Haiti wasn't quite the same. Here in S FL we learned quite a bit about the Haiti event because there are so many Haitians living in Broward and Dade counties. The news was full of it, and the Creole community was determined to carry the story.

For starters, the quake damage in Haiti was not as widespread, it struck mostly in several highly populated areas. ("Earthquakes don't kill people, falling buildings kill people.") Roads and power grids in the country, and rural villages, were little affected. Haiti's population is three times the size of PR, but the country is much greater in area. They are more spread out.

Second, Haiti is a much more rural, agricultural economy and population. Puerto Rico is highly urbanized and industrialized. PR is much more vulnerable to any form of disaster, and especially more so to hurricanes which have a more widespread effect. In PR, people drive to work, depend on electrical appliances, and have lives tied to modern sewage and communications and power and automobile infrastructure. They use computers and rely on broadcast news and wireless telephony. Its not that much different than it is here.

Third, the relief effort in Haiti did NOT get off to a good start, and in many respects, is not over yet. The country is still in recovery mode, and it may be decades before it rebuilds fully.

I don't blame Trump fully for the problems in PR, there are geographical and historical causes for them, but I do believe he is being rather cavalier about it all. Its like he really doesn't understand the magnitude of the problem, or the complexity of the solutions. And he certainly doesn't understand how quickly it can spiral out of control. He has the kind of mentality that is used to "subbing out" his technical problems, to placing some interchangeable paid expert in charge so he can concentrate on more lofty management and finance issues. The idea of him sitting around a table while technical experts drone on and ask him for priorities and decisions has always been terrifying to him, and boring. The business majors always see the techies as drudges and grinds, not creative and dynamic like they are.

Much like Bush with Katrina, I don't believe he is actually motivated or handicapped by racism, I just think he is not really aware of just how critical his personal leadership is in this kind of emergency. And like all Republicans, he seems so easy to blame any catastrophe or emergency on someone elses lack of ambition or effort. For him, anyone not like him must be lazy, or stupid, or incompetent. And people like that cannot "do their part". Its not just Mr Trump, the whole Conservative mentality is saturated with contempt for those they see only as "takers" and "looters": i.e., employees. When things go wrong, its because THOSE PEEPLE lack ambition and gumption, they have no creativity or originality, they expect someone else to do everything for them, or hand out money to them. All they do is complain. And the Democrats and Liberal media always take their side. Not even Bush was that fucked up.

This isn't about race. Its about class.