integral de Loíza, a community health center in a small town in the northeastern portion of Puerto Rico. She told CNN that she only has six hours of diesel left. Fuel distribution has been inconsistent and there just isn’t enough. Once Dr. Rodríguez is out of fuel, she will have no choice but to close her doors.
With the fuel and power shortages, she expects the top health concern in the days ahead will be infectious diseases. As people who need medications do not get them, she predicts mental health issues will become a problem as well. “The desperation that all these people have, they’ve lost everything — on the whole island,” she says.
“What else we can do?” she asks. “I haven’t seen anything like this.” For 24 years, she’s worked at the center, which serves about 15,000 underprivileged patients each year. Despite the possibility of a power outage, she and her co-workers are still trying to provide services to the best of their ability. In normal conditions, the center provides everything from primary care and pharmacy services to X-rays. “We can do some things. I have a stethoscope and the antiseptics and I can prescribe. But the pharmacy can’t work with that, they need the system — they need labs to provide medications to these patients,” Rodríguez says.
“It will get worse before it gets better,” she says. Her feelings are shared by other health care providers on the island as well, who believe a medical crisis is about to unfold. Dr. Robert Fuller, an emergency medicine physician at the University of Connecticut and International Medical Corp. arrived in Puerto Rico to help those whose lives are on the line.
“I didn’t realize it was gonna be corner-to-corner everybody affected by the storm,” says Fuller, squinting into the sunlight. “Every family’s been touched and disturbed in some way or another. And the degree of destruction — the power the storm had — took me by surprise.” Communities are disabled by the storm, he says, yet it’s fuel and electricity that are driving this disruption.
“If we had good logistics and good communications, things could probably settle out a little faster,” Fuller says. However, the lack of those things could lead to a medical problem, since medications might not be delivered where needed. Puerto Rico is a “complicated mess” right now, he says. –CNN
It’s not a matter of human resources, says Dr. Fuller. “It’s a matter of getting the medications and treatments to the people.” It’s also a matter of being able to move around and get services to people, which cannot happen without fuel. Unless medical supplies and fuel to run clinics and hospitals can get to the devastated island, and soon, the looming medical crisis will explode, and it could cost some their lives.
Stupidity Kills. I that a bad thing? Just like the horrible Opioid epidemic tha’s costing so much money, anyone asking how much money it;s saving on crime and welfare?
White House: Committed to hurricane response in Puerto Rico
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8xO_jh-frXU
hope they got all of this stuff!
my gun supplies list
AR-15 and 2000 rounds of ammo
870 wingmaster 12 guage with 500 rounds of ammo
22LR semi-auto rifle with 10,000 rounds of ammo
9mm pistol with 2000 rounds of ammo
otis cleaning kit for all calibres
gun oil(i use 5w40 synthetic motor oil)
GOOD flashlight
night vision
acog
earplugs
rod for clearing jams
extra magazines for all weapons
holster for pistol
gun cleaning solvent
gun disassembly mat
manual for guns owned
multi-tool
AR parts kit
boresight
cleaning/shop rags
bulletproof vest or at least plate carrier
armorers wrench
magazine reloading devices
what did i forget?
Madeuce with two pallets of linked ammo
Did not forget much…just need more ammo!
Sounds like a pretty good set up to me boss man!
In PR it is an expensive and difficult process to buy a firearm. Once you navigate the legal tangles, pay the fees, and pass background checks, you are allowed to own up to two firearms and buy fifty rounds of ammunition per year for each weapon. Ammunition is sold by permit as well, police check to insure you are buying ammo for the caliber weapons you own.
The basic problem is the same there as here. People need to realize that in a SHTF situation there is no one coming to rescue you. It’s that simple. If you start with that as the basic premise as you live your life, you’ll have a chance.
All of this mess just scream how Unprepared the US Gov’t is for any large scale event, my God…its pretty sad and disgraceful. All the $$ stolen from us citizens via taxes and they can’t even send help…an entire week later and they are on the utter brink!!
We should have cut all ties to Puerto Rico when they kicked our Navy base out.
I vote to rid them of their U.S. territory title. They seem to get all the benefits of being a U.S. state but they do not contribute like the states do.
Money pit is all i see. Users……
looks to ME like we DID cut all ties……for at least a week….
Military and emergency personnel on the ground in PR already number over 10,000. That’s huge, but PR has a population of over 3.5 million.
PR is also larger than many realize, it’s about 3/4 the size of Connecticut.
Imagine a bad snowstorm hits 3/4 of Connecticut, and you have to clear all the roads, but you need to bring in all the needed snow plows and fuel through just one busted up harbor, and one partially running airport? Oh, and there’s no fuel or electricity in the state.
Once completed, this effort just opened the roads and hasn’t feed any of the people along those roads, who are trapped by the storm.
I use the snow example because many in Northern states can relate to it.
Certain the US working taxpayer will get ass raped for another $60-$125 billion for this. Trump needs to inflate the National Debt by $10T before November 2021 else the system deflates, his tax cut plan will create some of new debt required but Wall Street needs $10T of newly created debt! This is why the invasion {“immigration”} of Europe and America will continue, IT MUST CONTINUE, Trump must double the national debt in eight years to just achieve 0% growth. Here is another thing no one wants to talk about…. 282,700,000 was the US population in 2000. In 17 years, they snuck in 50 million people… the growth in entitlements and the TRIPLING of the national debt since 2000 …. IS THE ONLY THING THAT KEPT THE DOLLAR SYSTEM ALIVE. ALL GDP GROWTH WAS DUE TO THE TRIPLING OF THE NATIONAL DEBT. WHEN ARE THE AMERICAN TAXPAYERS GOING TO REALIZE THIS???????????????? Every $1 of GDP needs $3 of newly created debt… US population, DOW S&P, US national debt, entitlement numbers, -inverse chart of people in the workforce.. all 5 charts look the same.
why the hell do you sugar-coat things so much?
This is a consequence of modern healthcare: all these people who are pill and medicine dependent would not be alive today if they lived 30 or 40 years ago. These pharmaceuticals are possible if the system functions and there is money around; but once the system falls apart, and the tide goes out, you see who is standing naked and could not survive without the meds.
We need a different medical paradigm that is low-cost and based around supporting the most genetically able to survive and thrive.
“… supporting the most genetically able to survive and thrive”
Thats very Hitlerish or Klingon with strong shades of communist.
ok Frank–you go first
i think by NOW, CONgress MUST have gotten the memo….we CAN’T afford national healthcare……it just WON’T sink in…..like kittens trying to eat solid food….sooner or later we got to rub their little faces in it.
ObamaCare was never about healthcare, it was always a Maoist revolutionary tactic to overthrow our republic.
Congress is owned by the globalists, and they don’t want ObamaCare to go away until it has produced the desired and designed level of chaos and economic destruction pushing us towards Marxism.
The main problem for hurricane relief in PR is the fact that you can’t drive to the island. Another problem is poverty. And another is the government will take care of me attitude. I’m told that, over the years, the people there didn’t pay their electric bills so the local government had to take over the payments to the power company. Before the storm hit, 10% of the island was without power. Bad management all around.
C of Doom:
That is why I don’t have insurance. I figured in 1970 they were blowing smoke……but I had insurance until 20xx when I got laid off at work got bit by deer tick while mowing grass in my yard.
They called me back to work after 9 months, but by that time lyme disease was taking over, so I took retirement, lost my insurance, took SS. Searched everywhere for insurance. At this point I couldn’t afford any… unless I moved to Chicago where they pay zero for anything. They wanted me to sign over my rental property to them, basically, I had to “buy” into Medicaid
to have insurance. Now, if that is the rule for everyone..in USA..fine. But, I was told in every other state it IS free…except the state I lived in. Affirmative Action alive and well!! They can go suck sand I’m done with lies, broken promises, 30+ years of ‘paying the bill’ for every freeloader to get free benefits, (at my expense) while I do without….only because I live in the wrong town and or wrong state!!
Sorry, I’m not whinnning….. just really p****d at the communist, swamp gov. and bribery for
votes.
Too busy to offer Puerto Rico much help, what with all the war planning, tax cutting, money grubbing, police state slapdowns and general lying through the teeth going on from on high. That little ratfink Sessions with his bust em throw em in jail ass backwards bought and paid for anti cannabis drooling has shown to be against the majority will. I’m talking about a harmless plant that beyond all doubts provides proven benefits to human health. Don’t believe it? Look it up, plenty of evidence exists. End big pharma, big police state and prison complex, big alcohol, big government treason and big tobacco ripoffs of our health and freedoms. This issue will never weaken or go away worldwide. The jig is up you F’ing liars.