Power company officials said it would take at least four, if not six, months for the power to be fully restored to Puerto Rico. This is on territory that is under U.S. government control, although according to a poll only 54 percent of Americans know that Puerto Ricans are U.S. citizens. Recovery has been glacially slow. In Aguadilla, thousands of desperate people were given four bottles of water and four snacks. They are starving and frustrated. The price of water has skyrocketed from $2.99 to $10 in many parts of the island. Carmen Yulin Cruz, the Mayor of the capital, San Juan, said: "I'm begging, begging anyone that can hear us to save us from dying. If anybody out there is listening to us, we are dying and you are killing us with the inefficiency."
Trump celebrated the "incredible" job his government had done. "The loss of life -- it's always tragic -- but it's been incredible, the results that we've had with respect to loss of life," he said. "People can't believe how successful that has been, relatively speaking." He waived the Jones Act, which prevents ships from coming directly into Puerto Rico without going to a U.S. mainland port. But this will not be enough. Cuba has even offered to send its personnel to the island, but the Trump administration has not acknowledged the request.
Here is a tale of two islands, one a poor socialist state with infrastructure in grave need of modernization and the other a territory of one of the richest countries in the world. One has slowly emerged out of the chaos caused by a hurricane's wrath, while the other cannot see the light at the end of the tunnel.
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