Members of Congress, anxious to visit and stress the need for emergency aid at the scene, complained that the administration had denied them use of military transports. But the White House said the top priority was the human emergency and Mr. Trump would therefore not visit Puerto Rico and the United States Virgin Islands until Tuesday.
In Puerto Rico, the power grid is devastated, 80 percent of agricultural crops have reportedly been wiped out, 40 percent of the people need drinkable water and communications are inoperable for most of its 3.4 million American citizens. The 103,000 residents of the Virgin Islands are in comparable straits and highly dependent on the choked ports of Puerto Rico for relief. Tourist hotels were reduced to rubble. Officials expect two main hospitals to be torn down and replaced. The islands’ debt-burdened government has been facing the same threat of bankruptcy that had already strapped Puerto Rico with sweeping austerity measures.
In surveying the extraordinary recovery challenges, Mr. Rosselló made a point that Washington should heed. “We can’t be treated differently,” he said, referring to Texas and Florida. “You can’t build half a house.”
