hello, i'm wolf blitzer in washington and whereve you are watching from around theworld. thanks for joining us. we are following breaking news. major breaking news. a humanitarian catastrophe. nearly half of puerto rico without drinking water. hospitals in desperate need of medicine and power. also right now at least 10,000 shipping containers are stranded at the port of san juan. inside of them, so many of them vital supplies including medicine. none of it is moving, at least

nowzarada n not now. >> nothing. nothing. from a jurisdiional basis, even though supports are in the capital city and i'm the mayor of the city, i have no jurisdiction over the ports. nothing will happen. it is not complicated. politics need to be put aside and we need to get the job done now. >> we have a massive team of correspondents in puerto rico right now. in the coming hours and days, each of them will bring stories of survivor, recovery, hope, and loss. let's begin with boris sanchez who is joining us on the phone at the port. give us an update on the situation there. >> hey there, wolf. it is staggering to see the amount of containers her at the port. thousands and thoandss you said. food, water, clothing,

construction equipment and things that people in communities that have been decimated by hurricane maria need desperately and they are sitting here baking in the sun. i spoke to the vice president in puerto rico. he was very emotional talking to me about the people that need these goods. there are tremendous logistical issues and gridlock in trying to get the goods to where they need to go. part of the problem is communication. they are unable to contact truck drivers that need to come here to pick up the goods and unload them elsewhere. the truck drivers may well be at home that are uninhabitable. they may not have gasoline to get to the trucks or the businesses may be in a bad state. they may not have fuel to drive their trucks over to pick these goods up. there is a series of problems that stand in the way of getting these supplies to where they

need to go. and undoing them is a major task. i spoke to a mother of two young girls who became overwhelmed talking to me. she said her children keep asking for food and cold water and she doesn't know what to tell them. it stings you when you see all the supplies here in puerto rico and the fact that they are not moving from the port is keeping others from coming in. i'm staring at a barge with hundreds of containers that have not been unloaded because they are over capacity at the port. they haven't been able to move the containers that are here. it is a serious problem that requires a series of layers of issues to be resolved and one we may not see resolved for weeks to come. >> what are a heart breaking development s thathat is. even when supplies finally do

make it out of the ports, they are going to be a major struggle to get the aid to the devastated cities and towns across puerto rico. it's also a very dangerous trek right now for people to get out of so many towns that are now cutoff from virtually everything. let's go to ivan watson about 35 miles from the capital of san juan. tell us about how people are making that journey. >> we are going to zoom in here right away on this river and you can see that's a man named manolo gonzalez. he just forted the river that cutoff this community of more than 1,000 people from basically civilization. from the rest of puerto rico.

it was washed out in hours after the hurricane by flash floods. i will show you where the bridge used to be and you can see how high up it is and that the water ripped away huge segments of concrete and has essentially cutoff this community fromhe rest of the area. there is another mountain road that people can use. the residents tell me it's two to three hours to get out to the bigger state. who has the fuel to drive two to three hours when fuel is being rationed? it's hot right now. it's high noon and the traffic is subsided, but throughout the morning, we watched residents. women, children, wading across

this river on foot to try to get out to the outside world. it only took us about 45 minutes from san juan to drive here, but as you can see, then the road is cutoff. and they say the community has been visited in the days after the hurricane by a team from fema once. they say the mayor of municipality visited once as well. the communities on that have no electricity and no running water and no telecommunications. as you can see, a transport ey described how a couple of days ago they had to move somebody who was in dire need of dialysis on a makeshift raft and drag them across the river and

they say they need other supplies like insulin because there is no refrigeration. eight days after the hurricane, an american community cutoff by a collapsed bridge. wolf? they are in desperate need of basic provisions. are they able to get out or are they trapped? >> we will forward the river to check up on the community there. residents say that there are bedridden elderly and are in a tough position. here's the most frightening thing. if somebody has a medical emergency, you can't call 911. there is no radio in the neighborhoods and the villages over there to call for emergency help. in the hours we have been here,

we have seen helicopters fly overhead and not seen any official from the outside world come out. the community over there, the residents there, they themselves strung up thisab across the river and peoplere hanging on to i when they go across on foot. they strung it up to try to keep from losing footing and being swept away. this is entirely a volunteer effort. 100% improvised by the residents to get in and out from this isolated community to the outside world and recall even on roads that have been cleared leading up to here, it's only about 45 minutes by car if you have fuel to reach this location. we are not hundreds and hundreds of miles away in the mountains. this is a u.s. community that is cutoff. we have seen somebody leading a

horse across in the last couple of hours. that's the situation they are in. >> ivan watson on the scene for us. we will get back to you as well. i want to discuss all of this with the military response to hurricane katrina. thanks for joining us. what do you think fema could be doing to speed up the delivery of this aid? >> well, get troops in there from the seventh transportation unit on the east coast and the job to run ports. they could have been in there since last sunday. that's the s thing. bring an air for outfit and run an air field. they should have been there since sunday. to bring the united states army and you open the other ones around and none of that has been done. it has been slow to deploy in

the military. it took us seven days to appoint the general and 24 hours for them to make a decision at the pentagon. i don't know what the hell is going on. they are using words i don't understand. we never use that to win wars like partners. i'm not your partner, fema. i'm a command that you give me a mission and say take water and fuel and save the people of puerto rico, that's what we operate on. it's a mission. the military didn't get that mission until yesterday. up until yesterday, there was only 2200 federal troops in and around puerto rico including those out on ships. we have to do better than pushing. after this is over, we will try to work with them on legislation. never let this happen again. something happened since katrina.

his headquarters exist 365 days a year just for this mission. it took us eight days to mobilize him to tell him to come do it. >> in the last hour did we learn that the pentago appointed the lieutenant general to lead all military hurricane efforts in puerto rico and expected to arrive in puerto rico later today. we know that his first priority will need to be a distribution and saving lives. walk us through what general buchanan is about to do. he should have been on the scene a week ago. >> he is the right man. that's his job as a fifth army commander. he had multiple experiences in fifg ar fifth army and the priority of work and figure out what rules he had to break. we would never have evacuated if i listened to the tsa and the

pilots. they wanted manifests and the tsa wanted ids. the next thing he needs to have the authority to command, is he a jtf commando or a partner. they need authority to make decisions for the president. he said look, you get this done and whatever it takes to get it done. you look to the governor and homeland security said let the general get this thing evacuate and get it settled down and we will go back to normal stuff. that's what he did. he needs to get that call from the president who said you do what you haveo do to make it happ and save lives. bring in troops from the transportations. bring in the marines. they know how to do clearing of the temporary air fields and parts of the air field clearing unit. the united states air force has

been sitting down and they want to get in there. they can put people there that can run that air field and 10 others. get this. in hurricane irma, we had an aircraft carrier that came over the horizon that could have run all of the air in and out of puerto rico. the second day they could have run the air field 24-7. the military has the capacity to do this. and the department of defense and three back to back and florida was a text book operation. the general put his guard in and the federal troops came in by sea and air. it was a difficult operation. we needed even more than that. scale up, wolf. they need to scale up.

katrina had 20,000 federal troops. not federal workers, federal troops. i have 20 ships and over 240 helicopters and puerto rico is bigger than katrina. if someone called me from northern command, i will give you the damn numbers. lesson learned. it doesn't look like we learned anything. the issue with the united states is we always do the right thing, but we do it slow and late. right now the people of puerto rico are paying that bill. >> i have been speaking to the people. if you had 20,000 troops helping you during katrina which was a smaller area, you need 50,000 troops on the ground right now and at sea and in the air trying to save the lives of these people right now. it's a mission that u.s. military is ankz to undertake. i want to bring in another

guest. the democratic house minority. you made an impassioned plea. 3.5 million americans are in puerto rico right now. give me your reaction to the federal response so far. >> i agree. they went into new orleans and got the job done and we haven't done that. we haven't deployed enough resources at this point and he said katrina was a more contained geographical area and this is a larger one. frankly, the general said it all. we need to deploy every resource necessary. very frankly that aircraft carrier that went into florida should be diverted down to puerto rico now. the air assets and requisite personnel. i hope general buchanan has all of the authority he needs to get

this job done. we have people i talked to secretary price early this morning about people who are dying because of their inability to get to a dialysis center that works. they can't get anywhere. the dialysis centers are up and running in the urban areas. folks can't get to it. we need to have enough personnel on the ground working every day to make sure that we can save lives. we ought to have legislation to give the resources to rehabilitate. this is about saving lives in the face of one of the biggest humanitarian crisis we had in this country. we ought to respond as we respond to any other crisis in the world or here on the mainland. >> we deployed the abraham lincoln aircraft carrier to florida and would not be all

that difficult to move the carrier to puerto rico right now. >> i was going to say we should have done that days ago. the general is correct. yesterday we started mobilizing and the day before that or two days before that, i called for appointing an individual similar to the general to be in charge of coordination and very frankly of getting the job done without having to worry about any red tape or buy or leave comments. we need to be in there with full resources. the armed forces can get the job done if they are given full authority and the resources to get it done. >> if it requires more than one carrier, send in two or three or four. whatever it takes with the troops to save these people's lives. >> that's why i say whatever

resources are neededught to be deployed days ago, but now. >> very quickly. when are you going to vote on legislation to fund this massive reconstruction effort in puerto rico? this is not going to be cheap as you know. >> it's not cheap, but it needs to be done. these are american citizens and just as we did in new orleans and will do in houston and will do in florida, we need to make sure that with the states and texas has resources and florida as resources and puerto rico is stretched. we had great difficulties. we need to make sure that we build back better. we don't put in second rate systems that will be subject to devastation by a category four or five hurricane. we have to expect it's going to happen again and we need to prepare for the devastation. >> when are you voting for the funding some. >> hopefully voting before we leave here in the next two weeks. one of the things that has to be

done is assessment of what spending is needed. we need to do it before and we hope and urge before we leave here. we have a week break again, but before we leave, we ought to have a bill that appropriates the funds. not all of what is necessary, but whatever is needed in the short-term, we ought to provide authority for before we leave here in two weeks. >> all right, congressman. thanks for joining us. the people are counting on all of us to help in this desperate situation. appreciate it very much. much more on the breaking news. i will speak live with the family over there stranded and he saw what he is afraid of happening next. he is standing by owls. live on the ground, these are live pictures. thousands and thousands of

desperate people want to get out of puerto rico right now to save their life. they are waiting to get on a cruise ship clearly designed to save lives. are you new to medicare? thinking about retiring? do you have the coverage you need? now's the time to get on a path that could be right for you... with plans including aarp medicarecomplete insured through unitedhealthcare. call today or go online to learn more.. these medicare advantage plans can combine your

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>> the situation in puerto rico seems to be geing worse. they want to board a cruise ship heading to the united states. explain to our viewers what you are seeing on the ground. layla? >> we have thousands of people in the line. at the end of the line, it wraps around the block for the general

public. this line is for those who already have reservations. those who are showing up are begging to get on that cruise ship that can take thousands of people will not make it on. the number one question is can they get on. number two, is there cold water? let me see if i can get this. sonia is hoping to head to fort lauderdale. son sonia, can you me how long you have been in this line and what it's like to wait here not knowing what's next. >> in the line about two hours. something like that. with the heat it's pretty bad. >> why is it so important for to you get on the ship? >> the situation here without power and without running water in the houses very uncomfortable and the it gets to a point where you want to just cry start running and get

out of here. >> you are from where? what can you me about your area? >> it's a disaster. almost all the trees are down. every house that had metal in the roof is gone. a lot of houses flatten completely. there is this custom to build wood houses on top of concrete houses. the rain and the wind destroyed them. >> we are certainly hoping you can get the relief you need. >> thank you. >> what i saw when i get here was heart breaking. i watched an elderly man carrying an oxygen tank, trying to get inside. i watched another man as he lifted his shirt to show the

scar from his operation to prove he is special needs. he needs to get on that ship. i have been told by organizers here if you are not registered, you will not get on this ship. that will take hours to load. i asked what time the ship is leaving and they said whenever it's at full capacity is when it will leave hoping to get these people with special needs some help in florida. parlayul>> layla, you have been all week and seen the disaster that clearly is unfolding. is it getting worse? do you see any signs of progress? >> reporter: as far as the people go, i think we are going through what you typically see when you are coping with grief.

and now there is the frustration is actually on the other side of the port. it is blocked by a lot of the cars, but over there on that side of the port, there are more than 9,000 containers. according to the government with relief aid sitting over there. these people are trying to get off the island and the relief is sitting in more than 9,000 containers and they don't have the drivers to get that stuff out and about. if they find the drivers, wolf, they don't have enough diesel and then the communication issue. because we were just over there where the hurricane relief is, i ran into four drivers and asked every one of them, are you taking relief out, and not one knew they needed drivers to do that. you are dealing with lack of manpower. lack of communication, and an entire island in need of help. the government is saying they

reached 35 municipalities. it sounds like a lot, but it's less than half of the island. u.s. citizens do not have the help they need right now. >> it's an awful situation. back to you at the port. they are at least partially operational and a doctor is warning that a medical crisis is about to explode all across the hospitals and clinics. desperately depending on diesel fuel to at least keep generators running. our chief medical correspondent is at a clinic in san juan and made his way to puerto rico. what are the conditions like where you are right now? >> first of all, wolf, this number of hospitals that are up and running and we have been looking at the different clinics. it's very hard to know if a

hospital is functioning. you can't communicate with the hospitals. you hear 20 hospitals and 40 hospitals are up and running and it's chaos. it they are up and running, it's a question of how long are they going to be up and running? they had six hours worth of fuel. they didn't know for a long time. they didn't know after this fuel runs out. they are starting to run out of water. it's extraordinary when you go out and not that far outside of san juan. it's a totally different situation. these patients, many of them haven't been able to make their way to clinics or hospitals. they are stuck in the homes and shelters and the hospital workers are trying to go to them instead to care for them. it's very hard to get an idea of the scope. so many more patients are likely to start coming to these places

over the next several days. they are for the first time able to move. they moved from their devastated neighborhoods. >> what if someone needs oxygen or dialysis and there is power at the hospitals and no power in the area. no clean water. what are they doing? >> it is so frustrating, wolf. i'm talking to doctors and nurses and medics who are encountering that exact situation. they have not had water or power or clean water. they have patients on the ground and have no way of treating them. it's frustrating. there are all sorts of different factors. and not enough drivers or gasoline. a woman needed to be moveed from the shelter because there was no care. the ambulance shows up, but the ambulance doesn't have enough

gas to take her from the shelter to a hospital. it's half efforts. you are getting halfway there, but not completing the job. not moving the patient who needs the care you are describing from point a to point b. there is a lack of coordination here. what is highly frustrating for the medical professionals in the more remote areas, we hear there is enough medications and supplies and water and fuel on the island. we are not getting to the people who need it most. i don't know that i would say 44 hospitals are up and running. that may be the case for a brief period of time. how long will they stay up and running and do you have clean water? they are necessities to make a true statement. it's not there. i have seen it with my own eyes. >> that's the statistic that they are putting out.

you are there on the ground and you are seeing what's going on and being a world class journalist, you are a neurosgeon. if someone needs surgery in puertorico, what do they do. >> reporter: well, the place we are at now under better circumstances is one of the largest hospitals in the caribbean. they do have a team of doctors there that have been overwork and they are capable of doing some operations in the operating pro rooms that are up and functioning. in that case, it's possible they can get an operation in a place like this. there are so many layers before that can happen. finding where that patient is. they have been working for over

a week nonstop. it is possible and probably enough primary carry. and there is not enough to take care of those injuries. >> do you have whether the war in iraq or elsewhere to actually do your other job and be a neurosurgeon? >> well, no. there has been no neurosurgical request as of now. i have been in close touch with the hospital and the disaster management assistance team that is part of hhs. they are coming in and what i will tell you is when we were out in a remote area today, patients who can't get to a more coordinated level of care. that's something we helped do today. it's simple getting people from

point a to point b making sure they can be transport and cared for. i couldn't believe that was happening. we were putting people into our vehicles. there is no coordination and should be able to get the care where they are. they can't get the medications over there. trying to get people to the care that could help them. helping these people in the hours and weeks to come. hopefully he has been getting the job done.

>> the term humanitarian crisis has been used and i was listen together general talk about this. to me that means that people right now are at risk of dying. they are at risk of dying. they can be saved with pretty simple interventions, but they are at risk of dying. these are not people injured by the hurricane. these are people who are stuck now in these remote places and can't get out. they are dealing with hypertension and diabetes and chronic illness that typically can be well manage and turn into a death sentence. needless deaths and there is a risk of that. the resources down here are a really, really important one right now at this moment. >> i know you have to run, but any evidence that any international 88 organizatiaid

and they have support in medical units and others to help out or is this strickly a u.s. operation? >> mainly the u.s. operation and the disaster management assistance team. there have been medical organizations that have come on the ground as well. representing coalitions of different countries and come here sometimes to address specific problems like patient who is need dialysis and can't get it because they don't have power and hygiene and clean water d all that stuff. you do have again central med o medico. there are good doctors who have been staffing the hospital for a long time. not enough specialists and not enough hospitals. there won't be lights on in there. it's unable to function at the level it should. >> dr. sanjay gupta, thanks for

everything you are doing and for being on the scene as you always are. we will get back to you throughout the day. we will have a lot more on the breaking news out of puerto rico. i will speak live with a young man who just returned from the island and his family is there stranded. what he saw, his hopes for rebuilding efforts. much more after this. non-insulin victoza® lowers a1c, and now reduces cardiovascular risk. victoza® lowers my a1c and blood sugar better than the leading branded pill. (avo) and for people with type 2 diabetes treating cardiovascular disease, victoza® is now approved to lower the risk of major cardiovascular events such as heart attack, stroke, or death. and while it isn't for weight loss, victoza® may help you lose some weight. (avo) victoza® is not for people with type 1 diabetes or diabetic ketoacidosis. do not take victoza® if you have a personal or family history of medullary thyroid cancer,

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and conceal, reveal, and glow. with new infallible pro-glow concealer. >> we are back with new and heart breaking images of hurricane maria's wrath. one of the first to reach them in puerto rico where food supplies are quickly running out. no power and no way for residents to let anyone know they are even okay. >> we are out of food and running out of food and water. >> that is the heart breaking soul draping scene that is getting played out again and again and as people look at her crying, she gets on a phone for the first time. it crushing your soul to watch this. this is a two hour line of folks

waiting to give proof of to a wife or husband or father. it's rough. how does that feel? can i see your eyes. can you move your sunglasses for me? >> it's tough. go back and tell them we need help. tell the president that everybody needs help here. >> we are okay. we are not going to die, but there is no help. this is the only help. i don't know what else to say. private citizens have come through for us and no one else has. >> multiply that scene across the island. you begin to appreciate the extend of this catastrophe. next guest firsthand.

sebastian just returned here and your family is okay and you are deeply relieved. you were there during hurricane maria. i understand you are like everyone else. >> the first experience was in 1998. i didn't appreciate the extent and the wind and the roar. 180 mile per hour winds. >> did you expect the island would be devastated. >> i saw a lot of foodage coming from the week before irma, but did not expect puerto rico would have it. maria went right through the

island. >> people are watching and hears are breaking right now as they see the stories of the individual stories that multiply by millions. you begin to appreciate the extent of the disaster. you are trying to help your fellow puerto ricans right now and what are you trying to do? >> it's time to focus on puerto rico. there is a lot of need as you see in the images, people need help and help is on the way. there is a lot more that needs to be done. i'm supporting college students and i go to school on the mainland u.s. with an initiative called students with puerto rico. we are trying to get all o these students and students to find donations. it's through go fund me.com/students with pr. our funds are go to the overarching effort that puerto rico has. it's a combination of public and

private efforts under united for puerto rico. that's where the funds are going. a lot of artists are supporting. thanks for coming in. other news we're are following here in washington. president trump not backing away from the national anthem saga. how he is sparking backlash saying that nfl owners are afraid of their own players. flying high on the taxpayer's dime. they fume over tom price and private jet flights. >> i'm looking at it closely. i am not happy with it. i will tell you i'm not happy. r, smart tv and gaming system. luckily, the geico insurance agency recently helped baa baa with renters insurance.

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>> this just coming in from the award winning actress, julia louis dreyfus. one in eight women get breast cancer. today i'm the one. the 56-year-old won an emmy for "veep" that will be ending at the end of this season. we will have much more on this story throughout the day. we wish her only the best and a speedy, speedy recovery. president trump meanwhile said nfl owners are scared to confront player who is kneel during the national anthem and the president refews to let go of the issue. league owners are now in an awkward position. >> i have so many friends that are owners. they are in a box. they said we are in a situation whee have to do something.

we have to know the players. it's disgraceful. they have to be tough and smart. the ratings have gone way down and i have seen a couple of stadiums and they are a lot of empty seats. i couldn't believe it. >> gloria boringer and abby philipp, the senior washington correspondent, bryanna keilar. there is a lot of other issues that are clearly much >> because he thinks it works for him. i was talking to a friend of his who has spoken to him within the past week since this occurred. and he said to me, look, the president believes that he speaks for the people who voted for him on this, that they believe that taking a knee isn't

appropriate, and he told this friend that i'm saying things that other people will not say. and i'm going to continue doing it. and we all know that he has had some problems with his base. he hasn't gotten health care done. there are questions about the tax reform bill. and he hasn't built his wall, et cetera, et cetera. so while he cuts a deal with the democrats perhaps on the d.r.e.a.m.erser e which may not over on well, then he can thread the needle a bit and remain popular speaking for many of his supporters who believe in fact that you shouldn't be doing that at football games. >> it's interesting that the chairman of the congressional black cauc caucus he sent a pre scathing letter utter did uttes

way the president has handled race relations. >> we are better than this and we shouldn't let one rich petulant child define this country. and i'm just so sad that we're in this place. i met with the president. i went to his inauguration. i opened my arms and said i'm willing to work with you. however, he has yet to show that he wants to be the psident for all of america. >> the president insists his criticism of the nfl has absolutely nothing to do with race. >> yeah, and i think that, you know, the president to gloria's point believes that his job is to speak for the people who voted for him, but that is actually not his job. he is the president of the united states and it is to speak for the entire country, to speak for all americans whether they voted for him or not. i think that is what you probably heard the congressman trying to on express. what is problematic about what he said in the fox interview is that whether he's aware of it or not, that language about the

practi owners being afraid of their players really speaks to a long history of kind of the coded fear much black men, most of the people who knelt up until this weekend were black men. the vast majority and a majority of players in the nfl are black men as well. so whether he is aware of florida sub text or not, i think a lot of people expect him to be a little bit more sensitive to that because, you know, the entire country is under his jurisdiction right now. he's the president of all american, not just the ones who voted for him. >> it didn't make senoesn't mak wouldn't understand the sub text. and it didn't stand to reason because i suppose if you ask president trump is btherism about race, he's never con sece that. using confederate monuments as a rallying point, is that about race? no. what about when he he fwooetded

tweeted an image using the star of david about hillary clinton that came from an anti-semitic message board? he said that wasn't about anti-semitism. so it just doesn't stand to reason that it isn't about race and i think it's clear that it is when you are talking about this kind of thing and the effect matters as much as whatever his stated intention is. so the effect of this, if you talk to -- let's say african-american mothers and fathers. the idea of raising the spectra of being afraid of black men, what that means to them. that is their greatest fear, right? that is the whole reason why you have so many people who are upset and proclaiming "black lives matter" because they feel that fear has taken over in a way that is robbing lives and opportunities of a number of americans. >> and you have to wonder, the president said he had a couple of conversations with team owners. and you have to wonder if that's what he was hearing from the team owners.

we don't know. we don't know what those conversations were. were they calling him with a wink and nod saying we have to do this or is this something the president is just saying because he can rationalize his own views that way. >> one of the interesting things about this whole situation is that it's not clear that the president is actually moving the country toward his opinion on this at all. there has been recent polling in the last week showing that more people are support differencesu now than a year ago. so he may be scoring points with his base, but he is not moving the vast majority of the american populous on this issue. >> and on a different note, three former presidents got together today, take a look at this picture, we'll put it up on the screen. there you see presidents obama, bush and clinton, they are at what is called the presidents cup a golf tournament out in new jersey. you probably wish you were playing golf with those guys

yourself. >> that would be quite amazing. but didn't the image just make you think so much about the president's club and how limited it is. right? how there aren't that many members of it and yet donald trump himself is so on the outs that he didn't see eye to irks he didn't talk to these gentlemen that were there, very different political stances clearly. lots of disagreements in their past. and yet he didn't get along with them. >> it would have been nice if president trump would have been there has he likes to play golf himself. >> i think when he has the c crisis in puerto rico, i think perhaps the optics of that would no be so good. i think what the president needs to do is get his department of defense and the three star generals they have just appointed to get the things that people need that you've been talking about on this show to puerto rico. i think going to play golf would have been a bad call. >> or maybe he should invite them over. >> or talk to them would be a good idea.

>> get in some investigation. all right. thanks very much. that is it for me.investigation. all right. thanks very much. that is it for me. we're only moments away from the white house press briefing. sure to be some pretty tough questions about the trump administration's response to the devastation in puerto rico. is more help on the way? we're standing by.

i'm brooke baldwin. you're watching cnn. we have breaking news on this catastrophic humanitarian crisis. eight days now after hurricane maria, millions of americans are waiting for help. nearly half of all of puerto rico is without drinking water. most of the island is still without electricity and in some cases without food. many of the supplies that could be helping those desperate people is right here, stuck in some 10,000 cargo containers just sitting right here on a san

juan shipping dock. officials blame the already waek infrastructure and say there are not enough truckers to get these containers out to people who need them. cnn has crews dispersed across the island in some of the worst hit areas and where people are trying to get out. and where supplies are trying to get in. so with me right now, boris sanchez and leyla santiago. leyla, let me begin with you. thousands of puerto ricans are trying to to get out apyou're at the dak where people are lining up to board cruise ships. do they expect all those people there are getting out today and how are they triaging the situation? >> reporter: so let me walk you through because you're right, typically in this area i see tourists and these are mostly puerto ricans trying to get on to this ship. as you see behind me, this is a line where people that they are classifying as special needs. direly