Puerto Rico is a literal disaster zone with 3.4 million people living in it. Power will be out for weeks or months, a major dam is not supplying water and is at risk of collapse, hundreds of thousands of homes are uninhabitable, food and water is running out. People are dying, especially the old and the infirm. Crops have been destroyed, topsoil eroded away, trees stripped bare, local agriculture devastated.
Yet for several days after Maria it was hardly mentioned in the press. Only in the last two days has there started to be significant coverage.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/25/us/puerto-rico-maria-fema-disaster-.html?_r=0
https://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2...terphotos-from-a-battered-puerto-rico/540975/
It's not simply the significant short term effects either. There's going to be death and despair in the coming weeks, but long term the island, essentially a part of the United States, is ruined. People are going to leave and come to the U.S. The consequences for Puerto Rico are enormous, but they will echo through the US as a whole for decades.
So I'm starting the "Current Event" thread because this is a highly significant current event, and one that will raise the obvious spectre of racism, and so be subject to a large amount of media spin around things like Trump's response, and the scale of the FEMA response compared to other states. Like other current event threads, the intent is to keep track of what is going on, and identify areas of misinformation.
Yet for several days after Maria it was hardly mentioned in the press. Only in the last two days has there started to be significant coverage.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/25/us/puerto-rico-maria-fema-disaster-.html?_r=0
External Quote:SAN JUAN, P.R. — Gov. Ricardo A. Rosselló of Puerto Rico said on Monday that the island was on the brink of a "humanitarian crisis" nearly a week after Hurricane Maria knocked out its power and most of its water, and left residents waiting in excruciating lines for fuel. He called on Congress to prevent a deepening disaster.
https://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2...terphotos-from-a-battered-puerto-rico/540975/
It's not simply the significant short term effects either. There's going to be death and despair in the coming weeks, but long term the island, essentially a part of the United States, is ruined. People are going to leave and come to the U.S. The consequences for Puerto Rico are enormous, but they will echo through the US as a whole for decades.
So I'm starting the "Current Event" thread because this is a highly significant current event, and one that will raise the obvious spectre of racism, and so be subject to a large amount of media spin around things like Trump's response, and the scale of the FEMA response compared to other states. Like other current event threads, the intent is to keep track of what is going on, and identify areas of misinformation.
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