Ex-officials reveal the existence of another warehouse in Guaynabo with emergency aid that was never delivered.

The NMEAD (Office of Emergency Management, by its Spanish acronym) has been paying $17,300 per month for this space, according to a contract that El Nuevo Día was able to gain access to.

Sunday, January 19, 2020 - 4:35 PM By Gloria Ruiz Kuilan

Heriberto Saurí is one of the ex-officials of the government that has blown the whistle about the existence of the warehouse in Guaynabo.

Two former officials of the government confirmed today, Sunday, the existence of another warehouse rented by the Department of Emergency Management and Administration of Disasters (NMEAD), this one in Guaynabo [a wealthy city bordering San Juan, where the rich and well connected live], with dozens of kinds of emergency aid materials in its interior. It is similar to the center that many citizens found in Ponce on Saturday (yesterday). (See that story here: https://thedonald.win/p/3wm9HRm/-flash-happening-now--earthquake/)

Heriberto Saurí, ex-Director of the Office of Public Security, and Jesús Poupart, ex-Director of Mitigations at NMEAD, confirmed to El Nuevo Día the existence of the warehouse. At this time the condition of the emergency supplies inside the warehouse is “unknown.”

NMEAD is paying $17,300 monthly for this space, according to the contract that was inspected by El Nuevo Día. The contract was signed on June 21, 2018 by the then-Commissioner of NMEAD, Carlos Acevedo, the then-director of Public Security (DSP), as well as Héctor Pesquera [who was the Police Commissioner of Puerto Rico at that time] and Ricardo Llerando, who was the Director of the Import/Export Commission. [In other words, the reports of strange movements at the ports immediately after the storm, and union truckers making off with truckloads of emergency aid under cover of night, were true. And the fucking Police Commissioner was in on it. – BoricuaPede edit for context.]

The Import/Export Commission is the owner of the warehouse of NMEAD in Guaynabo, which annually is paying a rent of $207,600. This means in 3 these years it will have paid $622,600. The contract is in force until June 21, 2021.

“This warehouse in Guaynabo, just like the one in Ponce, was under the control of the same Acevedo and under the Director of Operations, Joel Figueroa,” Pouport assures.

Forgotten, just as with María, the Distribution Plan for Storm Aid

Saurí emphasizes that the finding of the warehouse in Ponce throws into sharp relief the poor management and terrible coordination that failed to put into effect the Emergency Aid Distribution Plan, one of several documents contained in the government's Catastrophic Response Plan. This plan is well known to the Secretary of the DSP and the 32 municipal Emergency Management agencies around the Island. They are supposed to know, like the back of their hands, their responsibilities and actions to take from this Catastrophic Plan. These 32 agencies around the Island, in accordance with Federal standards that Puerto Rico must follow, are supposed to respond, together with NMEAD and its municipal counterparts, to any emergency.

“This was never followed up on,” Saurí affirms. “This is the genesis of everything that is occurring.”

“There is an Emergency Aid Distribution plan, which sets forth where these warehouses will be set up, and where there are supposed to be distribution points all across the Island. It sets forth how they are supposed to function and where the mayors (and their teams) can collect aid supplies to distribute them to their constituents,” Saurí adds. These mayors, Saurí adds further, are supposed to have the support of the National Guard in distributing this storm aid.

“As to the existence of the warehouses, also Acevedo should have known—at least—the Secretary of Public Security and the Secretary of the Family Department. Obviously they had to have known, because it is their job to manage all that has to do with donations and distribution of aid. There is a complete disconnect between what they did and what they were supposed to do. Everything must be reorganized,” he says.

This disconnect between what was planned to happen, and what actually happened in the panic and forgetfulness of the moment, was the cause of the complete breakdown of communication and organization in the days after Hurricane María, when Governor Ricardo Rosselló [the one we just fired last summer with massive street protests]—under the direction of the Office of the First Lady—opted to manage all the donations and supplies directly. The result was sheer chaos, and thousands of Puerto Ricans suffering without water and food.

Saurí says that the warehouse in Guaynabo, although it is not in perfect condition, has stocks of battery-powered radios, children’s supplies, cribs for babies, gas stoves, lights, shelters, and rescue equipment. Poupart emphasizes that before he left NMEAD, he spoke with PRIDCO [a government development agency] about finding a warehouse with better rental terms.

Link to sauce: https://www.elnuevodia.com/noticias/locales/nota/exfuncionariosrevelanlaexistenciadealmacenenguaynaboconsuministrosdeemergencia-2541778/.