Puerto Rico governor’s plea: ‘We need more help’

Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rosselló in a Tuesday morning interview said the island needs additional help in the wake of Hurricane Maria, urging Congress to pass an aid package.

“This has been an unprecedented disaster, not only for Puerto Rico, but for all of the region,” Rosselló told MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”

“We need more help. We need more help with resources. We need more help with people being deployed so that we can get logistical support elsewhere,” Rosselló continued.

{mosads}“And we need Congress to take action so we can have an aid package that is real for the American citizens that live in Puerto Rico and that is flexible so that we can take immediate action.”

The storm, which hit Puerto Rico after Hurricane Irma, prompted the White House to send two top officials down to the United States territory to assess the damage. Federal Emergency Management Agency Director Brock Long and homeland security adviser Tom Bossert departed for the island on Monday.

Rosselló in the interview early Tuesday said the island is still “under the emergency phase” and called on the Trump administration to recognize the storm’s “unprecedented” impact.

“We’re going to need more resources as this tends to be a logistical supply chain effort. So we’re going to need more bus drivers. We’re going to need more support on the security side. We’re going to need more gas operators and so forth,” he said.