A military crackdown in Rakhine State has forced more than half a million were handed it across the border into neighboring bangladesh me and maher has denied allegations of crimes against humanity and genocide. Those are the headlines the news continues analogise there after the strain. Al jazeera is a very important source of information for many people around the world when all the cameras are gone im still here go into areas that nobody else is going to talk to people that nobody else is talking to and bringing that story to the forefront. I am only going to find and meaning in your in the stream live on aljazeera and you too the death toll in puerto rico from Hurricane Maria has jumped to thirty four and could rise even higher now as the u. S. Territory continues the recovery effort who is helping out. We are here. Tonight cannot fathom. The thought that the greatest nation in the world cannot figure out the logistics for island of a hundred miles like thirty five miles. So maybe. We are. Its been two weeks since the strongest hurricane to hit puerto rico in ninety years made landfall delivering a massive blow to the u. S. Territory Hurricane Maria decimated the islands infrastructure the storm snapped power lines like toothpicks and toppled homes like they were made of playing cards more than thirty people have died and the death toll is expected to rise in the wake of the storm theres been much talk about the territorys relationship with the United States president Trumps Administration has been widely criticized for its slow response and sending much needed aid to the island on tuesday the president made his first trip to puerto rico to see the devastation firsthand puerto rican Officials Say what he saw was little if anything has changed the three point five million residents living on the island continue to struggle to find water petrol and other basic needs so who will help joining us from san juan to discuss that rene vargas a lawyer and newspaper columnist is about she is the managing director of concrete a nonprofit focused on the social and Economic Development in puerto rico and in new york Hector Figaro A Puerto rican activist and president of thirty two b. J. Service employees International Union welcome everyone to the stream we also invited the mayor of san juan on to our show she originally agreed but later declined due to scheduling conflicts so lets start in san juan where our a. J. Plus colleague and occasional cohost on the stream have a dean was on the ground when the category four storm hit take a look. Just ride some lawn and its very difficult to drive around because fifty percent of the city was flooded and its not water thats preventing you from going from one place to the other its broken power lines trees debris. This mess. With their doors. Hers. Are mysteries that people are really going to cost over to another neighbor so she lost her house completely. Renee two weeks later what is your area of san juan look like. Hi renee thanks for being here thank you for joining us its two weeks after the hurricane what does your area look like. Down and melich and thank you for the opportunity to be here talking about puerto rico so san juan is. I would like to say that were returning to normality but things are getting a bit better gas lines are a big. There is still a big problem with and cash. Eight percent of people in the island have electricity and about fifty percent have Running Water so many some places its it alternates depending on the day. But outside of the metropolitan area its where the real story is where theres a lot of it with a lot of areas are still in communicated there are still people that dont have access to food supermarkets havent been able to get. Good stare theres long lines for gas no do you so. Theres problems for people to get refills permitting. People that are losing their jobs because theres no power i actually i work for a. Nonprofit Financial Institution and most of the people we are helping are asking for extensions because theyve lost their jobs or are asking for permission to take their cars out of puerto rico to get jobs on the mainland so its complex theres a lot to do and even though once again things are Getting Better on the gas side in san juan its still very hard to go to a supermarket and get food with mine or to get cash which is the only thing that is accepted on the streets so when youre talking about what i do we. Actually isabel id like to read this tweet for you that weve got this is from roe in new york he has family and puerto rico and hes hearing from them hes hearing and he says that theyre physically fine but going through it like the rest of the island no water power long line says when i was saying to buy anything isabel can you tell us why two weeks after the hurricane are the there are still these long lines theres long lines there because we dont have power everything has to be cash based not all the supermarkets are open and answer and as said there is. We have someone is better and theres more people with diesel and gasoline but theres a lot of traffic because theres no power and theres no. Lights in the streets. For the traffic. Theres theres still eighty and theres only thirty six percent to a. T. M. s are working so we have the rest of the people are there all of a conglomerate ing into the same a. T. M. The only the few supermarkets that are open. How pulled up this headline here you wrote this on september twenty eighth published in the New York Times washington set puerto rico up for disaster and in it you talk about your father and you say that its been more than a week since ive had any word in new york from my ninety three year old father in puerto rico he lives in a town that was in the path of the worst storm to hit the island since the one nine hundred twenty eight how was your father today and have you made contact. I have make contact with my sibling and my sister and of course in passing by the report from him is that he is physically well but like the other. You know the folks said you know people are without the necessities they have no Running Water they have no electricity is hard to get from where they leave to the downtown of course because they live outside the town the roads have been destroyed and theyre covered by debris so while he is ok for now we are looking you know what our options are Going Forward people are patiently inquire more waiting for aid to come. To and to be substantial enough to provide particularly for seniors and children that assess it is that they need they also have an aunt in a nursing home in the town and the conditions are similar no electricity no Running Water. One thing i like to say that the spirit of puerto rico is in the middle of all these have been incredible the way in which they have been helping each other the way in which they are being cooking together spending evenings together making sure that they can go through these hardship with the level of a sense of community on purpose but time is running out and we need the aid and we need the support of the Government Communications electricity that we reestablished as soon as possible in the remote area so hector you mention the speed of a delivery or the slowness rather i want to play a video commenting that rene to respond to every name we got this from abigail who was in puerto rico during Hurricane Maria shes now in new jersey take a listen to what she had to say. We collectively. To. The evening and for the twenty people i mean i guess including the local police. It got pretty dire. You know youre going into thinking water and again there was no one around and never never saw any u. S. Federal help ever when i was there i felt like you know if i was a u. S. Citizen in a foreign country i get i would that help sooner but since i was a u. S. Citizen in puerto rico no one really cared about us and no one was going to give us any information on how to reach our loved ones so were they i would also. Felt like nobody cared weve heard a lot about the slowness of delivery from the federal government have you felt in puerto rico that youve been forgotten by the mainland. Oh definitely the. Response by firma has been really sluggish and it shows people are talking about theyre comparing it to other hurricanes even here in puerto rico like georges and go where you would see you like quickly see a response and see what they call the blue the blue temporary roofs over house of snow to help people nothing has been their distribution is very slow people are really not seeing the presence of the federal government in the streets and i know a lot of people say you know you want the federal government to do everything for you and its not that its a point where we go its not ready for weve had massive cuts for the last decade. That have really diminished you cant possibly over our own government to respond to crisis like this and that has been seen cause of our debt crisis so. Its important to note that Puerto Ricans have served in the military since world war one and more than one hundred sixteen thousand americans certainly u. S. Army so to say that we are expecting for things for people to help us i mean Puerto Ricans have served their duty as you do as u. S. Citizens and what ive just seen now in terms of people helping each other out is that Civil Society is tired of waiting for whoever is in charge to distribute supplies and they are taking matters into their own hands theyre jumping in cards theyre getting into their their you know their s. U. V. S and now that theres these islands i dont want to and theyre going out and theyre going to different towns and every day have people come back to the office after theyve given out supplies and theyre doing it this on their own and some help from the place where im working at what i would i thought be aware theres theres a bunch of different nonprofits working from there because we do have electricity and Horror Stories that theyre saying when they call back is that those people havent had to receive anything and its been almost two weeks. Nothing and is that did i hear what youre saying i heard also with the video commenter said dan abigail said we never saw federal help so i pulled up here females responses ema is the federal Emergency Management agency this is an overview of federal efforts to prepare for and respond to Hurricane Maria fema was actually already in puerto rico to respond to Hurricane Irma which made landfall before Hurricane Maria that was a little bit earlier you can see a time line here so when maria actually hit on september twentieth making landfall there agents were out on the ground they were getting water and they were helping with that response however the criticism is that it wasnt far enough and it wasnt necessarily outside of the capital so it is a valid human change your organization i pulled up here your own website your solution is an off the grid box and all in one solution equipped with all the hardware needed to produce electricity and clean water in remote areas how does this work and does it. Well right now were we just ordered the first one which is going to be a guess which is an island of a small island part of puerto rico its been isolated we we got expertise from people in silicon valley. Creator of this off the greeks voxs and mit and weve been working with our diaspora to help us in each phase of our fallen and how were going to allocate our funds to so that to make it up in a responsible way so were were raising a fund committed. And a committed to dot com and the first are yes needs to sesame the second area is power as a source as you mention were going to start with these twelve boxes to marginalise and vulnerable communities they filter it water and they also can power up a kleenex size of Structure Medical clinic and they also have three hundred portable battery units that people can take to their homes they can charge their cell phones they can also power up some light bulbs and our third focus for the follow on is long term reconstruction efforts so is it oh you mentioned you mentioned that the diaspora is involved in this project and i actually want to ask hector about that because hectors in the past for new york we got this video comment from the top hector take a listen. Whether ego has been facing one of the most cancers epic disaster of a century yes been to way since youre actually my youngest the island and were still trying to get Recovery Efforts there as a puerto rican living in the ass right very devastating to see what is happening yet our puerto rican pride kids are strong in this time to continue to work hard to build puerto rico this is not a time to play political games but a time to unite collaborate and stabilize there are Many Organizations and individuals working to support the island some of them are friends of puerto rico when a u. S. Company but parts of the go see those the latino flows we call asian the red cross the National Association of hispanic journalists signed by you all to take action and give back to puerto rico. What is the top priority for Puerto Ricans on the u. S. Mainland in sending things back to puerto rico when i think theyre to peyote it is the priority of sending good to necessity you know about that is a purchase where they go in the beginning i think those things are still very very necessary and you know we also need to send foodstuffs and things that people family members will need but i actually want to challenge that notion that this is a time for us to leave politics aside i actually seen the opposite i think that kind of five for puerto rico is now not later we all need to unite to save lives and we need to have an understanding of this coat of these the idea that we also need to be fair and demand for the federal government the kind of respond that is needed and resources it. Be made of these all calamity to be between forty to eighty five billion dollars in insured losses by air and core logic you know the amount this event has requested from kong is much less than that and hes intended to cover all the unit came the south theres the fires in california so we really really have to. You know maybe the moment an organized today we had demonstrations in thirteen c. D. s in this day is demanding more aid and also as it is in the Economic Conditions in which political found itself before we need the burden to be to be. Lifted and when we want to have a speed of humanity and solidarity we also cannot afford not to make the demands politically that our island is now because were talking about lives were talking about whether or not they are going to reach my father and my family in cornwall my real appeasing of selinas and did i ask but as relatives and friends and what we need to play with each other we have to recognize that puerto rico has being fundamentally abandoned and the administration has not fully understood and articulated the extent to which puerto rico is in hardship and the spear so i think we have to do both we have to send aid we have to send we leave or we have to demand that the government does its part puerto rico going to was far more economically than what it gets every year in federal funds lets have that relationship before the time being reversed in a way that helps put the reason to be back on its feet so i had to mention the administration i pulled up this headline here call me a Columbus Dispatch suppling for the New York Times where we can also relationship with the u. S. Its complicated and thats putting it lightly i think nowhere perhaps is this relationship as complicated or as visible then it was with u. S. President trumps a visit to puerto rico this came two weeks after the hurricane made landfall have a look at what he told people yesterday. Now i hate to tell you puerto rico but youve thrown our budget a little out of whack because we spent a lot of money on puerto rico and thats fine we saved a lot of lives if you look at the. Every death is a horror but if you look at a real catastrophe like katrina and you look at the tremendous hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people that died and you look at what happened here was really a storm that was just totally overpowering nobodys ever seen anything like this and what is your what is your death count as of this moment seven. Hundred sixteen people certify sixteen people versus in the thousands. You could be very proud of all of your people all of our people working sixteen versus literally thousands of people you could be very proud of is about to see that and i wonder what the reception while to president trumps a visit in puerto rico. Well its not a surprise from this president. You know people that are receive it well of course and its not we live in a drought we go we live in an island and we are prepared to be safe during the here again we know what to do during hurricanes but its what happens after the here at kings theres a lot that this hole is going to grow right now we have a mosquito problems right now the hospitals are full cool until capacity right now you know i have a probably a member who had a stroke and he had to wait two days and the waiting room until he was. You know into the. Paid attention to him two days he was in coma for two days in the waiting room. The death toll is going to grow and if its six months or more until we get the energy back. Its going to keep getting worse. Yeah yeah and the people who are intensive unit care you know many of them. Didnt they hear king of the loss of electricity i mean whether or not a number of people we dont know the number of people who have died you know the number that has been offered by the president by the governor are to certify that there are people in morgues waiting to be identified waiting to be claimed by their relatives i dont want to be armies but and also we cannot judge a tragedy just by ok that you have this many lives and these many lives lost the extent and the geography and the incapacitation of puerto rico. Is quite frankly without parallel in the u. S. Flag and you know rather than making as computer records to be proud about what we have accomplished depression and should be saying what more can we do what more do we have to do as a federal government to put you back on your feet what is what is needed how can we rebuild bridges how can we restore electricity and then we need to you know frankly as of our local government in puerto rico and i give tremendous kudos to the mayor of san juan you know how can you lead a place in lives thinking that this is not a tragedy a catastrophe you know as bad as katrina i mean thats really very wrong i personally want to try to get one area because theres there were areas of puerto rico are not going to want so all those i wonder greatly impacted that does not reflect the reality of the rest other parts of puerto rico i think it would have been good for them to take the president to the ball the whole area where he got so he would see the real damage and all the people that are suffering and that i still havent received a so when a i want to ask you about one thing that we saw a particular moment in donald transverse that you can see here on my compete. Peter it was when he was throwing paper towels into a crowd of Puerto Ricans who had come to see his address you can see here he was throwing them and almost as if he was at a sports game and then this chorus and gayle commented on the incident she says tossing paper towels to the crowd is ridiculous not the visual that needs to be seen at this time renee did you see this and what did you think of it if so. Everybody in puerto rico saw this disgraceful like by trump and you know i dont want to go talking to tropical trumpets like this guy whos you know who likes attention on this is kind of thing to to get attention and to move it away from the actual tragedy which is what the actor and hes about have been talking about no i want to go back to over talking about about the u. S. Responsibility with puerto rico for we can still not decide to be invaded in one thousand nine hundred eighty eight we did not decide to become a u. S. Colony or a u. S. Territory or to have power sure self rule we did not decide to to abide by laws that do not that we care that we do not bode for we did not have any control over the jones lawyer puerto rico so there is a responsibility if the us was to keep territories it has to be responsible for them and theyre not being responsible for putting we can put our we conserve done everything they can we clear the roads the local government has got his court of the gas tanks and everything but we are talking about a country that is bankrupt and trying to say that look because a lot of people did not enough people died here this is not that bad of a catastrophe to cover the week and the central response by the federal government is disgraceful and i do hope that some sense goes into trump and his aides and that they understand that this goes beyond politics and the twitter war and talking about the nasty mayor that has only done was any other u. S. Representatives would do if their people were dying just say it out loud and criticize it not in the spirit of harming the u. S. Or the federal government but in the spirit of actually getting the attention that we serve right rene i hear you there and of course you mention the jones act that is a century old black that allows for ships only u. S. Ships to carry goods and passengers to only u. S. Ports and it really makes things more expensive for Puerto Ricans or is that petition here. To make sure that that jones act is waived and it actually was for ten days this is the White House Press secretary potest has authorized the jones act to be waived for puerto rico it will go into effect immediately unfortunately it is not long term well talk about that in our next show unfortunately of deposit conversation here were going to pick up and part two on thursday will discuss the way forward the impact the islands massive debt will have on the rebuilding process and the jones act until then well see online. Their forefathers fought the says he its. Twenty five years off to independence. They too must become mad. Defenders of. Preparing for the possibility of war. Waiting for invasion but witness documentary this time on aljazeera. Turned on aljazeera. After a year of mourning time and beds a final farewell to its longest reigning monarch. 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