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After not mentioning hurricane-devastated Puerto Rico for days, US President Donald Trump has pushed back against criticism that he failed to quickly grasp the magnitude of Maria's destruction.
Key points:
- Dozens of US Navy and Coast Guard ships sent to help
- Democrats, Republicans criticise US response to Puerto Rico devastation
- Puerto Rico's Governor thanks Donald Trump for his leadership
Mr Trump, who was also accused of not giving the US commonwealth the top-priority treatment he bestowed on Texas, Louisiana and Florida after previous storms, announced he will visit Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands next week.
He tweeted about Puerto Rico's needs, talked about Puerto Rico during a meeting on tax cuts and raised the subject at a Rose Garden news conference with the Prime Minister of Spain.
Mr Trump also attended a hurricane briefing, called a meeting of agency heads tasked with helping Puerto Rico recover and sent top officials out to the White House driveway to talk to reporters.
Federal Emergency Management Agency administrator Brock Long delivered the specifics: 16 Navy and Coast Guard ships in the waters around Puerto Rico and 10 more on the way.
Puerto Rico Governor Ricardo Rossello, who called Hurricane Maria an "unprecedented disaster" for the island, said he was satisfied with the administration's relief efforts and called Mr Trump's performance "excellent".
Six days after Maria struck the island, conditions in Puerto Rico remain dire, with 3.4 million people virtually without power and short of food and water.
Flights off the island are infrequent, communications are intermittent and roads are clogged with debris.
Officials said power may not be fully restored for more than a month.
Mr Trump, who had proposed visiting Puerto Rico earlier this month, said next Tuesday was the earliest he could get there without disrupting recovery efforts.
His public focus in recent days on other matters, particularly his extended commentary on NFL players who kneel during the national anthem, generated criticism that he was giving Puerto Rico little attention after devoting considerable time to storm damage in Texas and Florida.
Democrat Nydia Velazquez said she was concerned Mr Trump's continued tweets about NFL players showed he didn't grasp the severity of the crisis.
She warned that if he didn't start taking it seriously, "this is going to be your Katrina", referring to criticism of president George W Bush following the slow federal response to the 2005 hurricane.
'Crisis needs more attention'
The criticism wasn't just from Democrats.
"The crisis for these Americans needs more attention — and more urgency from the executive branch," tweeted Republican senator Ben Sasse, a frequent Trump critic.
Florida senator Marco Rubio was also concerned.
"We have a fundamental obligation to Puerto Rico to respond to a hurricane there the way we would anywhere in the country," he tweeted.
Mr Trump was intent on showing he had heard the message, but still wasn't ready to set aside the NFL issue entirely.
"We are totally focused on that," Mr Trump said of the growing crisis on the US island.
"But at the same time, it doesn't take me long to put out a wrong and maybe we'll get it right.
"I think it's a very important thing for the NFL to not allow people to kneel during the playing of our national anthem."
Particularly angering Mr Trump's critics were his initial tweets when he urged people on the island to stay safe as Maria came ashore.
In a trio of tweets on Monday night, he suggested that Puerto Rico was suffering in part because it had incurred "billions of dollars" in debt to "Wall Street and the banks which, sadly, must be dealt with".
"Texas & Florida are doing great but Puerto Rico, which was already suffering from broken infrastructure & massive debt, is in deep trouble," he wrote.
Democrat Joe Crowley said it was "absolutely ridiculous" for Mr Trump to mention Puerto Rico's debt "when people are suffering and dying".
"Here's a President who's used bankruptcy throughout his entire career," he said.
AP
Topics: storm-disaster, disasters-and-accidents, storm-event, weather, donald-trump, puerto-rico, united-states
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