After Harvey and Irma, can a thinly stretched FEMA come through for Puerto Rico?
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico - Nibbling on dwindling food stocks, lacking crucial medications, sweltering in half-wrecked homes with only tainted water for washing and barely any for drinking: For many in Puerto Rico, Hurricane Maria's aftermath has been even more harrowing than the mighty storm itself.
Amid growing warnings of a potential humanitarian crisis in the Caribbean island territory that is home to 3.4 million U.S. citizens, federal relief efforts were ramping up Wednesday, even as criticism mounted. Among the most urgent priorities were food and water deliveries for isolated, storm-pounded rural communities and distribution of diesel for generators to power vital services such as hospital equipment and sanitation systems.
About 97 percent of the island's residents still lacked power Wednesday, Gov. Ricardo Rossello said, and about half remain without running water.
On his Facebook page, Rossello posted a photo of a street intersection in the southeast coastal town of Humacao where someone had painted a huge SOS sign with the words, "Necesitamos agua/comida!" - "We need water and food."
Increasingly desperate local officials have demanded more help from the federal government, and
