Didn't know that. Thanks. So why didn't the governor mobilize them to get the aid to the people?
And even if PR didn't have a National Guard -- where are the rest of the able-bodied to do the work? No one volunteered? No one there to organize the distribution?
Maria hit 9 days ago. Less than half of the Puerto Rico National Guard is on duty.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/checkpoint/wp/2017/09/29/maria-hit-9-days-ago-less-than-half-of-the-puerto-rico-national-guard-is-on-duty/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.8738feea7a19...But nine days after Hurricane Maria, a striking trend has emerged: Less than half of the 8,000 members of the Puerto Rico National Guard are on duty. Army Lt. Gen. Jeffrey Buchanan, the top U.S. officer overseeing military operations on the island, attributed this to a combination of factors. Many personnel are dealing with the devastation in their own lives, he said, and some are providing help in their full-time jobs as police, firefighters or other first responders rather than through the Guard.
The struggle to activate National Guard troops comes as Puerto Rico grapples with devastation that U.S. officials have, repeatedly, called unprecedented while defending the federal government’s response. A growing number of critics have questioned why more U.S. forces were not deployed sooner. The storm cut a 60-mile wide swath across the island with Category-4 strength, knocking out the electrical grid and leaving people desperate for food, clean water and medical care....
...In Florida, Gov. Rick Scott (R) activated all 7,000 members of the Florida National Guard before Hurricane Irma pummeled the state. In Texas, all 12,000 members were activated within two days of Hurricane Harvey coming ashore with Category-4 strength.
The comparatively small number of Guard troops on duty in Puerto Rico appears to underscore a disconnect between pleas made on the ground by civilians on the ground since the storm, and the federal government’s relatively modest response at first....