hurricane maria
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Puerto Rico's Hurricane María Death Toll On Par With 9/11 Terrorist Attack
In October 2017, weeks after Hurricane María first made landfall in Puerto Rico, Donald Trump praised Governor Ricardo Rossello on the disaster’s low death toll. “Every death is a horror, but if you look at a real catastrophe like Katrina, and you look at the tremendous— hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people that died—…
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Tiffany Brown, Head of the 1-Woman Company That Delivered Only 50,000 of 30 Million Meals to Puerto Rico, Blames FEMA
An Atlanta woman whose one-person company was contracted by the Federal Emergency Management Agency to provide millions of meals to Puerto Rico in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria, but delivered only a fraction of that, says that FEMA is to blame. Tiffany Brown, who is listed as the only employee of Tribute Contracting LLC, last…
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How Last Year’s Hurricane Season May Have Decimated the Virgin Islands’ Middle Class: Report
Back-to-back strikes from two major hurricanes last year, Irma and Maria, have undone years of economic and social growth in the U.S. Virgin Islands, a new report from the Washington Post finds. The storms have so thoroughly disrupted the islands’ economy, education and health systems that “a generation of Virgin Islanders” may have been “blown…
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Almost 1,000 More People Died in Puerto Rico After Hurricane Maria Than Officially Confirmed: Report
On Oct. 3, during his horrific visit to Puerto Rico, Donald Trump congratulated the island’s governor, Ricardo Roselló, on the U.S. territory’s death toll following the devastation wrought by Hurricane María. “Sixteen [dead] people certified,” Trump told Roselló. “Sixteen people versus in the thousands. You can be very proud of all of your people and…
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Whitefish, Candidates for the Scammer Hall of Fame, Billed Puerto Rico More Than 7 Times What They Actually Paid Their Workers: Report
A new report from the New York Times has uncovered the startling gap between what Whitefish Energy, the small energy company that was charged with rebuilding Puerto Rico’s devastated power grid, charged for its workers and what it actually paid. The Times spoke to six electrical workers from Kissimmee, Fla., who are currently working on…
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Puerto Rico Suffers Major Blackout as Power Line Fails
After weeks of repairs, Puerto Rico was hit Thursday night with a major power outage that has thrown a substantial portion of the island back into darkness. As the New York Times reports, a major power line serving the northern half of Puerto Rico failed Thursday night, knocking out electricity to seven cities, including the…
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1 Fish, 2 Fish, No More Whitefish: Puerto Rico Cancels Controversial Energy Contract
The Puerto Rican Electric Power Authority, amid mounting controversy surrounding its $300 million contract with Whitefish Energy, has decided to cancel the deal. As CBS News reports, Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rosselló announced early Sunday that he wanted the no-bid contract with the small, 2-year old Montana company to be canceled “immediately.” The governor’s decision…
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Puerto Rico Awards Largest Relief Contract to Small, 2-Year-Old Mont. Firm With Ties to Trump Administration
Puerto Rico’s power authority, PREPA, has awarded a lucrative contract to rebuild the island’s devastated power grid to a small, 2-year-old Montana firm that had only two full-time employees at the time Hurricane Maria hit, according to a report by the Washington Post. The company, Whitefish, also has ties to Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke. Whitefish…
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Trump Gives Himself a 10 for Relief Efforts in Puerto Rico; Former Island Governor Hits Him With #WellActually on Twitter
Last week, Donald Trump gave himself a 10 out of 10 when asked about his handling of relief efforts in Puerto Rico after the devastation left behind by Hurricane Maria. On Friday, the former governor of Puerto Rico hit him with a big #WellActually on Twitter. During an Oval Office meeting Thursday with current Puerto…
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Report: Water From a Hazardous Waste Site Is Being Given to Puerto Rican Hurricane Survivors to Drink
More than three weeks after Hurricane Maria struck Puerto Rico, over 35 percent of the American citizens there (and Puerto Ricans are all American citizens, every single one of them) do not have potable drinking water—and a report that came out late Friday night indicates that the residents of Dorado, Puerto Rico, are being given…