WASHINGTON/SAN JUAN, Jan 17 (NNN-AGENCIES) — US Pres Donald Trump approved a disaster declaration for Puerto Rico on Thursday over the series of earthquakes that first hit the island last month.
Trump’s approval will make federal funding available to affected individuals in the municipalities of Guánica, Guayanilla, Peñuelas, Ponce, Utuado and Yuaco, the White House said.
Starting on Dec 28, Puerto Rico was hit by a series of small earthquakes. The quakes intensified, culminating in a tremor measuring 6.0 magnitude that was followed by a series of aftershocks.
The disaster declaration will make available assistance including grants for temporary housing and home repairs, low-cost loans to cover uninsured property losses and other programs to aid individuals and businesses recovering from the disaster.
The disaster declaration comes one day after the Trump administration said it would end its months-long hold of more than $8 billion in disaster aid relief appropriated by Congress for Puerto Rico intended to help the island after the 2017 hurricane that devastated the territory.
Puerto Rico Gov. Wanda Vásquez Garced had declared a state of emergency, along with several mayors across Puerto Rico.
In Yauco, one of the areas worst hit by the earthquakes, dozens of people were sitting on cot beds Wednesday in the parking lot of a municipal stadium, sheltered from the sun by white tents and blue tarps handed out by the federal disaster management agency, known as FEMA.
Throughout the day, volunteers arrive to hand out food and toys for the children who fill the shelters: schools have been suspended because the buildings are not sturdy enough to withstand another quake.
The island’s earthquake detection system has registered 1,104 tremors in the past two weeks alone, of which 186 could be felt by the population. By comparison, during the whole of 2019 there were 6,442 tremors, of which just 62 could be felt by people on the island.
Further south, in Guanico, the houses in this part of the island are mostly rudimentary constructions built by the people who live in them with scant resources available in the mountains, where no regulations stipulate that buildings should be earthquake resistant.
The government of Puerto Rico said that as of Monday, there were 4,924 people living in 28 shelters in 14 municipalities. There were no figures on how many buildings had been damaged or destroyed.
Puerto Rico’s governor Wanda Vazquez Garced called on Trump to declare the earthquake a disaster and clear the way for desperately needed aid. Trump had declared an emergency days before, but the governor wanted more.
The declaration of an emergency frees up to $5 million dollars in aid for the island, although Congress can bump that figure up. But if the situation is designated a disaster, there is no ceiling on funding, a FEMA spokesman said.
On Wednesday, the government said it would release $8.2 billion in delayed hurricane relief that had been stalled after the president threatened to divert Puerto Rico’s emergency funds to help pay for his wall on the US-Mexico border.
In the past few days there have been growing calls among Democratic lawmakers for Trump to declare the situation in Puerto Rico a disaster.
It is a delicate subject, as Trump has accused the government of Puerto Rico of incompetence and of siphoning off hurricane relief money, triggering a public spat between the president and the mayor of San Juan, Carmen Yulin Cruz, as well as the former governor Ricardo Rossello, who was forced to step down last summer amid massive protests.
The Puerto Rican leaders accused Trump of treating the population of the island like second class citizens. — NNN-AGENCIES