As humanitarian crisis unfolds in Puerto Rico, Trump tweets about the island's "massive debt"

Officials are calling the devastation in Puerto Rico a humanitarian disaster. Six days after Hurricane Maria hit, millions are struggling for basic necessities like adequate food, water, fuel and electricity. Eighty percent of the island's transmission lines are down, and power may not be restored for more than a month.

In a series of tweets Monday night, President Trump said the U.S. territory's old electrical grid was "devastated." He also appeared critical of the island's financial problems, tweeting they owed "billions of dollars to Wall Street and the banks which, sadly, must be dealt with."

Texas & Florida are doing great but Puerto Rico, which was already suffering from broken infrastructure & massive debt, is in deep trouble..

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 26, 2017

FEMA has sent out over 10,000 federal forces to work around the clock, reports CBS News' David Begnaud.

Supplies are coming in slowly from the U.S. mainland to help millions still struggling across the island.

FEMA administrator Brock Long said at a press conference, "We've got a lot work to do. It's the worst hurricane Puerto Rico has seen."

Governor Ricardo Rosselló traveled with the National Guard to deliver a satellite phone to the mayor of San Sebastian. Satellite phones are critical in allowing senior government officials to communicate with local leaders in some of the hardest-hit areas. 

Only a handful of flights are trickling out of Puerto Rico's main airport. Desperate travelers crowded the ticket counters hoping to get on one of the few flights leaving for the states. "Two Category 5 hurricanes passing through an island is unprecedented and therefore the response needs to be unprecedented," Rosselló said.

"My mother needs dialysis. We've been here 26 hours," one woman said. 

"Why can't food and water be sent there right now, I mean there are babies who are naked in strollers their parents are fanning them," Begnaud asked Rosselló.

"Because of your reporting that I saw last night, I ordered food and snacks to be delivered to the airport today," he replied.

"Ok I hear you, but it's not getting to them," Begnaud said.   

He kept his word. Food and snacks arrived within an hour, but he worries about the lasting effects if Washington doesn't pass a financial aid package soon."I understand and that's why immediately I'm taking action and I will as soon as we finish the interview I will make sure that water it's on its way and food is on its way," Rosselló said.

"Humanitarian crisis will come to the United States in the form of the 3.5 million U.S. citizens that live here," Rosselló said. "And what you're bound to see is a massive exodus of Puerto Ricans into the mainland. It's going to be a problem for us, it's going to be a problem for mainland as well." 

Puerto Rico's governor has complimented the work FEMA is doing, and FEMA's complimented the governor. They both complimented President Trump, but CBS News has asked where the aid is happening. The governor guaranteed that we would be able to see it. 

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Citation

News, CBS. “As Humanitarian Crisis Unfolds in Puerto Rico, Trump Tweets about Island's ‘Massive Debt.’” CBS News, CBS Interactive, 26 Sept., 2017. <www.cbsnews.com/news/humanitarian-crisis-puerto-rico-hurricane-maria-trump/>.

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Response

This article really seems to be directed towards mid-class citizens, both male and female, in the United States. The language of the article is not so lofty that it implies an audience with a high level of education but some of the wording indicates that the audience has some level of education in order to understand words like 'unprecedented,' 'dialysis,' and 'adequate' as well as some of the other sentence styles that indicates a level of education. The article could have a slight leaning towards women as women are often stereotyped as more emotional and the information in the article expresses more of the dire situations that the Puerto Ricans are facing. The article could be attempting to cater to the women's more emotional responses and therefore directed towards them as the audience a little more than towards men.

Coming into the article, I, as the reader, had bias against Trump for the things that he tweeted about the Puerto Ricans. By stating in the title of the article that in the midst of the humanitarian crisis Trump tweeted that the island was in massive debt implying that they needed to pay up. This, before I even began to read the article, turned me off against Trump as I automatically assumed that he was saying that they would have to pay before they could expect US aid while that is not necessarily what Trump was saying.

In response to this article I really do believe that this crisis that Puerto Rico is facing could be much more devastating than what Texas and Florida were faced by just a few weeks ago as the infrastructure in Puerto Rico is much less significant than what is in place in all of the United States and as such Puerto Rico was already starting down a step so to speak in that their efforts to provide aid to themselves would already be hindered. I think that it is critical that outside nations step in to provide this support the Puerto Rico is so desperately in need of and to ensure that even after the immediate crisis is over support is continued in Puerto Rico to ensure that it would be on better standing for potential future crises.