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Tuesday, November 14, 2017

Puerto Rico calls for $ 95 billion to recover from hurricanes




The island of Puerto Rico still faces the effects of hurricane Irma in early September, and Maria, who hit Puerto Rican territory in the last week of September. Nearly two months (54 days), after Hurricane Maria, most of the island still has no water, electricity or telephone services. The local government announced on Monday (13) that it will ask for $ 94 billion from Congress to rebuild what was lost.

Governor Ricardo Rossello said the island's losses exceeded those that hit Texas in the wake of Hurricane Harvey in August. "It was a huge catastrophe, possibly the largest in Puerto Rico's history, which is now devastated," he told a news conference at the National Association of Governors (NGA) headquarters in Washington.

Texas has asked the federal government to release $ 61 billion to repair Harvey's losses. "We need more resources than Texas because virtually all of our infrastructure needs to be repaired," he said.

Rosselló presented a report detailing the costs of reconstruction, and said the $ 94 billion "is still a conservative figure." The money requested should be used for construction of housing, repair of electricity generation, roads, health services, health and education. "

At least 150,000 people have left the island, according to government estimates, and at least 5,000 shops closed. The island - which lives mainly from tourism - already faces a higher rate of unemployed, which is expected to reach 20%. The national unemployment rate in the United States, for example, was 4.1% in October.

Congress has already approved $ 5 billion of aid to the island. But Rossello says it's not enough. He said the problem is that the resources generated by the companies, which are on the island, are not invested in its territory. The governor called for the tax reform, which is on the agenda of Congress, to create some mechanism of protection for the resources generated in the territory of Puerto Rico to be invested locally.

After the passage of Irma and Maria, the American president Donald Trump was accused of negligence by the press and also by members of the local government. Trump was delayed, for example, by suspending the ban on foreign ships from reaching the island's ports. This, according to the local population affected the supply of drinking water, food and fuel.

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