The Puerto Rican city that President Trump visited last week in the wake of Hurricane Maria is still mostly without power, BuzzFeed reported Wednesday.
“There’s no electricity, and water has arrived at two or three neighborhoods, but very few,” said Roberto Garcia, assistant to the mayor of Guaynabo.
Puerto Rico’s government said on Tuesday that only about 10 percent of the island’s 3.4 million U.S. citizens have electricity.
The news comes a week after the president and the first lady visited the city, where they handed out necessities such as food and flashlights.
{mosads}“Flashlights, you don’t need ’em anymore. You don’t need ’em anymore,” the president said, while handing them out.
It is also where Trump — in images that went viral — tossed paper towels into the crowd of people gathered around him.
Guaynabo, which Garcia describes as “well-off,” is a 20-minute drive from the capital, San Juan.
However, Garcia said there are areas outside of the center of the city that are still in desperate need of aid.
“Guaynabo is a city with a lot of bankers and influential people,” Garcia said, “But there are a lot of less well-off people especially outside the center, who are in serious need.”
Some residents told BuzzFeed they believed the president should have visited parts of the island that had sustained heavier damage.
“He came [to Puerto Rico], but he came here, where practically nothing happened. They said he came but they brought him here, where there was practically no damage. But if you go to the center of the island there’s so much destruction, that’s what is painful. They don’t have food or water,” Doris Morales said.
Trump’s visit to the island came after the federal government faced backlash for not responding to the humanitarian crisis on the island at a quicker rate.
Basic necessities such as food and water has been slow to reach victims of the storm.