updated dig on the water bottle claims
TL;DR >water was excess FEMA supply; moved to Ceiba air field in Jan 18. Transferred to local PR in April; only 732 pallets delivered.
images BEFORE hurricane Maria. no claim of early delivery to the Ceiba air field can be claimed. [3]
September 22 2017
https://storms.ngs.noaa.gov/storms/maria/index.html#16/18.2575/-65.6364
Abdiel Santana
appears to be a normal dude, works for FURA (Fuerzas Unidas de Rápida Acción
'United Forces of Rapid Action') which is an aerial response unit; hence the elevated photos/videos.
He shared tons to photos and videos of the supplies and rescue operations before/after the hurricane. [1]
Makes a Facebook post [2]:
September 11 at 1:23 PM
Although you don't believe it… almost a million boxes of water that were never delivered to the village d. R., in front of hurricane Maria's emergency.
Is there anyone who can explain this?
after reviewing his posts, i believe his intention was about why they were still there, not that they were desperate for the supplies.
CBS is first to cover on Sept 11
https://twitter.com/DavidBegnaud/status/1039712520024588290
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/puerto-rico-water-bottles-possibly-millions-for-hurricane-maria-victims-sitting-on-tarmac/
FAKE NEWS CNN jumps on this and runs with the false claim that the water has been in one location for nearly a year. this timeline is used by several fake news articles without citation.
https://twitter.com/BillWeirCNN/status/1039952928792928256
https://www.cnn.com/2018/09/12/us/puerto-rico-bottled-water-dump-weir/index.html
https://www.cnn.com/videos/us/2018/09/12/puerto-rico-bottled-water-pallets-weir-tsr-vpx.cnn
someone posts a time-lapse showing that the abandoned runway was clear of the bottles until January 2018. this is confirmed in google earth imagery.
https://twitter.com/ArmsControlWonk/status/1039910371425808384
https://www.planet.com/stories/ceiba-puerto-rico-irkEidTmR
surprisingly honest David Begnaud questions the timeline
https://twitter.com/DavidBegnaud/status/1039912612274884609
other MSM BS claims
"Amid the uproar over President Donald Trump's claim of an "unsung success" in the government's response to the hurricane in Puerto Rico last year comes the odd report of a stockpile of tens of thousands of abandoned bottles of water sitting on an unused runway in Puerto Rico for almost nine months."
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2018/09/13/puerto-rico-thousands-bottles-fema-water-left-abandoned/1290396002/
"A vast shipment of water bottles that were intended to be delivered to victims of 2017’s destructive Hurricane Maria appear to be still sitting, unused one year later, on a runway in Ceiba, Puerto Rico."
http://fortune.com/2018/09/12/fema-unused-water-bottles-puerto-rico-hurricane-maria-victim/
FEMA proves the water was transferred to local government in April. shipments were made to local areas unloading 732 pallets. (pdf links to the water transfer in the following CBS article)
"A senior Federal Emergency Management Agency official is defending the agency after images surfaced showing what appear to be millions of water bottles sitting on a runway in Puerto Rico more than one year after Hurricane Maria devastated the island.
"Those are excess water bottles. Those were not needed during the response phase and were not distributed by the governor of Puerto Rico or FEMA for that reason," FEMA deputy administrator Daniel Kaniewski told "CBS This Morning."
Kaniewski confirmed he was comfortable with how FEMA handled the situation and said the agency will be putting out a statement on Thursday with an exact timeline.
"I'm confident that those that needed those bottles of water got them during the response phase and these were excess bottles of water that were, again, transferred to save money for the American taxpayer in January," Kaniewski said."
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/fema-official-defends-agency-over-stockpiled-water-bottles-left-in-puerto-rico/
some actually were close to correct:
"After some digging, FEMA is saying the bottles became "excess" when the tap water in Puerto Rico came back on. The water was moved to the runway to avoid expensive storage costs to taxpayers."
https://townhall.com/tipsheet/katiepavlich/2018/09/13/wow-fema-delivered-millions-of-bottles-to-puerto-rico-the-local-goverment-kept-it-sitting-on-a-runway-for-a-year-n2518364
https://www.ecowatch.com/puerto-rico-fema-water-bottles-2604612943.html