Tag: tropical cyclone

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico -- The mayor of Puerto Rico’s largest city became an international star when she donned a T-shirt and baseball cap and begged for help after Hurricane Maria left San Juan in shambles. Six months later, constituents of Carmen Yulin Cruz are still struggling for food, shelter and power, and many have turned on the leader who they say turned her global close-up into a never-ending parade of self-promotion. After the speech, Cruz characterized the president’s pledges of support to Puerto Rico as “hypocrisy.” But while Cruz’s pitch-perfect soundbites make for good TV, there’s a growing frustration among her constituents who feel forgotten and say Cruz’s personal political ambitions are coming at the expense of the very people she’s supposed to be representing. “It stopped being about us a long time ago.” A bartender at a popular hotel in Old San Juan says she feels like a political pawn. “The impact of Hurricane Maria has created a situation of flux in Puerto Rican politics,” he told Fox News. She’s also used her newfound popularity to target political rivals inside Puerto Rico. Cruz calls out Rossello every chance she gets for his handling of Maria and his support of the Trump administration. San Juan spokeswoman Carmen Serrano, who refused requests for interviews from Fox News, told Noticel that the photos “are part of our job documenting, with dignity, the disaster not just in San Juan but other areas as well.” She added that the pictures “served to show the world that things are not back to normal like President Trump likes people to believe.” Despite the four extra photographers on hand, one of the most widely viewed pictures came from Cruz’s permanent press team. In it, the mayor is waist-deep and wading through black, muddy water. “She’s not going to go into black water up to here just because,” Puerto Rican comedian Roy Sánchez Vahamonde said.

President Donald Trump's approval rating regarding his handling of the federal government's response to hurricanes fell 20 points after Hurricane Maria ravaged Puerto Rico, according to a new poll. The CNN poll, conducted by SSRS, found that 64% of respondents said they approved of the way Trump handled the response to hurricanes in mid-September, after Hurricane Harvey and Hurricane Irma hit the continental United States. But just 44% said the same a month later, after Hurricane Maria. Trump has faced heavy criticism for his response to the destruction in Puerto Rico, where residents are still struggling with major power outages and a lack of drinking water. In the wake of Hurricane Maria, Trump called San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulin Cruz "nasty" after she begged for help and slammed the U.S. government's response. Last week, Trump said FEMA and first responders won't help the island "forever." The CNN poll found that a greater percentage of men (53%) than women (36%) approved of Trump's response after Hurricane Maria. The approval rating was also higher among white people (54%) than non-white people (25%). And young people under the age of 45 were more likely to disapprove than were respondents over the age of 45.

Weather Channel viewers spike during hurricane coverage. Concerns over recent hurricanes plaguing the U.S. have benefited the Weather Channel's viewership. The channel, which usually shows weather updates for areas across the country every ten minutes, averaged roughly 1.3 million primetime viewers during the first half of last week, according to The New York Times, which cites Nielsen ratings. That number is up from an average of 150,000 prime time viewers during the last week of July. The channel has featured continuous coverage of Hurricanes Irma over the past few week. The Times reported that Weather Channel employees have reportedly been working longer hours as well, while around 70 reporters and producers have been deployed to the field to cover Hurricanes Irma and Harvey. Harvey inundated parts of Texas and Louisiana with rain last month, while Irma is currently threatening Florida. The Weather Channel is not the only media outlet that has made changes as the U.S. grapples with two major hurricanes. The Miami Herald and The Orlando Sentinel also dropped their paywalls as Irma made its way toward Florida. Several Texas papers also eliminated pay requirements during Harvey.