OpsLens

Shipping-In Resources While Shipping-Out Puerto Rico Hurricane Survivors

As reported on OpsLens, President Trump relaxing the federal Jones Act maritime shipping regulations yesterday enabled massive amounts of cargo from the United States and other nations to more freely make it to the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. As such, humanitarian aid efforts are streamlined and effectuated by FEMA, public safety and military forces making inroads to the mostly-decimated island.

US Navy’s Floating Hospital

One rather endemic problem stemming from the fury of Hurricane Maria and, before her, Hurricane Irma is the medical care of those injured by the storm and others whose ailments preexisted. With FEMA’s comprehensive plan, the United States Navy sailed its Navy hospital USNS Comfort to handle the health care of thousands whose ordinary medical providers were wiped out by the hurricanes’ carve through the island. Sailing from Norfolk, Virginia to Puerto Rico, 1,429 miles is what is between Navy medical personnel and Puerto Rico’s ailing residents.

Puerto Rico’s hospital network has for years been considerably outmoded, in dire disrepair, and understaffed from the exodus of physicians to the mainland.

Military doctors provided by the US Navy will tend to the myriad illnesses and injuries to a populace reportedly living at poverty-level sustenance, mostly unattended even before the hurricanes took swipes at Puerto Rico’s inhabitants.

While the shipping-in of resources is mounting steam, shipping out is now an option for Puerto Rico’s inhabitants wracked destruction and with meager means to rebuild.

Adventure of the Seas

Intelligence from a police source whose family is still in Puerto Rico indicates that Royal Caribbean, a major cruise ship line, is reportedly offering free transports from PR to Florida on its San Juan-berthed Adventure of the Seas. To those with whom I spoke who have family in PR, thousands upon thousands are seeking to depart the island for the mainland. Adventure of the Seas (Royal Caribbean International) requires each passenger registration through the “See Puerto Rico” tourism hotline at 787-522-5960.

While the shipping-in of resources is mounting steam, shipping out is now an option for Puerto Rico’s inhabitants wracked destruction and with meager means to rebuild.

https://twitter.com/RoyalCaribbean/status/913162665278746624

Given all the information and massive efforts being coordinated by FEMA, I suspect several voyages from San Juan to Florida will be considered so that many wishing to depart the island can do so. A reduced population defrays the already monumental tasks search and rescue operatives are confronting, once roadways are cleared and recovery efforts are more-widely engaged. Adventure of the Seas is equipped to transport a capacity of 3,114 per voyage.