JUDY WOODRUFF:
It's been nearly a month since Hurricane Maria devastated much of Puerto Rico and killed at least 48 people. The island and its inhabitants are still coming to grips with the extent of the destruction.
William Branham brings us the latest news.
WILLIAM BRANHAM:
Many Puerto Ricans are still in the dark, without power. Hundreds of thousands of people still lack access to running water, and the restoration of countless damaged homes, roads and facilities is just beginning.
The Associated Press reported yesterday that nearly half of the island's sewage treatment plants are still not operating, increasing the risk of contamination and disease.
Joining me now is David Begnaud. He's a CBS News correspondent who's been doing some very strong reporting there since the storm hit, and just returned from his last trip to the island.
David, welcome to the NewsHour.
I think. We have seen many of your reports and others from people still three weeks out from the hurricane who are still drinking water from creeks and creeks. You heard – I mentioned the AP report on infection fears.
Can you just tell us what's going on there? How do people get water now?
DAVID BENAU, CBS News:
Well, let me tell you this.
The governor of Puerto Rico said this morning that he is aware of the reports and is looking into them. What's troubling, William, is that three weeks after the hurricane and at least a week after allegations first surfaced that people might be trying to drink from toxic wells at so-called Superfund sites, the governor of Puerto Rico is still saying we're looking into this and telling people to stay away from rivers where sewage could spill into the river.
And, he said, we want them to stay away from coastal areas.
How are people doing? They are still desperate for water. No one can seem to figure out how to provide enough water to every person on the island who needs it. And while people need water, this is still an emergency phase.
Nearly four weeks later, no one seems to be able to move from emergency to recovery.
WILLIAM BRANHAM:
So people – we see them drinking out of these PVC pipes that they kind of built and kind of stuck into the bank of the creek.
People simply drink this water directly, without purification, without boiling; is this correct?
DAVID BENIO:
Absolutely.
Look, they cut PVC pipes into the mountains so that they would come out of the stream in that direction. And they literally are – I saw a woman walk up to the drinking water tank that the military had brought, and she had a bottle of Clorox.
And I said, “Ma'am, do you put drinking water in a Clorox bottle?”
And she said, “That's all I have.”
It was a good script. Other scenarios are people who are now drinking from streams and creeks and rivers, who don't have water filters, who don't have anything, right? They just take this water.
Look, in the last week the government has received a million water purification tablets. It took almost three weeks to receive them. There is a big push to introduce water filters.
I have to tell you that most of the water filters I see come from the private sector and from Civil Samaritans who get 1000 or more filters from the mainland, fly them to Puerto Rico and personally hand deliver them.
WILLIAM BRANHAM:
It's truly incredible.
The medical facilities were another big thing – just a huge devastation on the island. I know you've written a lot about USS Comfort.
DAVID BENIO:
Yes.
WILLIAM BRANHAM:
This is a huge naval hospital that is now located off the coast of Puerto Rico.
But I understand that it was not fully used. Can you tell us what your reports found there?
DAVID BENIO:
The two men running the ship told us that almost 87 percent of the ship is empty. Sounds alarming, right? They have 200 beds and 87 percent are empty.
Here's what they said: We are ready for whatever the government wants to do. We are waiting for a response from the government.
So I went to the governor and told him exactly what was going on. And he said, “Look, I’m not happy with the protocol that was in place initially.”
Initially, he said, they prioritized only the sickest patients who would be admitted to Comfort. And he said there is a multi-layered process that complicates the situation.
So Gov. Ricardo Rosselló said, “I started peeling back some of those layers and said, look, I'm taking people on the ship who may not be in critical condition, but need good medical care and can't get it in a hospital where the lights are flickering and the air conditioning isn't working.”
That's what the governor said.
A few hours later, I received a tweet from a third-year medical student who wrote, “Let me tell you what a nightmare achieving Comfort has been.”
He said: “We have a pediatric patient who desperately needs to leave this island, either to a hospital on the mainland or to Comfort.”
And he said, “I looked on Google and the local newspaper to find the number. I couldn't find him.”
Here's how it works. About 30 minutes after posting this tweet and publishing this medical student's story, the governor's spokesperson responded with numbers that should be able to help.
The point here, William, is that constant questions and good journalism are what make the difference. This is not one person. No journalist does any heroic work, except people who return to the same officials and ask the same questions, tirelessly searching for the right answer that will change the situation.
WILLIAM BRANHAM:
One of your other reports from early in the story was about supplies getting stuck in container ships at the ports of Puerto Rico.
I understand something – some of these supplies are moving now. Can you tell us if they get to the right place throughout the island?
DAVID BENIO:
So, the shipping containers you're talking about, about 3,000, sitting in the port of San Juan, were removed, not all, but most of them.
And they were intended for grocery stores throughout the island. Right? So these were private companies that brought these shipping containers, paid for the supplies, but couldn't move them because their truck drivers were either at home, or the house was destroyed, or the road was impassable.
There are more and more supplies. But let me tell you, grocery stores all over the island have a lot of non-perishable foods, Pringles, candies, cookies, everything on the shelves.
But when you go into the meat department, in the stores we've been in, it's almost 75 percent empty, and the produce department is 90 percent empty. And finding bottled water there is almost like playing a game.
WILLIAM BRANHAM:
David Begnaud, CBS News, thank you very much for your reporting. Thanks for your time.
DAVID BENIO:
I bet.
