Maintaining Potable Water Supply Post-Flood/Storm

[Mortblanc]

It appears that 10,000 shipping containers of food and water are sitting in port due to a lack of drivers for the trucks to transport the goods.

Once again politics is taking precedent over good sense. This is the same crap we had during Katrina, where a mayor and local officials in a corrupt and bankrupt "political machine" wanted to insure they got a cut of all funds, blocked assistance to the community.

The Teamsters Union is refusing to allow anyone that does not have a valid Commercial Driver License to drive a truck and the mayor of San Juan is backing them up due to political debts. The Union is in charge of vetting the drivers of the relief mission!

So far only 20% of the Union drivers on the island can be contacted, so supplies are only going out to a limited area near the city.

If this were Texas or Florida there would be a fleet of 250,000 pickup driving rednecks in 4wd units lined up and waiting to get the supplies to the people!

I am surprised that FEMA has not called on a National Guard transport unit to furnish some military drivers for this task.

Originally it was thought that the roads were impassable but that has been claimed not the case. And apparently the air port is in usable condition too or the shipments would not be getting in.

I do not think most of the people in the affected area care if the driver bringing them supplies belongs to the Union or not.

Air lifting supplies is going to be difficult due to the limited number of aircraft. Each Navy ship responding to the Island has only a couple of helicopters on board, if any.

I am sure that many of the local aircraft were damaged by the storm and they have limited capabilities at best.