By Tammy Leitner and Phil Helsel
Local and federal officials said Saturday that progress is being made in Puerto Rico to restore water, gasoline and communications to the hurricane-battered island, as President Donald Trump railed on Twitter against "fake news" and defended recovery efforts.
Only five percent of the island has electricity service as of Saturday, 10 days after Hurricane Maria made landfall as a strong Category 4 storm, wrecking infrastructure and communications on the U.S. territory, according to the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
"This was a catastrophic storm. We're making progress every day," FEMA acting regional administrator for region II John Rabin told reporters Saturday. Puerto Rico's Aqueducts and Sewers Authority reported that 47 percent of its clients now have water service, according to the governor's office.
"Today will be a little bit better than yesterday. Tomorrow will hopefully be a bit better than today was," Rabin said.
The governor's office said cellular service has been restored to 33 percent of the island's customers by Saturday....
By Anthony Faiola, Samantha Schmidt and Mare Fisher
Jentia Cuffy (click here) rounded the old almond tree, its branches now snapped like twigs, as she headed toward her office at Barbuda's ruined hospital. The island's public-health nurse hadn't been back in nearly three weeks, since every soul was evacuated from this flat disk of an island laid waste by Hurricane Irma.
With the people gone, it was as if Barbuda had gone feral. Abandoned dogs had formed packs and were taking down livestock. From the hospital courtyard, Cuffy could smell death — animal carcasses rotting in the rubble. A corner of the roof had collapsed, the windows blown in. The medical dorms were a scrap heap. An ambulance was wedged into a tree.
"This doesn't look like my island," Cuffy said.
Before the storm, Barbuda was a forgotten Eden about the physical size of the District of Columbia. Its 1,800 inhabitants were family, literally. The descendants of African slaves brought centuries ago by the British, many islanders were related. The workdays were short and the rock lobster — freshly caught and free — was sweet. They'd grill them up at picnics down by the caves at Two Foot Bay National Park. There were no street addresses. Collecting mail meant a call from Joyce Lynn Webber at the post office.
"Eh, you got mail down here, come by," she'd day.
That life was blown away....
