CBS News’ David Begnaud has confirmed with a senior official at FEMA that these viral images shared to Facebook earlier in the week do indeed show “what may be millions of water bottles” that were sent to Puerto Rico by the U.S. federal government and then never delivered to those in need by local authorities:
BREAKING: What may be millions of water bottles. meant for victims of Hurricane Maria, have been sitting on a runway in Ceiba, Puerto Rico, since last year, according to @FEMA, which confirmed the news to me, late tonight, after pictures, posted today on social media, went viral. pic.twitter.com/jidGJAvCyJ
— David Begnaud (@DavidBegnaud) September 12, 2018
According to Begnaud, a senior official at FEMA confirmed “that the water was brought to the island last year and that it was transferred and distributed — given to the central government of Puerto Rico. Again FEMA brought the water to the island and gave it to the central government of Puerto Rico, specifically to the general service administration. It’s unclear at that point what the GSA as it’s known did. Clearly they didn’t do enough.”
His video report here:
Exclusive live details about what may be millions of bottles of water left sitting on a runway in Puerto Rico https://t.co/dZKtXkEDcR
— David Begnaud (@DavidBegnaud) September 12, 2018
Now, this doesn’t even appear to be any secret. Activists are responding to Begnaud that they’ve known about the water just sitting on the runway since 2018:
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This isn’t breaking news, but IS a travesty. @FEMA has had/known about this water — as have many of us here in Puerto Rico — since early 2018. I had drone footage of the already unusable bottled water in February. I shared with media, but no one thought it mattered…??♀️?? https://t.co/PoyrV50eod
— Erin Schrode (@ErinSchrode) September 12, 2018
Chef José Andrés, who was on Puerto Rico helping cook and distribute food after the hurricane, said he even had to buy water because the Puerto Rico’s government wouldn’t give these bottles to him. He’s also calling for Gov. Ricardo Rossello to order an independent investigation:
My teams @WCKitchen @natemook @ErinSchrode knew about it but first they will say no we can not use them, months later water was no good for human consumption.We were “buying” water because they wouldn’t give it to us @ricardorossello we need an official independent investigation! https://t.co/FG2bainoVD
— José Andrés (@chefjoseandres) September 12, 2018
This is an important development as the president was roundly criticized yesterday for saying the federal government did a “great job” responding to the storm:
President Trump this morning again touted his administration's "unappreciated great job" in Puerto Rico responding to last year's Hurricane Maria — a storm that resulted in the deaths of nearly 3,000 people. https://t.co/26zJWJnzXZ
— Axios (@axios) September 12, 2018
Trump is responding to San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz who was highly critical of his comments. We actually think failure looks like a few million bottles of water just sitting on that runway:
Pres Trump thinks loosing 3,000 lives is a success. Can you imagine what he thinks failure looks like?
— Carmen Yulín Cruz (@CarmenYulinCruz) September 12, 2018
And Puerto Rico’s governor also took a subtle swipe at the president yesterday:
BREAKING: Puerto Rico’s Governor fires back at President Trump saying: no relationship between a colony & the federal government can ever be called a success…”
Trump said the federal govts response to Hurricane Maria “was incredibly successful”
Rossello didn’t address that. pic.twitter.com/FHywCTXFGU
— David Begnaud (@DavidBegnaud) September 11, 2018
Listen, 3000 dead Americans is not acceptable. But the media is giving the local authorities a near total pass on their actions both before and after Maria devastated the island. Be fair, because just blaming Trump for what was an incredibly difficult logistical problem to solve is just not accurate.
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