Op-Ed: Puerto Rico disaster shows US could learn from China about how to deal with natural disasters

[TaiShang]

Op-Ed: Puerto Rico disaster shows US could learn from China about how to deal with natural disasters

By Curtis Stone (People's Daily Online) 13:21, September 29, 2017

If one ever doubted the fact that the Chinese government cares for its citizens or questioned the effectiveness of China’s system, the government’s responses to natural disasters, especially when compared to the US government’s half-hearted response in Puerto Rico, should cast those doubts aside.

China sometimes gets a black eye in the Western media, especially in terms of human rights, but the Chinese government’s all-out responses to natural disasters are solid evidence that China values human rights and will spare no effort to ensure the safety and wellbeing of its citizens, both at home and abroad.

From earthquakes to typhoons to flooding, the Chinese government has proven time and again that when natural disaster strikes it will move mountains to help its people. After a massive and devastating earthquake struck Wenchuan County in China’s Sichuan province in May 2008, the Chinese government sprang into action with a rapid, massive, and impressive response that won hearts at home and abroad. And after a powerful earthquake struck Jiuzhaigou County in the same province last month, Chinese President Xi Jinping immediately called for “all-out efforts” to respond to the quake and rescue the injured. It is for reasons like this that Chinese have confidence in their government and Chinese soldiers are loved by the people, as can be seen when the soldiers complete disaster relief operations.

China evacuates 462 nationals from hurricane-hit Dominica

More recently, the Chinese government’s responsibility to ensure that all Chinese are safe in the face of natural disaster was on display after Hurricane Maria devastated the tiny Caribbean island of Dominica. The Chinese government immediately expressed its concern about the safety of its citizens and took action to evacuate 462 Chinese nationals, including two people from Taiwan and a one-month-old baby. “Once again, China has successfully evacuated its people,” wrote a Chinese–language report. “While the US military evacuated from the island, China’s embassy braved the winds.” Many Chinese netizens lauded the government’s handling of the incident. “China is stronger and Chinese have more peace of mind. I’m proud,” wrote on netizen. “Because you are Chinese, the motherland is behind you wherever you go,” another wrote.

Compare all that to the US government response, or lack of, to the worsening disaster in the US territory of Puerto Rico, and it is easy to make the argument that the US government has failed in its responsibility to ensure that all Americans are safe. Hurricane Maria, the biggest catastrophe in the Puerto Rico’s history in terms of natural disasters, has devastated the island. “Make no mistake — this is a humanitarian disaster involving 3.4 million US citizens,” the island’s governor said Monday. But more than a week since the hurricane wreaked havoc, millions of Americans remain desperate for water and food and without power, and conditions are getting worse daily.

Puerto Rico is in “deep trouble”

Despite the dire situation, the US government has shown little genuine interest in rolling up its sleeves to help fellow Americans in Puerto Rico. The foot-dragging is frankly embarrassing for a powerful nation with massive resources and a powerful navy, and for some people, the lackluster response puts a huge question mark over US commitment to human rights. “Trump is letting Puerto Rico die - because its people are Hispanic,” GQ Special Correspondent Keith Olbermann claimed. Whether or not that is the case, it certainly appears as if the island has been hung out to dry. Puerto Ricans are literally begging for help, with one viral photo showing “S.O.S.” written on the pavement. “Americans in Puerto Rico…deserve to know that their government will be there for them, without question or hesitation,” US Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi said in a statement Monday.

When natural disaster strikes, Chinese know that their government will be there for them, without question or hesitation; and quickly mobilizing the nation’s resources to rescue fellow Chinese is not even a debate. Hopefully, the growing humanitarian crisis in Puerto Rico will get the urgent attention it deserves, but the depressing situation speaks volumes about how the two countries use their resources. “The Chinese army carries shovels into a disaster area, while American soldiers are carry guns to save people. Do they want to save lives or fight a war?” the above-mentioned Chinese report asked. “One can only imagine the feeling of disaster victims seeing heavily armed soldiers and then friendly Chinese soldiers,” it added.

@Chinese-Dragon , @Jlaw , @+4vsgorillas-Apebane , @powastick

 

[AViet]

The US have always been racist like that for centuries, but when it was strong, no one questioning it about human rights and similar things, but this issue will surely be more exposed with its rapid declining position on world stage.

 

[Nan Yang]

Quote

Published on May 15, 2008

More comparison between China earthquake and US Katrina hurricane responses: Why do the media constantly compare the rescue and relief operations between China and Myanmar? Let's compare China with the US:

In China, an earthquake that registered 8.0 struck with no warning. The Premier was on the plane to the disaster centre 90 minutes later to co-ordinate the rescue and relief effort; local, provincial and national and military authorities immediately ordered an all-out rescuing effort, no arguments, no buck passing. Airports and buildings were evacuated in little over 30 minutes and police and emergency workers swung into action at about the same time. Soldiers poured into the diaster sites by planes, trucks and, where the roads were damaged, by walking for hours. Victims helped themselves and others where they could; everything was orderly; no chaos, no looting, no crimes and no unreasonable demands, knowing at times of crisis, action, understanding and unity is the best for all.


In the US, a hurricane struck after 48 hours warning. The President reluctantly terminated his holidays one and a half days after the diaster struck; the Secretary of States was seen in New York shopping for designer shoes while people waited for help. Rescue and relief efforts were slow and ineffective. The state Governor blames the Federal and the Federal blames the state; the mayor blames everybody else. Four days after the diaster, troops armed to the teeth appeared on the street in their Humvees, not there to rescue anybody but to maintain law and order and shoot looters. Many police officers wanted to quit or retire early.


I hope this diaster will prompt some in the west who have long hold a deep bias and prejudice against China to rethink. Is democracy a be all, end all thing? If not, let China evolve by its own accord and in its own pace.

Original video:

Unquote

 

[TaiShang]

Quote

Published on May 15, 2008

More comparison between China earthquake and US Katrina hurricane responses: Why do the media constantly compare the rescue and relief operations between China and Myanmar? Let's compare China with the US:

In China, an earthquake that registered 8.0 struck with no warning. The Premier was on the plane to the disaster centre 90 minutes later to co-ordinate the rescue and relief effort; local, provincial and national and military authorities immediately ordered an all-out rescuing effort, no arguments, no buck passing. Airports and buildings were evacuated in little over 30 minutes and police and emergency workers swung into action at about the same time. Soldiers poured into the diaster sites by planes, trucks and, where the roads were damaged, by walking for hours. Victims helped themselves and others where they could; everything was orderly; no chaos, no looting, no crimes and no unreasonable demands, knowing at times of crisis, action, understanding and unity is the best for all.


In the US, a hurricane struck after 48 hours warning. The President reluctantly terminated his holidays one and a half days after the diaster struck; the Secretary of States was seen in New York shopping for designer shoes while people waited for help. Rescue and relief efforts were slow and ineffective. The state Governor blames the Federal and the Federal blames the state; the mayor blames everybody else. Four days after the diaster, troops armed to the teeth appeared on the street in their Humvees, not there to rescue anybody but to maintain law and order and shoot looters. Many police officers wanted to quit or retire early.


I hope this diaster will prompt some in the west who have long hold a deep bias and prejudice against China to rethink. Is democracy a be all, end all thing? If not, let China evolve by its own accord and in its own pace.

Original video:

Unquote

Very nice critical comparative analysis. I guess it does not say one model is better than the other, but, as you pointed out, which model suits best to the national conditions and historical requirements.

Hopefully, with enough evidence surfing up, we will slowly get rid of Eurocentric theories of democracy, governance and development.

 

[Solomon2]

The single most important factor that makes the response to a disaster in P.R. different from the continental U.S. or China is that P.R. is an island over a thousand miles from the nearest major port. Supplies must be delivered by ship (which takes a week) or air (insufficient tonnage).

The big blockage now is at P.R.'s ports, where supplies can't be distributed due to damage and a lack of transportation capacity. Unless I'm much mistaken, neither of these problems existed to the same extent either in New Orleans or in China.

 

[Nan Yang]

The single most important factor that makes the response to a disaster in P.R. different from the continental U.S. or China is that P.R. is an island over a thousand miles from the nearest major port. Supplies must be delivered by ship (which takes a week) or air (insufficient tonnage).

The big blockage now is at P.R.'s ports, where supplies can't be distributed due to damage and a lack of transportation capacity. Unless I'm much mistaken, neither of these problems existed to the same extent either in New Orleans or in China.

Not entirely true. United States can transport an entire army thousands of miles away in the middle of nowhere to fight a war.

 

[shadows888]

The single most important factor that makes the response to a disaster in P.R. different from the continental U.S. or China is that P.R. is an island over a thousand miles from the nearest major port. Supplies must be delivered by ship (which takes a week) or air (insufficient tonnage).

The big blockage now is at P.R.'s ports, where supplies can't be distributed due to damage and a lack of transportation capacity. Unless I'm much mistaken, neither of these problems existed to the same extent either in New Orleans or in China.

The US military can transport their army half way across the globe in no time. Puerto Rico is an hour from Florida.. It's not a problem if the effort is put into it.

 

[Solomon2]

Not entirely true. United States can transport an entire army thousands of miles away in the middle of nowhere to fight a war.

The US military can transport their army half way across the globe in no time. Puerto Rico is an hour from Florida.. It's not a problem if the effort is put into it.

"An entire army" = tens of thousands of troops, yet P.R. has millions of people. The scale is a hundred times larger - and if you will remember, deploying large numbers of troops to Afghanistan took months.

...after a powerful earthquake struck Jiuzhaigou County in the same province last month, Chinese President Xi Jinping immediately called for “all-out efforts” to respond to the quake and rescue the injured. It is for reasons like this that Chinese have confidence in their government and Chinese soldiers are loved by the people, as can be seen when the soldiers complete disaster relief operations.

China's leaders likely learned the lesson after the fiasco of their responses to earthquakes in the 1970s, especially the 1976 Tangshang quake.

I remember some charities had a drive to raise funds in response but there was no way to give it, even though it was known the casualties were in the hundreds of thousands.

 

[Jlaw]

Also i want to add that the US relied on Canadian troops for help in Katrina and currently with Hurricane Harvey
@TaiShang
Also it took ten years to rebuild most of New Orleans after Katrina. What a joke for the global superpower. Superpower for shooting innocent women and children in middle East.

 

[Solomon2]

Getting relief supplies to Puerto Rico ports is only half the problem

Workers unload Crowley shipping containers from a barge at the port in San Juan, Puerto Rico, on Sept. 26. (Alvin Baez/Reuters)

Arelis R. Hernández and Steven Mufson September 28 at 7:40 PM

Three days after Hurricane Maria clobbered Puerto Rico, the Crowley shipping company opened its San Juan terminal and switched on its computers. When the port opened at 8 a.m. the next day, the shipping firm delivered 500 containers of commercial goods. Three of its managers had to cut their way out of their homes to get there.

Four days later, those containers and others filled with goods for stores such as Home Depot and Walgreens have been languishing at the port. Retailers hobbled by broken distribution chains and damaged stores have opened only a few outlets, and customers have had to wait in long lines.

“It’s pretty ugly out there,” said Jose Ayala, Crowley’s vice president for Puerto Rico services. “There is damage to the trucking infrastructure, to the distributors, to the supermarkets, to the roads. And then, if your infrastructure is not so damaged, and you can get a driver to the truck, there is no fuel to move the equipment.”

About 15 federal agencies, charitable groups and the Puerto Rican government are rushing to get goods shipped to the territory and to have them distributed.

Play Video 1:12

U.S. military will help restore power to Puerto Rico
White House national security adviser Tom Bossert said on Sept. 28 the Army Corps of Engineers will have a dedicated mission to restore power in Puerto Rico following Hurricane Maria. (Reuters)

Crowley is filling its ships with generators, food and water for the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and it expects to deliver more than 1,000 containers on five barges in the coming days. It dispatched more than 200 on Thursday.

President Trump, under political pressure from critics who say his administration has lagged in providing aid to Puerto Rico, flipped his position on Thursday on the 1920 Jones Act and said he would waive the requirement that vessels traveling between U.S. ports be U.S. ships. However the waiver lasts only 10 days, according to a Bloomberg News report.

While many lawmakers from both parties said the Jones Act waiver would speed assistance for Puerto Rico and reduce costs, U.S. shipping executives — including Crowley’s — and maritime unions warned that the bottleneck was on the island, not on the seas. Huge swaths of the population still lack fuel, water supplies and communication links.

John Rabin, acting administrator for FEMA Region II, said the agency has established 11 staging areas and delivered food and water to 78 municipalities. He said that 676 gasoline stations were open Thursday morning, although residents said that supplies ran out by early afternoon at many of the stations.

“Today is going to be a very difficult and hard day,” Rabin said. “Hopefully today will be a little bit better than yesterday was. And hopefully tomorrow will be a bit better.”

One of the most troublesome obstacles to relief efforts has been the electrical grid, crippled by fallen transmission and distribution lines. Though utilities belong to national groups that help coordinate out-of-state workers to help repair storm damage, so far the mainland utilities have sent crews only to help assess damage. Sue Kelly, president of the American Public Power Association, said Wednesday there was no point in sending repair crews who need food, water and shelter if they did not have the poles, wires and trucks needed.

Meanwhile, lawmakers in Congress and Puerto Rican Gov. Ricardo Rosselló have been jockeying over who should take charge of the humanitarian response effort.

Rosselló asserted that he was fully in command even as Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and other lawmakers on the mainland stepped up demands for the appointment of a federal official to oversee relief efforts.

“Let’s make this clear, this is an operation of the government of Puerto Rico,” Rosselló said. “We set the priorities. . . . We are taking action, and there are results.”

Yet the results are mixed, even by the governor’s own assessment.

Luis Muñoz Marin Airport in San Juan has been able to handle a trickle of flights — about half a dozen a day — for several days; it was expecting nearly two dozen planes to land on Thursday. To relieve congestion, the Air Force opened airports in Ceiba and Aguadilla. Rosselló described plans to reestablish a radar in El Yunque, the national rain forest, to augment operations at all the island’s flight hubs.

Ports are slowly reopening. FEMA said it would bring in about 3.2 million meals and 2.68 million liters of water, some by air and some by sea. Only 28 percent of the island now has some cellphone reception. About 86 bank branches are open, but many people still have no cash or access to checking accounts.

FEMA said it would use barges to ship 100 fuel distribution trucks with 275,000 gallons of diesel and 75,000 gallons of gasoline. The shipment is expected to arrive Sunday.

“I wish we were in a better position but we are limited by the gravity of the situation,” Rosselló said. In Florida and Texas, where major hurricanes landed in the past two months, resources were brought in by road, but “Puerto Rico is an island. We have to bring them through boats and airplanes.”

Hence the fight over the Jones Act. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), a longtime advocate of repealing the Jones Act restrictions, wrote to the Department of Homeland Security saying, “I am very concerned by the Department’s decision not to waive the Jones Act for current relief efforts in Puerto Rico, which is facing a worsening humanitarian crisis following Hurricane Maria.”

Economists agree. In 2015, Anne Krueger, former chief economist of the World Bank, wrote that the Jones Act “requires using very costly US-built ships and crews for all sea transport to and from the mainland.”

Thomas B. Crowley, chief executive of the Crowley shipping firm, said this issue should appeal to Trump, who says he wants to protect American jobs.

“If we cut some American jobs, replace them with foreign labor and save a few pennies on the delivered goods, then perhaps you could get the answer swayed to yes, but no one has ever made a factual case that this is true,” Crowley said in an interview.

After the president announced the waiver, Crowley said in an email: “We understand the waiver will be temporary. In the meantime, we hope people will take the time to learn what our American vessel crews, dock workers and truck drivers are doing 24/7 to bring help to Puerto Rico. Americans responding to Americans in need.”

 

[Jlaw]

More excuses by Murica. America don't like Puerto Ricans and would not mind if more of them died. That's America. Also PR is I'm debt for 30 billion usd and counting...

 

[cloud4000]

It's a nice piece of propaganda from the mouth piece of Communist Party of China.

Hopefully, with enough evidence surfing up, we will slowly get rid of Eurocentric theories of democracy, governance and development.

From where? When China was practicing anything Eurocentric?

 

[terranMarine]

Also i want to add that the US relied on Canadian troops for help in Katrina and currently with Hurricane Harvey
@TaiShang
Also it took ten years to rebuild most of New Orleans after Katrina. What a joke for the global superpower. Superpower for shooting innocent women and children in middle East.

US doesn't rebuild, it is only good in destroying

 

[Jlaw]

US doesn't rebuild, it is only good in destroying

They suck at disaster relief. You gotta be fucking desperate to be asking for Canada to supply troops. Than again the US wars always involved troops from other countries as they cannot go in alone.

 

[cloud4000]

More excuses by Murica. America don't like Puerto Ricans and would not mind if more of them died. That's America. Also PR is I'm debt for 30 billion usd and counting...

If Puerto Rico wants independence it can go ahead and do so. It has had multiple referendums on the issue, but independence is always a loser. Most have either chosen to remain a US territory or statehood. I can understand why? Why give up US citizenship and the benefit it offers, even in the face of 'racism?'