Why States Took So Long to Dispatch Help to Puerto Rico
- After rushing to Texas and Florida, aid to island was slower
- Commonwealth’s ability to reimburse also cited as factor
Puerto Rico Governor on Recovery Efforts and Debt
Within a week of Hurricane Harvey slamming into the Texas coast, Virginia had dispatched a 14-person urban search-and-rescue team, a 17-person team to save people trapped by flood waters, and a National Guard team with 40 soldiers and seven helicopters.
But in the two weeks since Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico, Virginia had sent just a single person though an interstate compact for managing disaster response. His job: helping the island coordinate its requests for aid to other states.