In the absence of any direct communication (still no mobile network), my wife has been sending her mum texts with the names of family members who have reported in. Because her mum is as cut off from the rest of the world (apart what she can hear on a hand crank FM radio) as we are from her. Not a situation you expect so much in 2017.
The hope is that, the moment she gets even a bit of phone signal, she will be reassured as the texts start coming through.
We can’t wait for someone to airlift a sat phone abs get a first hand account of the situation though.
Glad it sounds like everyone is ok. And yeah, it’s crazy to think of in 2017, but even crazier to think of an island the size of Puerto Rico without power for months.
My mom’s family is in Aguadilla. Looks like they were spared the worst of the rainfall, at least. Still no word from them, but she saw a Facebook post from a friend not too far from there, so perhaps that area is doing okay.
My friend’s family finally got in touch, albeit indirectly. They are more or less okay, but basically trapped in a mountainous area without power, water, or internet, most of the roads up washed out and impassable. But okay.
The upshot of mountains = streams. Apparently her 70+ YO parents are livin it up 1800s style at the moment, grabbing water from pails or wells (I couldn’t quite make out what she was relaying), except when they spare fuel to the generator to do things like boil water for drinking.
The Navy ship is, in the simplest terms, a hospital at sea.
The website calls the Comfort a “medical treatment facility,” whose primary mission is to “provide rapid, flexible and mobile acute health service support to Marine Corps, Army and Air Force units deployed ashore, and naval amphibious task and battle forces afloat.” The 1,000-bed ship’s secondary mission is for disaster and/or humanitarian relief.
It was at the ready last year for victims of Hurricane Matthew.
On Sunday, Hillary Clinton tweeted that "President Trump, (Defense) Sec. (James) Mattis, and DOD (Department of Defense) should send the Navy, including the USNS Comfort, to Puerto Rico now. These are American citizens.”
What is the ship’s current position?
Political activist @@seagal_lori sent out a picture of the Norfolk, Virginia, based vessel with the caption: “What is the ship’s current position?” adding that at around 11 a.m. Monday it was at 36.93361 N/76.33004 W.
On Tuesday, Nathan Potter, of the Naval public affairs office, told The Miami Herald that the vessel was currently docked in Norfolk and had “no plans to deploy.
Clinton’s tweet lacked important context: The Navy already had two amphibious ships off the coast, the USS Kearsarge and the USS Oak Hill, so the few thousand Marines and sailors aboard could launch relief operations. But her call to action took off, with a petition on the federal website Change.org garnering more than 100,000 signatures in three days and critics expressing frustration with the hashtag #SendtheComfort.
Since then, the call for the Comfort has come to symbolize something larger: A call for the Pentagon to send more.
[…]
Facing growing criticism about its response, the Pentagon on Monday argued that its efforts over the weekend marked only the beginning. Army Col. Rob Manning, a spokesman, told reporters the U.S. military was focused near-term on search-and-rescue operations and delivering generators to hospitals. Other plans called for the arrival of eight Army Black Hawk helicopters from Fort Campbell, Ky., a fleet of Air Force jets arriving with supplies, and disaster-assessment teams determining what else is needed.
I thought we’ve had this for a while. It’s been unseasonably cold in the north east, around 5-10 degrees F since christmas, and should continue for another week plus. The usual average where I live for January is ~ 36F, which I really miss right now…
