As Puerto Rico struggles amid mass power outages and food and water shortages, some politicians and experts say that one 97-year-old maritime law will make recovering from the disaster much more difficult.

The Jones Act, passed after World War I to protect the U.S. ship-building industry, requires that domestic shipping must be conducted by U.S.-owned, U.S.-made ships staffed by American crews. This has meant that Puerto Rico, an island that relies on imports from the U.S., pays more than twice as much as neighboring islands for American goods, according to a report by former International Monetary Fund economists.

Nydia Velázquez, a Puerto Rican-born congresswoman who represents parts of New York City, is leading the call for a one-year suspension of the act while the island rebuilds from hurricane damage.

“The island is now facing an unprecedented uphill battle to rebuild its homes, businesses and communities,” said Velázquez in a letter written to the Department of Homeland Security on Monday and signed by seven other members of Congress. “Temporarily loosening these requirements – for the express purpose of disaster recovery – will allow Puerto Rico to have more access to the oil needed for its power plants, food, medicines, clothing, and building supplies.”

The Department of Homeland Security suspended the Jones Act on Sept. 8 because of disruptions of the oil supply system after Hurricanes Harvey and Irma, but the waiver expired on Sept. 22. Hurricane Maria hit on Sept. 20, knocking out all power to the island and nearly all cell phone towers.

“My expectation is to rebuild stronger than ever,” Gov. Ricardo Rossello told NBC News. “But clearly if this is not taken seriously ... Puerto Rico is going to collapse into a humanitarian crisis.”

The Trump administration said this week it would not extend the waiver for Puerto Rico. A spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security said Tuesday that officials think that waiving the Jones Act would be unnecessary.

An assessment by Customs and Border Protection, an office of Homeland Security, showed there was “sufficient capacity” of U.S.-flagged vessels to move commodities to Puerto Rico, said spokesman Gregory Moore, in a statement to Reuters.

“The limitation is going to be port capacity to offload and transit, not vessel availability,” Moore said.

Democratic Rep. Luis V. Gutiérrez from Illinois on Tuesday criticized leaving the Jones Act in place, amid Puerto Rico's financial crisis. The territory has been in a severe recession since 2006 and declared a form of bankruptcy earlier this year.

Gutiérrez, who was among those who signed Velázquez’s letter to the Department of Homeland Security, said the U.S. government should suspend the Jones Act at least for a decade if not repeal it permanently.

“Since it was imposed on Puerto Rico, the Jones Act has cost Puerto Rican consumers more than all the money owed to Wall Street, yet the president reminds us of the debt in his tweets,” he said on the floor of Congress. “Let the ships flow as quickly and as cheaply from wherever they may come from because this is an emergency.”

Other politicians have spoken out in the past against the Jones Act for needlessly hurting Puerto Rico’s economy.

Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona first introduced legislation to repeal the law in 2010 and tried again in July.

“I have long advocated the repeal of the Jones Act, an archaic and burdensome law that hinders free trade, stifles the economy, and ultimately harms consumers,” he said.

On Tuesday, McCain said he was urging the Department of Homeland Security to waive the act for Puerto Rico to aid its recovery efforts. In a letter to Acting Secretary Elaine Duke, he also asked that it assess how a long-term waiver or full repeal would effect hurricane-damaged communities, including those in Florida and Texas.

Economists at the University of Puerto Rico found that the Jones Act cost the island’s economy $17 billion between 1990 and 2010, according to a 2012 report.

Republican Rep. Gary Palmer of Alabama cited this study in 2016 when he, too, called for Puerto Rico to be exempt from the Jones Act. Three American territories are exempt from the Jones Act: the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam and American Samoa.

Other studies have said the Jones Act costs Puerto Rico, Hawaii and Alaska about $2.8 billion to $9.8 billion per year.

A report by the Government Accountability Office in 2013 said that although the Jones Act may make imports to the island more expensive, the dedicated routes also ensure reliability and keep more than 1,400 American jobs.

In April, the Trump administration had appeared to be moving forward with an Obama-era proposal to reverse the Jones Act, but it was withdrawn in May.

The Jones Act was last temporarily waived in December of 2012 so that petroleum products could be delivered for relief assistance after superstorm Sandy.

Op-eds in major national newspapers have endorsed calls to get rid of the act, including one published Monday in The New York Times by Nelson A. Denis, a former New York state assemblyman who has written extensively on Puerto Rico's economic crisis.

“A humanitarian crisis is about to explode in Puerto Rico,” Denis wrote. “But the consequences of Jones Act relief would be immediate and powerful. This is not the time to price-gouge the entire population. It is time for Congress to act ethically and responsibly and suspend the Jones Act in Puerto Rico.”

The consequences of leaving the Jones Act in place could be dire for the 3.5 million U.S. citizens in Puerto Rico, some experts warn.

“It means extending the suffering,” said Dennis Nixon, a professor of marine law at the University of Rhode Island. “It’s hot there today, there’s a risk of thunder showers. They’ve got no electricity, no drinking water."

Nixon said that it could lead to an even more painful financial crisis for Puerto Ricans, who might start leaving the island in a forced mass migration to the U.S.

"It would hugely accelerate the ability to move goods into Puerto Rico, because you’d basically be getting a 20 percent discount on everything," he said.



Jonathan Gutoff, a maritime law professor at the Roger Williams University School of Law in Bristol, Rhode Island, said that even though the Jones Act may not be hindering aid from reaching the island, it does increase prices for consumers and makes it harder for businesses to market their exports.

“Given that Puerto Rico is suffering from a fiscal crisis and the aftermath of Maria, anything to help Puerto Ricans should be done and the Jones Act should be suspended,” he said.

Whether or not to repeal the act is a tougher question, Gutoff said. Because of the role of the Jones Act in maintaining the American boat building industry for offshore work, more study should be done before a repeal, he said.

The American Maritime Partnership said it is actively working with the Trump administration, FEMA, The United States Maritime Administration (MARAD), and other relief organizations to deliver food, fuel, first aid supplies and building materials to Puerto Rico. Approximately 9,500 containers of goods have already arrived on the island to help in recovery efforts, according to the partnership.

“A steady stream of additional supplies keeps arriving in Puerto Rico on American vessels and on international ships from around the world,” said the charmain of the partnership, Thomas Allegretti. “The problem now is distributing supplies from Puerto Rico’s ports inland by surface transportation.”



The Shipbuilders Council of America did not immediately respond for comment on the Jones Act, but according to its website the council strongly supports the act, calling it "vital to America’s economic, national and homeland security." </s> "At @ricardorossello request, @POTUS has authorized the Jones Act be waived for Puerto Rico. It will go into effect immediately," White House press secretary Sarah Sanders tweeted Thursday morning.

Her tweet comes after Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rosselló said he asked the White House to loosen the regulations Wednesday night.

He joined the growing list of officials who argued that lifting the the Jones Act -- a federal law designed to protect the financial interests of US shipbuilders by limiting shipping by foreign vessels -- would help expedite supplies to the ravaged island. The act has had the unintended consequence of making it twice as expensive to ship things from the US mainland to Puerto Rico as it is to ship from any other foreign port in the world, according to Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain's office.

The act was quickly lifted to help Texas and Florida in the wake of hurricanes Harvey and Irma. The Department of Homeland Security said it was able to lift the restrictions quickly because the Department of Defense requested a waiver for those states and the department hadn't yet done so for Puerto Rico. Trump told reporters on Wednesday that "we're thinking" about lifting the law, but added that a "lot of shippers" didn't want it lifted. What the Jones Act controversy is all about In the wake of the devastation in Puerto Rico caused by Hurricane Maria, San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz -- along with other US politicians, including McCain and Marco Rubio, R-Florida -- had urged the suspension of the Jones Act in order to speed up supply deliveries. </s> On the defensive over the pace of federal help for Puerto Rico, President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans cleared the way Thursday for more supplies and government cash for the hurricane-ravaged U.S. island.

Trump waived federal restrictions on foreign ships delivering cargo. And House Speaker Paul Ryan said the Federal Emergency Management Agency's disaster relief account will get a $6.7 billion boost by the end of the week. Trump and his advisers, meanwhile, defended the administration's response to the devastation on the island, which was hit by Hurricane Maria Sept. 20 with many people left desperate for power, food and other supplies.

"The electric power grid in Puerto Rico is totally shot. Large numbers of generators are now on Island. Food and water on site," Trump tweeted early in the day.

The developments Thursday came after Trump came under sharp criticism for what critics said was a too-slow response to a humanitarian crisis among Puerto Rico's 3.4 million residents.

From the White House driveway to cable television, a squad of advisers defended the president's response and described the relief efforts as well underway, with most hospitals "operational."

Acting Homeland Security Secretary Elaine Duke said she signed the waiver of a federal law called the Jones Act to clear the way for foreign-flagged ships to deliver supplies between U.S. ports.

"You are seeing devastation in Puerto Rico. That is the fault of the hurricane," Duke told reporters in the White House driveway. "The relief effort is under control."

Tom Bossert, Trump's homeland security adviser, said the impression of a slow response isn't so much wrong as it is outdated. He said more than 40 of the island's 69 hospitals are accepting patients.

And FEMA Administrator Brock Long said the efforts have been hampered by damaged airports and ports on the island.

"The question is that last mile," Long told CNN, speaking of the difficulty of getting aid all the way to those in need.

Ryan, meanwhile, said a "huge capital injection will occur in two days" to help Puerto Rico recover. He noted Trump had waived a matching funds requirement, which means the cash-strapped island won't have to contribute to the initial costs of the federal assistance. The Wisconsin Republican said he expects the Trump administration to send Congress a request for a long-term recovery package once damage assessments are conducted.

"We will quickly act on that request," Ryan said.

Duke said the shipping waiver came in response to a request from Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rossello. The waiver, the White House said, would go into effect immediately.

Rossello responded on Twitter to Trump's action: "Thank you @POTUS."

Duke had waived the law earlier this month to help ease fuel shortages in the Southeast following hurricanes Harvey and Irma. That order included Puerto Rico but expired last week, shortly after Maria struck.

The Trump administration initially said a waiver was not needed for Puerto Rico because there were enough U.S.-flagged ships available to ferry goods to the island. </s> Puerto Rico’s governor said officials were working to get food, fuel and water “everywhere on the island” as millions of people continued to suffer without the basics and reports emerged of vital supplies stranded at Puerto Rico’s main port.

About 97% of the US commonwealth’s 3.4 million residents were still in the dark Wednesday, one week after Hurricane Maria slammed into Puerto Rico, Gov. Ricardo Rosselló said. About half the residents do not have running water.

Puerto Ricans are waiting hours in line to get gas, food and cash. Gas stations and supermarkets are rationing supplies, while banks are running low on cash.

“Right now we are in emergency mode,” Rosselló said on Wednesday afternoon. “Our focus is not necessarily restoring energy. The energy grid has been destroyed. … And we need to rebuild it. That does not get rebuilt in days.”

Asked if he thought the federal government was doing everything it can to help the island, Rosselló said, “Well, they are. This is an unprecedented event. President Trump has been in close communication with me practically every day making sure we have the assets, giving orders to his team so that they can execute.”

The governor said getting aid where it’s needed has been a challenge because of the magnitude of the destruction on the island.

“This has been the biggest catastrophe in the history Puerto Rico in terms of natural disasters,” he said.

Critics said the government’s aid effort could be improved if Washington lifted the Jones Act, an obscure, nearly 100-year-old law that requires all goods ferried between US ports to be carried on ships built, owned and operated by Americans. The law had the unintended consequence of making it more expensive to ship things from the US mainland to Puerto Rico. Trump said Wednesday “we’re thinking” about lifting the Jones Act for Puerto Rican ports in the wake of Hurricane Maria, but he said a “lot of shippers” don’t want it lifted.

Rosselló said he had not asked the President to lift the Jones Act so aid might flow more fully to Puerto Rico. “I did not solicit that to him personally but it is something that would help Puerto Rico, certainly, at least in the short run,” Rosselló said.

As desperate Puerto Ricans wait for aid, there’s not enough food to go around. In the town of Utuado, Lydia Rivera has started to ration crackers and drink rainwater to keep her two grandchildren alive.

The hurricane killed 16 people in Puerto Rico, 27 in the island nation of Dominica and one in the US Virgin Islands. As Puerto Rico attempts to recover from the disaster, there were signs that aid sent from the US mainland isn’t making it to people in need. And the US recovery efforts in Puerto Rico have been markedly different from the recent responses to other Americans in hurricane-stricken Texas and Florida.

With supplies running out, many Puerto Ricans are collecting water from mountain streams.

Harry Torres said the water is all they have for cleaning and drinking until help comes. They’ve heard on the radio that trucks loaded with supplies from the Federal Emergency Management Agency have arrived on the island.

Some help began arriving. On Wednesday, a plane carrying 3,500 pounds of water, Army meals ready-to-eat, diapers and other supplies headed from Florida to Puerto Rico. The plane, which usually carries out intelligence missions, returned to the US mainland with dozens of family members of federal employees.

Two military officials told CNN on Wednesday that another 2,000 to 3,000 US troops will be sent to Puerto Rico in the coming days to assist with aid. One official with US Northern Command said there are approximately 2,500 active-duty troops in Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands. This does not include National Guard forces.

“We are getting help from the federal government, but this is an unprecedented set of circumstances,” Rosselló said Wednesday. “We want to make sure that we recognize that a lot of resources are coming in. They are coming in by air or by boats. But they are starting to execute.”

Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands have seen fewer personnel since Hurricane Maria hit than Texas and Florida did during recent hurricanes in those states.

FEMA said more than 10,000 federal staff members were on the ground in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands assisting search-and-rescue and recovery efforts.

Trump announced he will visit Puerto Rico next Tuesday, nearly two weeks after Maria struck the US commonwealth.

“Puerto Rico is a very difficult situation,” he said Wednesday. “I feel so badly for the people.”

The President has faced criticism for his response to Puerto Rico, compared with Texas and Florida — two states he visited within four days of Hurricanes Harvey and Irma.

With nearly all Puerto Ricans still without power Wednesday, the lack of electricity and fuel have yielded dire consequences.

At a hospital in San Juan, two people died in an intensive care unit after it ran out of diesel, San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz said.

Residents are relying on generators to keep appliances such as air conditioners, medical devices and refrigerators running.

At the San Jorge Children’s Hospital in San Juan, 12 children depend on ventilators to survive, but the hospital has only a limited amount of fuel for generators, said Domingo Cruz Vivaldi, the hospital’s executive director.

The hospital is the largest private children’s medical center in the Caribbean. When the hospital ran out of diesel Monday, the ventilators had to run on batteries for hours until another hospital offered them fuel.

“We were very thankful for that. We were very lucky,” Cruz Vivaldi said.

The hospital is working to secure more gas, he said, because that diesel will only last about two days.

‘People are starting to get desperate’

Before sunrise every day, dozens of people hauling red plastic gas cans start lining up at gas stations. They need fuel to power their cars in case of an emergency or to keep generators running at home.

Some wait for up to six hours armed with lawn chairs and umbrellas.

“If the gasoline arrives, it will fix our problems,” Utuado Mayor Ernesto Irizarry said. “People are starting to get desperate,”

At least 60 people have been arrested for violating the overnight curfew ordered by the governor to keep the island safe.

And 36 have been arrested for looting and theft in Humacao, Caguas, San Juan and Bayamón, said Michelle Hernandez, superintendent of the Puerto Rico police.

While Puerto Ricans await more government help, some companies and a Florida college are stepping up.

Telecommunications giant AT&T is bringing floating antennas to help re-connect Puerto Ricans, said Rosselló, the governor.

And Miami Dade College will offer in-state tuition to displaced college students from Puerto Rico, the college said via Twitter.

Rosselló said he hopes the kindness shown by Puerto Rico during Hurricanes Harvey and Irma will be returned.

“The people know that Puerto Ricans are proud US citizens,” he said.

“After Irma, we helped out others — about 4,000 US citizens that were stranded. We gave them shelter and food. During Harvey, we sent out resources to Texas as well. … And now it is time to take a quick decision and help out Puerto Rico as others have done.”

Maria and another storm continue to churn in the Atlantic Ocean but are not expected to threaten the US mainland.

Now a Category 1 hurricane, Maria is 165 miles east of North Carolina and is expected to move northeast and then east out into the Atlantic. Hurricane Lee, a Category 3 storm, is 485 miles east-southeast of Bermuda and will likely move north and northeast. </s> The Trump administration is diverting millions of dollars from federal disaster relief funds and using it instead to detain migrants and create temporary locations for their court hearings, multiple news outlets reported Tuesday.

In total, $271 million is being reallocated from various parts of the agency, according to the Department of Homeland Security. But the largest chunk of the money — $155 million — will come from the Federal Emergency Management Agency's disaster relief fund, NBC News and CNN reported.

The news comes as Tropical Storm Dorian, expected to soon become a hurricane, bears down on the US territory of Puerto Rico.

"This realignment of resources allows DHS to address ongoing border emergency crisis by alleviating the surge along the Nation's Southwest Border while minimizing the risk to overall DHS mission performance," DHS said in a statement.

The agency said in a press release the 2019 DHS Appropriations Act gave the authority to move the funds.

Tropical Storm Dorian is pictured off the coast of Venezuela. NASA / Handout / Reuters

Read more: Immigration officers refused to let a Harvard student into the US after reportedly questioning him about his religion and his friends' anti-American social media posts

The remaining $116 million DHS funds being reallocated comes mostly from Coast Guard operations and aviation security, DHS officials told NBC News.

One official told the network that the money was being transferred immediately, and it would fund the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency through September 30.

"We would not say this is with no risk, but we would say that we worked it in a way to … minimize the risk," the official said. "This was a must-pay bill that needed to be addressed."

The money is being used to support a controversial Trump administration program that forces some asylum-seekers to wait in Mexico while their immigration cases are resolved in the US court system.

Democrats immediately criticized the move, arguing that the agency had not demonstrated that the reallocation was necessary and that Congress had not approved it.

"I have grave concerns about DHS's proposed end-run around laws passed by Congress that would drain millions from agencies tasked with protecting the homeland from security threats and natural disasters like hurricanes and wildfires — including CBP, TSA, FEMA and the Coast Guard," Sen. John Tester of Montana told NBC News in a statement.
• Tropical Storm Dorian is pelting the Caribbean with heavy rain and wind. Here's where the storm is heading next.
• 11 photos show people in Puerto Rico and Barbados preparing for Dorian as the tropical storm batters the Caribbean
• Trump reportedly suggested using nuclear bombs to stop hurricanes from striking the US </s> • The Trump administration is diverting millions of dollars from federal disaster relief funds so it can be used for immigration enforcement, NBC News and CNN reported Tuesday.
• The news comes as Tropical Storm Dorian, expected to soon become a hurricane, bears down on the US territory of Puerto Rico.
• In total, $271 million is being reallocated from various parts of the Department of Homeland Security, but the largest chunk of the money – $155 million – will come from the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s disaster relief fund.

The Trump administration is diverting millions of dollars from federal disaster relief funds and using it instead to detain migrants and create temporary locations for their court hearings, multiple news outlets reported Tuesday.

In total, $271 million is being reallocated from various parts of the agency, according to the Department of Homeland Security. But the largest chunk of the money – $155 million – will come from the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s disaster relief fund, NBC News and CNN reported.

The news comes as Tropical Storm Dorian, expected to soon become a hurricane, bears down on the US territory of Puerto Rico.

“This realignment of resources allows DHS to address ongoing border emergency crisis by alleviating the surge along the Nation’s Southwest Border while minimizing the risk to overall DHS mission performance,” DHS said in a statement.

The agency said in a press release the 2019 DHS Appropriations Act gave the authority to move the funds.

Read more: Immigration officers refused to let a Harvard student into the US after reportedly questioning him about his religion and his friends’ anti-American social media posts

The remaining $116 million DHS funds being reallocated comes mostly from Coast Guard operations and aviation security, DHS officials told NBC News.

One official told the network that the money was being transferred immediately, and it would fund the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency through September 30.

“We would not say this is with no risk, but we would say that we worked it in a way to … minimize the risk,” the official said. “This was a must-pay bill that needed to be addressed.”

The money is being used to support a controversial Trump administration program that forces some asylum-seekers to wait in Mexico while their immigration cases are resolved in the US court system.

Democrats immediately criticized the move, arguing that the agency had not demonstrated that the reallocation was necessary and that Congress had not approved it.

“I have grave concerns about DHS’s proposed end-run around laws passed by Congress that would drain millions from agencies tasked with protecting the homeland from security threats and natural disasters like hurricanes and wildfires – including CBP, TSA, FEMA and the Coast Guard,” Sen. John Tester of Montana told NBC News in a statement.
• Tropical Storm Dorian is pelting the Caribbean with heavy rain and wind. Here’s where the storm is heading next.
• 11 photos show people in Puerto Rico and Barbados preparing for Dorian as the tropical storm batters the Caribbean
• Trump reportedly suggested using nuclear bombs to stop hurricanes from striking the US </s> Washington (CNN) The US military is planning to deploy the USNS Comfort hospital ship to assist with FEMA's response efforts in Puerto Rico a week after Hurricane Maria smashed the island as a Category 4 storm, several defense officials told CNN.

The Comfort is a seagoing medical treatment facility "capable of providing resuscitation and stabilization care; initial wound and basic surgery; and postoperative treatment," according to the US Navy.

Puerto Rican officials asked for additional medical assistance from the ship after initially indicating that they wanted to focus on getting power restored to damaged hospitals on shore, US officials told CNN.

CARIBBEAN SEA (April 10, 2015) Military Sealift Command (MSC) hospital ship USNS Comfort (T-AH 20) sits anchored off the coast of Belize for it's first mission stop during Continuing Promise 2015.

While the Comfort is on the way, according to FEMA administrator Brock Long, it may not deploy for another week -- within five to nine days as additional forces are activated to help man the ship along with its current crew of about 18 civilian mariners.

The crew is expected to grow to as many 60 and the medical crew could increase from the approximately 65 now with the ship to as many as 1,200, according to officials.

Hillary Clinton urged the Defense Department to send a Navy medical ship, while Democratic House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi called for Republicans to join with Democrats to pass a robust relief package.

The Navy hospital ship is just one part of the military's humanitarian assistance effort -- deploying assets to both Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands after the storm decimated critical infrastructure in the region.

The USS Kearsarge Amphibious Ready Group has already been conducting rescue operations in the region, including eight medical evacuations and 148 airlifts, and delivered 44,177 pounds of relief supplies and cargo to Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands since Maria struck, according to the Pentagon.

The US Air Force is also sending additional aircraft to Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands to ramp up the volume of daily relief missions.

Speaking on Capitol Hill Tuesday, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Joseph Dunford said the priority is making sure airfields can operate.

"The responsibility is primarily DHS, but at this point we're not trapped in bureaucratic niceties, what we're trying to do is make sure that we get the people of Puerto Rico the support they need when they need it," he said.

"All the other support they need can't come in until we get the ports and airfields open, so that's why Northern Command has placed that at the top of the list in terms of the support we're providing," he added.

Dunford said he expects more military aircraft will be used particularly for "generators, water, food, those kind of immediate needs."

In addition to deploying the USNS Comfort for additional medical assistance, the Defense Department is supporting FEMA's immediate priorities for Puerto Rico including: debris and route clearance of critical transportation routes; re-opening air and sea ports; re-establishing utilities, and implementation of a commodities distribution plan.

"Northern Command continues to conduct 24-hour operations, aggressively conducting search and rescue operations, bringing additional essential commodities to the islands, and restoring power at hospitals, ports, airports and other critical facilities," according to the service.

The US military is sending a variety of additional aircraft vehicles to assist with ongoing missions aimed to deliver critical supplies and capabilities to Puerto Rico:

One C-17 Globemaster with the remaining Contingency Response Element to establish airport operations. This unit includes more than 50 personnel.

One C-17 and one C-5 with the Mobile Emergency Response Support unit to provide mobile telecommunications, life support, logistics, operational support and power generation.

One C-17 with the 3rd Expeditionary Sustainment Command from Fort Bragg, North Carolina. This unit includes approximately 20 personnel with tactical trucks and utility trailers to provide site assessments.

One C-17 with the 63d Signal Battalion from Fort Stewart, Georgia. This unit includes approximately 15 personnel, tactical trucks and utility trailers to provide satellite ground communications capabilities.

Two C-5s with the 101st Combat Aviation Brigade from Fort Campbell, Kentucky, to provide tactical airlift with eight helicopters.

Two C-130s with the FAA's Incident Staging Base Cache from Dobbins Air Reserve Base, Georgia. This unit includes approximately 50 personnel and four heavy duty trucks and equipment.

The Air Force is also further increasing airport throughput capacity in San Juan by assisting the Federal Aviation Administration with air traffic control repairs.

The US military is also deploying additional aerial and medical assets to the Virgin Islands to assist in ongoing relief efforts:

Four C-17s with water and meals to St Croix.

Two C-17s and one C-130 to St Thomas with National Guard units that include approximately 120 personnel. </s> Get the top headlines of the day in your morning briefing from NBC 4 New York, Monday through Friday. Sign up for our newsletter here.

A federal judge has temporarily blocked the Trump administration's decision to end a program protecting young immigrants from deportation. U.S. District Judge William Alsup granted a request by California and other plaintiffs to prevent President Trump from ending the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program while their lawsuits play out in court. Alsup said lawyers in favor of DACA clearly demonstrated that the young immigrants "were likely to suffer serious, irreparable harm" without court action. The judge also said the lawyers have a strong chance of succeeding at trial. DACA has protected about 800,000 people who were brought to the U.S. illegally as children or came with families who overstayed visas. The program includes hundreds of thousands of college-age students. U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced in September that the program would be phased out, saying former President Obama had exceeded his authority when he implemented it in 2012.

Search for SoCal Storm Victims That Killed at Least 13 Continues

A storm that slammed a California coastal community is over. The search for its victims is not. Authorities in Santa Barbara County were still trying to reach new areas and dig into the destruction to find dead, injured or trapped people after a powerful mud flow swept away dozens of homes. At least 13 people have been confirmed dead, at least 25 were injured and at least 50 had to be rescued by helicopters. Those numbers could increase when the search is deepened and expanded, with a major search-and-rescue team arriving from nearby Los Angeles County and help from the Coast Guard and National Guard along with law enforcement. They'll focus first on finding survivors. A sheriff said it's likely they'll find more people amid that destruction.

A magnitude 7.6 earthquake struck in the Caribbean Sea between the coast of Honduras and the Cayman Islands, shaking the mainland and causing officials to briefly post advisories warning of the threat of possible tsunami surges around the region. There were no early reports of serious damage on land. Officials in Honduras said shaking was registered across much of the Central American nation and there were some reports of cracks in homes in Colon and Atlantida provinces along the northern coast and Olancho in eastern Honduras. Tsunami warning centers initially issued advisories stressing that people in Puerto Rico, the Cayman Islands, Cuba, Jamaica and other Caribbean islands as well as on the coasts of Mexico and Central America should aware of the tsunami danger. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said later that the advisories had been canceled. The U.S. Geological Survey measured the quake at a preliminary magnitude of 7.6. The tremor struck in the sea about 125 miles north-northeast of Barra Patuca, Honduras, and 188 miles southwest of George Town, Cayman Islands. The tremor occurred about 6 miles below the surface.

Former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon is stepping down as chairman of Breitbart News Network after a public break with President Donald Trump. Breitbart announced Bannon would step down as executive chairman of the conservative news site, less than a week after Bannon's explosive criticisms of Trump and his family were published in a new book. A report on the Breitbart website quotes Bannon saying, "I'm proud of what the Breitbart team has accomplished in so short a period of time in building out a world-class news platform." Trump lashed out at Bannon for comments made in Michael Wolff's "Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House," which questions the president's fitness for office. As Trump aides called him disloyal and disgraceful, the president branded his former chief strategist on Twitter as "Sloppy Steve," an apparent reference to Bannon's often unkempt appearance, and declared that "he lost his mind" when he was pushed out of the White House last August.

There's a good reason not to skip the flu shot this year: a new study has found that older adults who get the shot every flu season were less likely to die or be hospitalized with severe complications, NBC News reported. People over 65 who got the flu shot every year but were taken to the hospital with influenza were twice as likely not to get severe complications of flu or die, according to the study, published this week in the Canadian Medical Association Journal. "We probably only get exposed to influenza, the virus, every three to five years on average," said University of Rochester Medical Center immunologist David Topham, who was not involved in the research. "That's plenty of time for your immunity to wane." The flu season is off to a strong start in the U.S. this year, with some emergency rooms filling up.

The New York Times has canceled a public event with James Franco days after the Golden Globe winner was accused of sexual misconduct. The Times Talk event was intended to feature "The Disaster Artist" director and star and his brother and co-star, Dave Franco, discussing the film with a Times reporter. The Times said in a statement that "given the controversy surrounding recent allegations" it was canceling the event. Actress Violet Paley and filmmaker Sarah Tither-Kaplan have recently accused Franco on Twitter of earlier instances of sexual misconduct. Franco was in attendance at Tuesday's National Board of Review Awards gala in New York City to present his film's adapted screenplay award. He did not comment on the allegations. An email seeking comment from his publicist was not immediately returned. </s> According to the statement, the action authorizes the Department of Homeland Security and Federal Management Agency (FEMA) to "coordinate all disaster relief efforts which have the purpose of alleviating the hardship and suffering caused by the emergency on the local population".

In particular, "FEMA is authorized to identify, mobilize and provide at its discretion, equipment and resources necessary to alleviate the impacts of the emergency", according to the White House.

FEMA said earlier on Tuesday that nearly 3,000 federal employees stationed in Puerto Rico would respond to Hurricane Dorian. FEMA also warned that hurricane conditions are possible in the US territory of Puerto Rico on Wednesday.

On Monday, Trump denied media reports claiming that he proposed using nuclear bombs on hurricanes to stop them from reaching the US east coast.

According to the Axios portal, Trump argued at several briefings with homeland and national security officials that bombs should be dropped into the eye of hurricanes forming off the African coast to disrupt them.

According to the US-based media reports, Hurricane Maria was the worst natural disaster to hit Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands in decades. The government of Puerto Rico and an independent investigation by the George Washington University have reportedly put the death toll from the hurricane and its aftermath at nearly 3,000.
The United States Department of Homeland Security says it will not waive the Merchant Marine Act of 1920 (or "Jones Act") in response to the ongoing disaster in Puerto Rico.