President Trump heralded his administration’s response to last year’s hurricane that ravaged Puerto Rico, saying on Tuesday it was “an incredible, unsung success.”
“The job that FEMA and law enforcement and everybody did working along with the governor in Puerto Rico I think was tremendous,” Trump told reporters during a briefing on Hurricane Florence in the Oval Office. “I think that Puerto Rico was an incredible, unsung success.”
Hurricane Maria slammed into Puerto Rico as a category 4 storm nearly one year ago, knocking out power for the entire island.
The Puerto Rican government estimated nearly 3,000 people died as a result of the hurricane and its aftermath.
[Previous coverage: Only 16 percent of Puerto Rico has power three weeks after Hurricane Maria]
Trump and his administration were criticized for the response to the catastrophic storm, but the president attributed the difficulties Puerto Rico faced in the wake of Hurricane Maria to the ongoing issues with its electrical grid and financial health.
“I think probably the hardest one we had by far was Puerto Rico because of the island nature. I actually think it was one of the best jobs that’s ever been done with respect to what this is all about,” said Trump. “Puerto Rico got hit not with one hurricane but with two. And the problem with Puerto Rico is their electric grid and their electric generating plant was dead before the storms ever hit. It was in very bad shape, it was in bankruptcy, had no money, it was largely closed. And when the storm hit, they had no electricity essentially before the storm, and when the storm hit, that took it out entirely.”
Trump called the federal response to Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico “incredibly successful.”
The president received a briefing in the Oval Office on the approaching hurricane from FEMA Administrator Brock Long and Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen.
Hurricane Florence, a Category 4 storm, is expected to hit the Carolinas on Friday morning.
Two other storms have also formed in the Atlantic Ocean — Tropical Storm Isaac and Hurricane Helene.
Tropical Storm Isaac is currently projected to skirt the southern coast of Puerto Rico, according to the National Hurricane Service.
“We do not want to see Hurricane Isaac hit Puerto Rico,” Trump said. “That’s all we need. But we have a big hurricane out there, and it’s sort of skirting along Puerto Rico, on the edge of Puerto Rico. That would not be good.”
