Remember, the Mayor of San Juan said that Trump wasn't doing enough to help. The recently disgraced Governor also trashed the President for not doing enough to help:



--------------------

Tens of Thousands of Water Bottles Intended for Hurricane Victims Were Found in Puerto Rico Field

At a Glance

The water bottles had been sent to Puerto Rico as part of relief efforts after Hurricane Maria.

Reconstruction efforts in Puerto Rico have been plagued with controversy.


Tens of thousands of water bottles meant for survivors of the two hurricanes that pummeled Puerto Rico in 2017 have been found sitting unopened and expired on a private estate.

Aerial images from the news agency AFP show fields covered in piles of water bottles, many packaged in giant bundles that look like they were never opened. AFP said the site is about 25 miles west of San Juan.

A spokesman for the Federal Emergency Management Agency told AFP the water bottles had been sent to Puerto Rico as part of relief efforts after Hurricane Maria in September 2017, which destroyed much of the United States territory and, by some estimates, killed nearly 3,000 people. The storm hit just two weeks after Hurricane Irma skirted the island, causing widespread damage and power outages.

The FEMA spokesman declined to comment further to AFP, other than to say that issues surrounding the dumped water bottles were "under review by the legal department."

In a similar incident last year, some 20,000 pallets of unused water bottles were found sitting on an airport tarmac, CNN.com reported.

Controversy has surrounded relief efforts in Puerto Rico since shortly after Maria hit. Rebuilding is ongoing, and some of the financial aid from the U.S. was tied up for months amid political wrangling.

Six government officials were recently charged with embezzling $15 million in hurricane reconstruction money, AFP also reported.
----------------------


There's video of the water bottles at the link:

https://weather.com/news/news/...YWd1lKjGekPo9ueDBo9Y



.

I think this is misplaced blame here in terms of the expired water bottles. An assumption is being made that is possibly unwarranted. This relief effort was a logistical nightmare from the outset. The amount of waste and fraud after natural disasters is huge. It does not matter if it is California wildlfires, Gulf Coast hurricanes or floods.

We all saw the video of the Mayor of San Juan criticizing Trump after the hurricane as she stood in a warehouse full of cases of bottled water. While some waste is probably unavoidable, the reputation for corruption in Puerto Rico is unreal.

quote:

Originally posted by Kasinefect:
the reputation for corruption in Puerto Rico is unreal.

I know a guy who did his Mormon Mission in PR. The stories he tells are amazingly unreal. Not the mention that he told me that the Mormons choose the toughest looking young guys for that mission such that they don't become victims.

We delivered the water. Disbursement is on them. Their corrupt government failed to establish and maintain adequate infrastructure capable of disaster relief efforts.

The corruption is on a much higher level than water bottles. Huge money disappeared in all manner of pockets. A few short weeks after Hurricane Katrina the US government was already hiring attorneys to prosecute all the fraud cases that were to come. Large government contractors made HUGE amounts of money. This is a drop in the bucket compared to what we deliver in Foreign Aid to third world countries.

Stupid question, but how does water “expire”?

quote:

Stupid question, but how does water “expire”?

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Not stupid. Chemicals in the plastic leach into the water.(They say) May still be drinkable, but who knows. People in Hurricane country buy cases of the stuff in case of a threat and end up not drinking it. Hot sun does something to the plastic.

quote:

Originally posted by erj_pilot:
Stupid question, but how does water “expire”?

My question too.

quote:

Originally posted by ZSMICHAEL:

quote:

Stupid question, but how does water “expire”?

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Not stupid. Chemicals in the plastic leach into the water.(They say) May still be drinkable, but who knows. People in Hurricane country buy cases of the stuff in case of a threat and end up not drinking it. Hot sun does something to the plastic.

I'd also think that since the bottles are not fully vacuum packed, there's some air in the bottles, and that coupled with moisture and extreme heat likely could allow bacterial growth.

quote:

Originally posted by bigdeal:

quote:

Originally posted by ZSMICHAEL:

quote:

Stupid question, but how does water “expire”?

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Not stupid. Chemicals in the plastic leach into the water.(They say) May still be drinkable, but who knows. People in Hurricane country buy cases of the stuff in case of a threat and end up not drinking it. Hot sun does something to the plastic.

I'd also think that since the bottles are not fully vacuum packed, there's some air in the bottles, and that coupled with moisture and extreme heat likely could allow bacterial growth.

It is ironic that you can buy Icelandic Glacial Water which was in a glacier for thousands of years, but, once you buy, it expires in 6 months. :headscratch:

Yes, it goes bad by the stuff added in the bottling process. Bottled water is purified (RO/UV/chemically etc) and then has minerals added back in before it is bottled and capped. The plant has to evaluate the mold and bacteria growth rates to satisfy the published shelf life. The contaminants are usually on the bottle/cap, or airborne in the plant (mold spores). If their quality control fails the checks, they sample the air, conveyor lines, filler, etc to isolate the source of the contaminant.

Not to mention...once the water "expires," you have to throw it out and buy another.

quote:

Originally posted by erj_pilot:
Stupid question, but how does water “expire”?

I had the same question. (I see it has been answered.)

flashguy

quote:

Originally posted by architect:
Not to mention...once the water "expires," you have to throw it out and buy another.

Use it to water your indoor plants.

flashguy

Fun Fact: In my state, you commonly see idiots buying cases of water and dumping the water into the street -- and then taking the empty bottles back to a store where they get 10 cents each for them.

Why: because food stamps cover the cost of the water and the "bottle deposit" and then they can get cold cash for the empty bottles. So they empty a ton of them as a means of converting food stamps to cash. Then, yippie, they can buy booze, pot, and cigarettes with the cash.

beats having to dig in trash bins I suppose

Not that this is relevant to the topic of PR, but I thought I'd add this fun fact.

I heard that some state, I think Maryland, passed a law that bottled water needed to have an expiration date... that is the only reason for it. I find it hard to believe that pure water expires.... but then I find it hard to believe we actually buy it in bottles anyway... look at where most of it comes from... some municipal water company just puts it in bottles or jugs with a label and then sells it.

quote:

Originally posted by radioman:

quote:

Originally posted by bigdeal:

quote:

Originally posted by ZSMICHAEL:

quote:

Stupid question, but how does water “expire”?

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Not stupid. Chemicals in the plastic leach into the water.(They say) May still be drinkable, but who knows. People in Hurricane country buy cases of the stuff in case of a threat and end up not drinking it. Hot sun does something to the plastic.

I'd also think that since the bottles are not fully vacuum packed, there's some air in the bottles, and that coupled with moisture and extreme heat likely could allow bacterial growth.

It is ironic that you can buy Icelandic Glacial Water which was in a glacier for thousands of years, but, once you buy, it expires in 6 months. :headscratch:

Have you ever been up close to the edge of a glacier? Fucking nasty as it's full of dirt, rocks, carcasses it tilled up moving over graves, animals walking on it piss & shit, etc. Ever since I saw the edge of one up close I'm appalled that glacier water is a an advertising "purity standard."

I can assure you glacier water is filtered as much or more than ground water. However, those filters are ~99.9% effective at removing impurities so time, oxygen, heat, and sunlight can make the water unsafe.

The source of this story is weather.com?

Don't you know the weather is racist?