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Hundreds of servicemen and women will leave with Buchanan. But he points out that 2,500 army reservists are on active duty and about 5,000 members of the …
More than six weeks after Hurricane Maria hammered Puerto Rico, there's still …
Buchanan, who serves as the commanding general of the U.S. Army North, was tapped to lead the federal military's response and arrived in Puerto Rico …
Top US commander pulling out of Puerto Rico 02:49
Story highlights
- Troops and helicopters pulled from Puerto Rico recovery
- General insists time is right to transition, but fears the arrival of the next hurricane
Maricao, Puerto Rico (CNN)The three-star general is leaving Puerto Rico, ending his mission of providing relief from the devastation of Hurricane Maria.
Troops
are being pulled out, too, along with helicopters that have flown
supplies and equipment to communities cut off by landslides and broken
roads.
Yet government
statistics say power is still not on for more than half of homes and
businesses, and water is out for more than 1 in 10.
Lieutenant
General Jeffrey Buchanan recognizes that Puerto Rico is far from back
to normal, but seven weeks after the hurricane hit, he insists the time
is right to pass the baton.
"I think we're in the right place to transition," he tells CNN on the last day of his deployment.
Lieutenant General Jeffrey Buchanan looks down on Puerto Rico on the last day of his deployment.
Buchanan
notes the visible signs of difference since he first arrived in Puerto
Rico a week after Maria devastated the island. Below his helicopter,
nature's green shoots are making a comeback after the hurricane ripped
leaves from trees and triggered mudslides that turned this verdant
island brown.
He was deployed
along with thousands of personnel to offer and coordinate aid with FEMA
and local municipalities for the 3.4 million Americans of Puerto Rico.
But
while the capital of San Juan and some other towns now have power,
water and working community services, many do not, and there are so many
other issues.
CNN research this month found entire communities still without electricity, and there are ongoing contract and technical problems with power restoration -- last week just one incident on a transmission line wiped out power in San Juan and elsewhere for several hours. There's not even a reliable number for how many people were killed in Hurricane Maria and its aftermath, and the island's director of emergency management resigned on Friday.
Buchanan
spends his last day flying to Maricao, nestled amid mountains in Puerto
Rico's interior. Here there is still no power and he takes notes from
officials that three more water pumps and three more generators are
needed.
Buchanan and colleagues survey a damaged road in Maricao.
Emergency
generators are keeping the machines running at one of Maricao's main
employers -- Fresenius Kabi, which supplies blood storage bags for the
US market, according to Eric Santiago-Justiniano, the vice president of
operations. The company employs 510 people in Maricao and 498 in San German, Puerto Rico.
The
generators are expensive and inefficient. Santiago-Justiniano says the
company is spending between $95,000 and $140,000 a week on diesel for
the generators.
"The big issue here in Maricao is power, being connected to the power grid," he says.
There's
another looming problem -- the continuing exodus of people leaving
Puerto Rico for the mainland where conditions are better. Just in
October, 15 people resigned from the company's Puerto Rico facilities.
Buchanan (center) discusses needs at a relief distribution center in Maricao.
In
Maricao, there is still a distribution center for vital supplies, and
resident Carlos Rodriguez thinks they will need it for some time to
come.
Rodriguez estimates his town
is no more than halfway through the crisis, and he is concerned that
Buchanan and US resources are leaving.
He
praises the Puerto Rican National Guard for a good job, but feels more
help is still needed from the mainland. "That's what I want the general
to take away," he says.
Buchanan
acknowledges the tough situation. "This area is going to be down for a
little while for electricity," he says in Maricao.
But he agrees with his orders to leave.
The
decision to send Buchanan back to his headquarters in Texas was made
jointly by Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rosselló, FEMA and the Department of
Defense. They said the federal military mission was over and any
remaining tasks could be taken over by reservists and the National
Guard.
"I have mixed emotions,"
Buchanan says. "I have tremendous pride in all these troops, all four
services ... and they've done a phenomenal job, but the work isn't done.
"We're out of the emergency phase, but people still need help."
It's
not just Buchanan leaving. Soon after the storm there were 72
helicopters flying relief missions. Now it is down to 38, and by the end
of the week there will be 14.
That just makes sense, Buchanan says, because most roads are now open and the air missions are not needed.
Troops pack up a field hospital in Humacao, Puerto Rico, at the end of their mission there.
Elsewhere,
a field hospital in Humacao is being packed up, and the flow of
patients to the USNS Comfort hospital ship docked off San Juan is
slowing down.
Hundreds of
servicemen and women will leave with Buchanan. But he points out that
2,500 army reservists are on active duty and about 5,000 members of the
National Guard -- from Puerto Rico and elsewhere -- are working on the
island, too, as the recovery mission continues under the long-term
leadership of FEMA.
Humacao
San Juan
Maricao
Buchanan is relieved that the Atlantic hurricane season is all but over. But then there's next year.
"One concern I have, is resiliency for the next emergency," he says.
"Things are not going to be back to normal by the next hurricane season."
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