Where is the aircraft carrier loaned to the Federal Emergency Management Agency, laden with helicopters, fuel for same, and teams of medics and community organizers, ready to airlift water, two-way radios and hope on their first sorties into the inland areas of Puerto Rico?

Where are the aircraft ready to fly to each of the communities to deliver this first aid and then to return, with more water and C-rations, to airlift out the identified medical evacuees and make their rounds again and again, until all the communities have been reached, assessed and assisted?

Why are the truck drivers, stuck in the ports without cleared or repaired roads to travel on, not helping in grouping the backlogged supplies clogging the ports into the needed bundles for quick loading into the returning helicopters, for second, third, etc., flights and then clearing the roads for more normal delivery after the first crisis has been addressed? Why was this simple solution to so many problems not started on Day One after the devastation of Maria?

Isn’t the “M” in FEMA supposed to stand for “Management”? Or should it again be changed to “MM,” as in the mismanagement of Katrina? Let’s pitch in now, then ask the citizens of Puerto Rico who survive this chaos!

Carole Sargent

Brunswick