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A Marshall Plan for Puerto Rico UPDATED

Readers of this blog know that I have been consistently very tough on Puerto Rico’s mismanagement and debt.

And now things changed.

First Hurricane Irma, and now Hurricane Maria, have left the island and its 3.5 million American citizens, plus others who went there from the Lesser Antilles seeking aid after Irma’s destruction, in a most critical condition.

Very few have running water.
Very few have electricity.
Very few have internet.

I mean hospitals, police, firemen, emt, essential buildings, whole areas, not simply neighborhoods.

Most people have no jobs to go back to, especially if their businesses were destroyed.
This is what most roads are like:

Worse yet conditions in the mountains, with landslides.

And the farther away you are from the metro areas, the lesser the chance of help reaching you soon.

Governor Ricardo Roselló does not exaggerate when he speaks of humanitarian crisis (emphasis added):

Stressing that Puerto Rico, a United States commonwealth, deserved the same treatment as hurricane-ravaged states, the governor urged Republican leaders and the federal government to move swiftly to send more money, supplies and relief workers. It was a plea echoed by Puerto Rico’s allies in Congress, who are pushing for quick movement on a new relief bill and a loosening of financial debt obligations for the island, which is still reeling from a corrosive economic crisis.

You can kiss the debt good-bye.

Here’s the situation, and pay attention because I’m only saying it once:

Puerto Rico has no money.

Most of the island has been destroyed by the elements.

It’s not simply that “there ain’t no ‘there’ there.” What there is left, has to be cleared, removed, rebuilt.

Thankfully, help from FEMA, the US Coastguard and Navy is arriving.

The problems are immense,

Authorities have reopened Puerto Rico’s biggest port but say efforts to speed relief supplies to the island devastated by Hurricane Maria are being hampered by heavy damage to roads, computer systems and other critical infrastructure.

Cargo ships carrying supplies from the mainland U.S. began arriving at San Juan’s port on Monday. But distribution of water, food and temporary shelter is building slowly, federal officials and private companies taking part in the relief efforts said, with thousands of shipping containers waiting for transport at the port.

I estimate that at least a million Puerto Ricans are coming to the 50 States in the next six months. As U.S. citizens, they can, and will, do so legally.

The consequences of this migration will be very severe, both for the States and for the Island.

In order for those who leave to return, they would have to have confidence in the island’s economic future.

America has done it before, and in a much larger scale: The Marshall Plan.

A new Marshall Plan is what’s needed, now.

Leave Puerto Rico on its own, and you’ll have yet another narco-terrorist enclave. On whatever is left.

UPDATE
Whitewall comments,

A Marshall Plan may be needed, but it must be with heavy outside supervision

To which I replied, Absolutely, YES. Only with outside supervision and full transparency.
Otherwise the effort, time and money will be squandered, just as so much has in the past.

A Marshall Plan, not a blank check.

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Comments

  1. A Marshall Plan may be needed, but it must be with heavy outside supervision. Afterall, they broke their own economy, squandered their own wealth and then wanted the US tax payer to bail them out. Agreed on the narco-terrorist enclave.

  2. A Marshall Plan may be needed, but it must be with heavy outside supervision
    Absolutely, YES. Only with outside supervision and full transparency.
    Otherwise the effort, time and money will be squandered, just as so much has in the past.

  3. The problem with Puerto Rico is that they want to bake a cake and eat it too. They like their “independence” (ie. lack of accountability) while enjoying all the big-government hand-outs of the federal government.

  4. Amen about the supervision. There was a guy from Mexico who went to California. He founded a successful chain of taco stands. Every year he would return to his village to visit with family and friends. The village was up in the mountains They wanted a new road. They asked him for help. He knew if he just gave them money the road would never get done. He returned and became the mayor. He oversaw the road project.

  6. I’m not joking with this idea, but since Mitt Romney proved to be the salvation of the Olympics some years ago…maybe he would be a good pick to oversee this rebuild effort?

  7. Build it back to hurricane standards also so it can withstand a hit. Don’t rebuild those weak cinder block structures. Put the power cables underground.

  8. Whitewall, I voted for Romney for that very reason.

    Here is a feel good article from The Texas Monthly

    Helping Hand
    Even as their home state is recovering from the devastation left by Hurricane and Tropical Storm Harvey, Texans are turning their attention to Puerto Rico, where Hurricane Maria left behind what San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz called “a humanitarian crisis.” As much of the island remains without electricity, water, or reliable phone service, billionaire Mark Cuban lent the Dallas Mavericks team plane to guard J.J. Barea—a Puerto Rican native—to deliver supplies and rescue his family. “Mark gave him our team plane,” Mavericks head coach Rick Carlisle confirmed. “They loaded up a bunch of stuff, supplies, etc., to take over to Puerto Rico, and they’re going to turn around and come back.” Barea returned to Texas on Tuesday night with his mother and grandmother in tow. After navigating the country’s crippled communications infrastructure, 27 members of Texas Task Force 1—and two dogs—have also arrived in Puerto Rico to help with search-and-rescue efforts, according to the Bryan-College Station Eagle. The new arrivals will join a team of eleven Texas Task Force 1 members who have been on the ground in Puerto Rico for weeks “providing leadership and coordination within FEMA.” Still, as Texans know, you don’t have to a billionaire or a FEMA agency to help out. After donating more than $1 million to relief efforts after Hurricane Harvey, the Texas Rangers gave proceeds from their Texas 2 Split 50/50 Raffle, held on Monday, to Hurricane Maria victims. And in Houston, medical professionals with the Medical Disaster Response Network are working to transport 2,500 pounds of medical supplies that they have been collecting since Harvey hit to Puerto Rico.

  10. Puerto Rico has no money. This is said as if it was a condition imposed by hostile aliens. If the federal government borrows money and uses it to finance reconstruction, unless and until the people of PR stop electing socialist politicians, they will be right back in the same condition soon enough.

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