Puerto Rico Gov. Wanda Vázquez Garced fires the island's emergency management director, after a video showing aid sitting unused in a warehouse went viral on social media.— Alex Salvi (@alexsalvinews) January 19, 2020
pic.twitter.com/VJVDNW6Zht
Here's a video that was sent to me showing a large group of people who showed up at the warehouse in Ponce, Puerto Rico after they heard that the warehouse was filled with aid which could be used to help disaster victims.— David Begnaud (@DavidBegnaud) January 18, 2020
📷: Tony Alsup, President of TEARS FOUNDATION 911 pic.twitter.com/VfZFDHpqOZ
BREAKING: Puerto Rico's Secretary of State confirms more warehouses on the island stocked with aid.pic.twitter.com/zqED8THWjM— David Begnaud (@DavidBegnaud) January 18, 2020
Well well well...— Global Awareness 101 (@Mononoke__Hime) January 19, 2020
Puerto Rico Governor fired the island's emergency management director on Saturday, after a video showing aid sitting unused in a warehouse. Some of the aid has allegedly been sitting in the warehouse since Hurricane Maria struck in 2017. https://t.co/yG34b541xJ
CBS News
written by Audrey McNamara
Saturday January 18, 2020
Puerto Rico Governor Wanda Vázquez Garced fired the island's emergency management director on Saturday, after a video showing aid sitting unused in a warehouse went viral on social media. Some of the aid has allegedly been sitting in the warehouse since Hurricane Maria struck in 2017.
"There are thousands of people who have made sacrifices to help those in the south, and it is unforgivable that resources were kept in the warehouse," Vázquez said in a statement.
Garced said in a statement that she has ordered Secretary of State Elmer Roman to conduct a "thorough investigation into the mishandling of emergency aid in a warehouse in Ponce," CBS News correspondent David Begnaud reports.
"I have given 48 hours for this investigation. The investigation is to include this warehouse and any others which may exist," her statement read. "In the same vein, I have decided to relieve Carlos Acevedo of his duties as the commissioner of the National Emergency Management and Disaster Relief Agency."
Vázquez said she would nominate the current Puerto Rican National Guard chief for Senate consideration to replace Acevedo.
Earlier on Saturday, Acevedo said it was "insane" to imply the aid was mishandled.
Acevedo said in a statement that after the earthquake, the warehouse had been inspected by a structural engineer who "recommended emptying it due to the damage suffered after the event." According to Acevedo, the Fire Department Bureau removed and distributed aid from the warehouse to those affected by the earthquakes.
"There are still pallets of food, water, diapers, and baby formula, cots and awnings in the warehouse. At no time has it been ordered to seize or destroy those items," reads his statement.
"It is of utmost importance to emphasize that no citizen has been denied any of the items stored at the warehouse," he said. "At the moment there is no shortage of any of these articles and they are being distributed to the people who need it, this may be corroborated in the shelters and base camps."
"The citizen who entered the property today, and shared the images on social networks, violated the security perimeter, which in turn, represented a risk for him. For this reason he was instructed to leave the area. Any personnel entering that structure, which is compromised, requires specific security measures to ensure their safety."
A warehouse of supplies was discovered today in Ponce, Puerto Rico by a man who did a Facebook live showing people what's inside. The video went viral & the govt responded, defensively.Here's what we know & don't know, as of now.
Here's the Facebook live: https://t.co/mj7lkgpuDW pic.twitter.com/aSzSvPy6pl
— David Begnaud (@DavidBegnaud) January 18, 2020
A 4.7 magnitude earthquake hit Puerto Rico on December 28, kicking off a series of seismic events on the island. More than 2,000 tremors have occurred since the original quake, leaving the island's three million people in fear, and wanting for aid.I added USGS image above. I was looking for news regarding the earthquakes in Puerto Rico and aftermath to share with you when I came across this breaking news regarding the aid being withheld by the Puerto Rican government officials.
Puerto Ricans were waiting to see if President Donald Trump would sign a major disaster declaration to authorize the much needed aid. Nine days after Governor Vazquez submitted the request, Trump signed the declaration. One day prior, the Trump administration released $8.2 billion in heavily restricted aid to the island.
Thousands of people are still in shelters, while many others are still sleeping outside.
Puerto Rico Governor @wandavazquezg has given her Secretary of State 48 hours to do an inventory of all warehouse on the island that have aid/supplies, which are in the custody of the central govt. Some items in the Ponce warehouse have allegedly been there since Hurricane Maria. pic.twitter.com/48Oy972907— David Begnaud (@DavidBegnaud) January 18, 2020
This stupid cartoon below was published by the Star Tribune in Minnesota today of all days. This is the state where Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) represents. 🙄👇 This makes me wonder if the Marxist Democrat jerks were deliberately holding back the much needed aid from the public so they could continue blaming President Trump like in this cartoon. Just some food for thought. The Marxist as are all Communist, are evil and will sacrifice their own to push a political agenda.
(emphasis mine)
(emphasis mine)
UPDATE 1/18/20 at 5:08pm: Added tweets below.
Malditos todos !!!!!! Fotos del muro de Misael Ramos (Ponce) las ayudas desde María se perdieron y no fueron repartidas pic.twitter.com/SZTvuJymc4— Elizabeth Dorna (@lizdorna) January 18, 2020
— Elizabeth Dorna (@lizdorna) January 18, 2020
Hace 2 años la gente espera por ayudas!!! Hubo gente que no vio ni una botella de agua. Si no expiraron que hacen ahí todavía ??? Murió gente!!!! Hay personas todavía con toldos rotos!!! No hay excusa posible.— Elizabeth Dorna (@lizdorna) January 18, 2020
Son unos miserables que la prensa y el país no tema en reclamar con rabia este acto tan repudiable. Y la gobernadora y la alcaldesa de ponce no sabían de esto.? Vulgares todos. Puerto Rico no olvides esto. Desgraciados sucios tanta rabia tengo que los odio. Miserables son.— Luis M. Mojica Torres (@LuisMMojicaTor1) January 18, 2020
Para qué querían estos suministros, ya el agua expiró y muchas personas carecieron de este preciado líquido. Dan ganas de llorar 😢 😭😭😭😭😭— ochuni26@yahoo.com (@ochuni26yahooc1) January 18, 2020
Murieron personas por tomar agua contaminada. Supimos estar días sin tomar agua porque no se encontraba, como que dejaron perderla y todos los demás suministros...Insensibles, inhumanos 😡— Jisda (@jisda) January 18, 2020
Un perro tiene más humanidad que este gobierno de porquería 😠😠😠— Luis Cruz (@crofesi) January 18, 2020
#Update: And here is a clip of a facebook live video of the firefighters giving out supplies of the Emergency aid to the people of Puerto Rico what was meant for Hurricane Maria back in 2017. #US #PuertoRico pic.twitter.com/gjduv271sw— Sotiri Dimpinoudis (@sotiridi) January 19, 2020
UPDATE 1/18/20 at 10:42pm: Added tweets below.#Update: This is what they found in the warehouse that is up to 4 football fields big is what I've been told by people in #PuertoRico.— Sotiri Dimpinoudis (@sotiridi) January 19, 2020
- Food lots of them
- Water
- Tents
- Medicine
- Emergency Equipment
- Diapers
- Hygiene products
And others pic.twitter.com/EW9jhtazmr
Puerto Rico's Governor just tweeted that she's inherited many challenges, amid evidence that aid wasn't distributed.— David Begnaud (@DavidBegnaud) January 19, 2020
(Context: she used to be attorney general & investigated claims of mishandled aid; no one was held accountable.)
Some people don't trust her on this point. https://t.co/0SbSnzHor3 pic.twitter.com/dIwAIw6ZGB
UPDATE 1/19/20 at 6:26pm: Added info below.Facebook has temporarily suspended the page of a man whose FB live went viral exposing aid at a facility in Ponce Puerto Rico. The Governor responded, firing her @NMEADpr director for not distributing the aid. The user sent me this screenshot of his page which is no longer public pic.twitter.com/EdHfAIVF8L— David Begnaud (@DavidBegnaud) January 19, 2020
The head of the Puerto Rico national guard just told me the number of warehouses on the island with disaster aid, what's being done to distribute that aid... he also provided info about who signed the contracts to lease space, & how much was spenthttps://t.co/xKQiq1KCyc— David Begnaud (@DavidBegnaud) January 20, 2020
I wanted to know which govt official in Puerto Rico signed the contracts to warehouse disaster aid. The major general of the @PRNationalGuard gave me names + the amount of money paid by the the govt to the govt: $990,000 +— David Begnaud (@DavidBegnaud) January 20, 2020
(go to 10 minute mark in video)https://t.co/xKQiq1KCyc pic.twitter.com/FU9XNpWxIK
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