This US Department of Defense news release has a good summary of the situation as of September 30, including the US Virgin Islands: DoD Accelerates Hurricane Relief, Response Efforts in Puerto Rico. Excerpt and then a comment:
Puerto Rico Situational Update
-- FEMA reports assessments completed at 64 of 69 hospitals; 59 are partially or fully operational; five unassessed facilities are psychiatric hospitals that do not provide emergency care.
-- Forty-five percent of customers have access to drinking water. Ninety-five percent of customers remain without power; power has been restored to San Juan airport and marine terminals.
-- Eight hundred and fifty-one of 1,100 retail gas stations have reopened and purchase limits have been lifted. Forty-nine percent of grocery and big box stores are open.
-- Erosion repairs to the Guajataca Dam are scheduled to begin Oct. 1-2.
-- The Navy hospital ship USNS Comfort departed Norfolk, Virginia, yesterday and it is estimated to arrive in Puerto Rico on Oct. 4.
-- Five of six FEMA-priority sea ports are open or open with restrictions; surveys of Ponce and Roosevelt Roads are ongoing.
U.S. Virgin Islands Situational Update
-- An assessment of the main hospital on St. Thomas will be completed today.
Details of DoD Response in Puerto Rico
-- U.S. Northern Command is deploying enhanced logistics capacity, centered on commodity distribution and medical support, and designed around a sustainment brigade. Northcom is flowing five force packages into Puerto Rico focused on logistics, tilt/rotary wing lift, and medical units. Force Package 1 is on the ground with leadership in Puerto Rico for planning and assessment. Force Packages 2 and 3 will deliver logistical units and associated command and control and is deploying. Force Package 4 will follow and deliver helicopters, aviation command-and-control elements and medical units. Force Package 5 will deploy next and provide more robust medical capacity.
-- The USS Wasp, carrying three MH-60 helicopters, is en route to Puerto Rico and will embark 10 additional aircraft. The Marine Corps has identified eight additional MV-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft and two KC-130 fixed-wing aircraft that will self-deploy to support operations on Puerto Rico.
-- U.S. military helicopters moved 3 HHS Disaster Medical Assistance Teams with 12,500 pounds of equipment to Mayaguez, Arecibo, and Ponce from Roosevelt Roads to support the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ “hub-and-spoke” concept for the delivery of medical care. Seven federal medical stations will be co-located with each of the seven hospitals identified as ‘hub’ hospitals.
-- The Guajataca Dam spillway continues to erode; immediate risk reduction measures are ongoing to stabilize the dam spillway. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reports two to three inches of rain has fallen, and an additional two to four inches each day over the next two days is possible.
-- U.S. Transportation Command will deliver super sandbags for spillway stabilization today; sandbag installation will follow on or about Oct. 1.So 55% of Puerto Ricans are without drinking water, which is appalling, and 95% still have no electricity. And the dam repairs are evidently under way in heavy rainfall. The public health consequences have yet to emerge, and cholera is very unlikely to be among them.
But routine gastroenteritis and diarrhea will be highly likely. Watching people wade through floodwater (like San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz) makes me fret about leptospirosis and skin infections. And as mosquito populations rebound, we'll have to keep an eye out for Zika, dengue, and chikungunya.
