WHITE PLAINS – New York Governor Andrew Cuomo criticized FEMA on Tuesday for not pre-deploying personnel, equipment and supplies to Puerto Rico before Hurricane Maria struck the island causing total devastation in its wake.
Cuomo made his comments at Westchester County Airport in White Plains where he announced New York hospitals, nurses and service employees were banding together to send supplies, doctors and nurses to the island to assist in aiding the people, who are, for the most part, still without electricity and communications.
The governor said FEMA did not handle its response to the devastation correctly.
“Puerto Rico is not like dealing with Texas, or Florida or New York. Puerto Rico – the government is basically insolvent, you don’t have a sophisticated infrastructure, you don’t have a depth of personnel governmentally and they were going to need to rely on FEMA more than most states that FEMA deals with,” he said.
Cuomo also said that while President Trump went to Puerto Rico Tuesday to assess the damage, he should have gone earlier to provide reassurance and comfort to the people whose lives were turned upside down by the storm.
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