Congressman Charlie Dent (PA-15) is in Puerto Rico to see how recovery efforts are going in the wake of Hurricane Maria. “I appreciate this opportunity to see firsthand how the recovery efforts are progressing on the island,” said Dent. “We owe it to our fellow citizens, many of whom have families in the 15th District, to make certain that their needs for food, shelter, clean water and power are being met,” Dent concluded.
Dent has been at the forefront of efforts to make sure that educational funding to meet the needs of Pennsylvania school districts dealing with the influx of large numbers of displaced K-12 students from Puerto Rico.
His visit coincides with a report that the death count has grown. In addition to the 64 deaths directly caused by the hurricane, there have been over 1,000 deaths as a result of the lack of power. Over 86,000 customers still have no power six months after the storm.
14 comments:
It is bad in areas and that is not acceptable. It's not unexpected though. I think there should be an investigation into the malfeasance that has taken place. Maybe when the Dems take the house back and regain the power of subpoena. Don't expect any of these current cowards in charge to do anything .
waste of taxpayer dollars from this lame duck
Why is a lame duck taking a taxpayer funded trip to Puerto Ri8co. Check the fancy hotels and beaches.
waste of tax payers money this lame duck will take as much as he could he has been in the swamp and knows how to operate
He may be a lame duck, but this has impacted his district. I know it is happening, but I would be curious what impact in actual student numbers the slow recovery is having on area school districts (and not just Allentown and Bethlehem). The lack of substantive federal response is beginning to have a local impact, and hence impact local tax dollars. There is a definite push-pull effect between the island-mainland.
The electrical grid in Puerto Rico was on it's last leg prior to the huricane. The huricane just finished it off.
While natural disasters have underscored the problems of the island's electrical system, over the past few years the island's and the power company's money problems made the power grid particularly susceptible to crippling damage by storms.
As of 2014 the government-owned company was $9 billion in debt, and in July, it filed for bankruptcy under the provisions set by the Puerto Rico Oversight, Management, and Economic Stability Act, a law signed by President Obama in 2016.
Problems accumulated. Cutbacks in tree pruning left the 16,000 miles of primary power lines spread across the island vulnerable. Inspections, maintenance and repairs were scaled back. Up to 30% of the utility's employees retired or migrated to the U.S. mainland, analysts said, and the utility had trouble hiring experienced employees to replace them.
The neglect led to massive and chronic failures at the Aguirre and Palo Seco power plants. The three-day blackout in September 2016 underscored how fragile the system was, and that the company was "unable to cope with this first contingency," the Synapse Energy report said.
A waste of taxpayer money is when PA Legislators send out newsletters the first week of petitions. Incidentally, they said nothing about their opposition to fair districts. I applaud Dent for his visit. He will provide an honest interpretation.
So, large numbers of residents fled the island for benefits on the mainland, there are not enough able bodied willing workers to do the reconstruction, labor has to be shipped in from the mainland. Of course the blame lies with the Trump administration.
Why travel to Puerto Rico? Just visit Allentown.... same thing!
This kind of bigoted remark is precisely why I was happy to see them exposed to it from the other side last week
I admire the few who live in the US who went to their native island to help. Sadly, one can count them on one hand....figuratively, of course. More fled the trouble to come here.
You are full of shit as usual. The obligation to help in PR is not a responsibility of Puerto Ricans who live here and may lack the means to travel there, and who may have none of the sjills required to rebuild the infrastructure. The responsibility rests with ALL Americans, and to our fellow Americans, asshole. And as it happens, I know many PRs from the LV who did just what you are complaining they failed to do. You are just looking for an excuse to indulge in your bigotry, as usual. Don't post your ethnic hatred here again or you will be deleted.
Wow, what is he doing in Allentown??
Let me clue you in. What happened in PR has had an impact in A-town. Some of those displaced by the hurricane are in this congressional district. So speeding the recovery there will help A-town. We are all connected, whether you like it or not, and you apparently don't.
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