>> narrator: tonight, se an monthsfter hurricane maria hit puertoico, "frontline" and gar's laura sullivan inves the story of two storms. >> is this really the best that f.e.m.a. can do? >> narrator: one decimated the island... >> if there's a villain here, it's the 190 mile an hour winds and the 50 inches of rain. >> narrator: ...the other devastated its economy. >> the government of puerto rico was run as a big ponzi scheme. >> now puerto rico owe than $70 billion. >> who gets left paying the bill? >> the banks get out and everybody else gets stuck th the bill. >> narrator: tonight, on "frontline"... >> is seven months for power restoration the best that the corps can do? >> with the challenges we had, i think it was the best the corps could do. >> narrator: "blackout in puerto

rico". s >> frontlinede possible by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. and by the corporation forin public broadca major support is provided by the john d. and catherint. macarthur foundation, committed to building a more just, verdann peaceful world. more information is available at macfound.org. additional support is providedby he abrams foundation: committed to excellence in journalism.e rk foundation, dedicated to heightening public awarenesss of criticaes. the john and helen glessner family trust.wo supporting truhy journalism that informs and spires. and by the frontline journalism fund, with major support from jon and jo ann hagler. and additial support from joseph azrack and abigail congdon.

(rain pouring, thunder rbling) (man speaking spanish): (wom speaking spanish): (man speaking spanish):

(woman speaking spanish): (man speaking spanish): (thunder rumbling) (wind whipping) looking live at the hurricane slamming the island we speak... >> maria's massi size dwarfing the island... >> oh, my god! >> no part of it spared. >> prayers are needed. >> laura sullivan: hurricane i maria barrelnto puerto rico last september, the worst stormh it the island in 90 years. >> the region was still tobounding from the last srm, irma, when maria rolled in. >> this storm was a tropical

storm that all of a sudden in a8 span of 36ours, became a category-five hurricane. >> the winds are ferocious right now. >> 155 miles an hour.. ak ripping buildings apart. (man and woman sg spanish) >> i w worried about flooding.e- >> nin to 11-foot storm surge, upwards of twoeet of rainfall. >> and ias worried about overall damage inuc infrasre and the capability we're going to have to communicate after the sto. >> sullivan: thousands sought refuge in local shelters. the largest was the roberto clemente coliseum in san juan. >> i remember looking at people, and i knew that there was gonna be nothing when they went outside. no electricityno water. and i knew then that there were people that we weren't gonna be able to get to. and it is the cries that went unheard that still haunt me at

night. >> we rvived maria. we survived mari >> sullivan: as the island triep tok up the pieces... >> it's hard. weost everything. >> sullivan: ...the force of tht m was apparent. >> it's horrible, you can't do anything, d you're just waiting. >> please do something! >> sullivan: but the extent of the damage wouldn't be known for days. >> once you went inland, it looked like a bomb hit puerto rico. it looked like a war zone. complete destruction. everything was brown instead of green. the infrastructure, the evectrical infrastructure in puerto rico, waserely destroyed. >> sullivan: maria left the entire island without power. and a thousand miles from th mainland, marshalling help would be a daunting task. >> this is the most logistically challenging event the united

states has ever seen. and we have been moving and pushing as fast as the situation allows. >> sullivan: two weeks later, the president touched down to survey the situation. >> i think that the job of the first responders has been something like've never seen before. >> sullivan: and he sized up the response. >> i say we got an a-plus in texas, we got an a-plus in florida, and we may have done our best work here, but it hasn't been appreciated. >> sullivan: the president said... >> flashlights. you don't ne them anymore. >> sullivan: ...everything was under control. >> fema says it has the supplies it needs. >> there's a lot of good things happenin >> it is really a good news story. >> sullivan: but there was mounting evidence that all was not going as the government claimed. , they are in stifling heat, they have no watey have no electricity. >> thousands of cargo containers sittinthere full of supplies but not delivered. >> damn it, this is not a good news story. >> sullivan: it was complicated story. anthas we investigated over e next seven months, we would discover that the devastation in puerto rico and the trouble

recoveng were due to forces far beyond just the wrath of the storm. 2017 was a year of disaster unlike any other. i'd been to houston after harvey and traveled throughlorida after irma. the storms had ripped apart communities and lives. >> she doesn't know what she's going to do.li >> suln: but what i'd seen didn't prepare me for at i would find in puerto rico. four weeks aer maria, we joined the military to seeow well the recovery was going. we headed to towns along the northeast coast, areas where the hurricane had hit hard. ri we were surpd fema and the military were still struggling to provide the most basic needs. a month in, still delivering

emergency supplies. what areou seeing as the most important thing that has to get done right now? >> the short term from perspective is really all about water.tr we've been duting food, but many places have plenty of food, but people need clean water to be able to drink and survive. >> sullivan: i thought you were going to say power. >> pow's the long term. power's related to everything because the water problem is directly related to lack of electricity. >> sullivan: it was a continuing crisis, cording to the local mayor in luquillo. what do you need to ma water work? >> we just need electric generator. >> sullivan: how many generators? >> just seven. s livan: you need seven generators and you can provide water for all of your people? >> for a our people, that's right. >> sullivan: but, it turns out, those generators were nowhere to be fnd. >> they're hard to get. we had hurricanes in texas and florida. they have to be specifically ordered, they ha to be engineered and created in the states or somewhere. so all of that's taking longer

than everybody would like, but it's because of the two other hurricanes, and because it an island. >> sullivan: we hearthat a lot, the logistical challenges of getting help to puerto rico. and traveling from town to town, we saw the hardship of those delays, a third of the island still without running water. what are you hearing about when you might get water? >>speaking spanish) >> sullivan: entire lives piled high in roadside rubbish. ¡hola! nearly half a million homes damaged or dtroyed. (speaking spanish): >> sullivan: it's ru 80 percent of the island remained in the dark, and as families waited for help..., oh, my glook at this. ...they were living in homes that were shells of what they once were. as we tried to figure out why the recovery was taking so longa we hd to the eastern

mountain where we found the man tasked with turning the lights back on. how many homes in puerto rico p are you guysering? >> we're trying to power the entire island. >> sullivan: jose sanchez is with the army corps engineers. he was shocked at what he'd found-- not just the number of power poles that went down... >> we're talking 60,000 poles. >> sullivan: you have to replace 60,000 poles? >> that's our estimate. >> sullivan: ...but also the condition of the entire electric grid. >> it's the worst i've seen. >> sullivan: ever? >>n my 22 years as an engineer. >> sullivan: where did things break down here? >> it was ry weak. even before the storms. you have generation issues, we had power line issues, we have age of the infrastructure issues, so all of those things create the problem we have now. >> slivan: that problem was strikingly visible at the o land's aging power plants, like this one, pco, just outside of san juan. ch>> these power plants, wre

obviously the heart of the system, they're the ones who pump out the blood, if you wil >> sullivan: palo seco's been pumping out electricity for more than 50 years, and sanchez found that its upkeep had been neglected for decades. is this thing going to break? >> without a doubt, this system is very fragile, there's a lot of conditions that are related to lack of investment. the infrasucture of the entire system is really in bad condition. >> sullivan: like what? >> you can see there's a lot of rust on the parts. eaere's elements that have not been replaced in. there's literally just lack of operations and maintenance investments. i puerto rico dire need-- not only power plants, but a reconstruction of the grid itself. >> sullivan: and it wasn't just rue power grid. we saw vital infraure all over the island-- water pumping stations, bridges, levees, roads-- also starved for upkeep and investment, leaving puerto rico vulnerable to the one thing that was sure to come: a major

storm. the more time we spent here, the more it became clear that maria was a story about two disasters-- one natural, one man-made-- and the culmination of widespread neglect th traces back more than a century. ♪ >> the timeless surf pounds this caribbean shoreline of what christopr columbus dubbed "el puerto rico"-- the rich port. >> sullivan: the united states took possession of puerto rico in 1898, a conquest of the spanish-american war. >> this is when the united states thought to expand its sphere of influence. and some people call it the perial period. they went to panama. they expanded through latin america, so erto rico was sort of a military base for strategic reasons. >> sullivan: the u.s. wanted the island, but was less certain about its people.

>> there were explicitly racial theories as to why puerto rico should not be allowed the same rights, because we were not fit, quote-unquote, fornm self-govt. the supreme court put it in a very succinct way. puerto rico belongs to but is not part of the united states. .so it's like your wallet your wallet belongs to you, but it's not part of you, right? so we're essentially property, and that decision is still good w. >> sullivan: from early on, r puerans were given u.s. citizenship, but not full constitutional rights. they serve in the military, butp can't vote fsident. under tax law, puerto rico is a foreign entity. yet under maritime law, it's part of the u.s. >> over the years, the one minant theme in the relationship between puerto rico and e united states is the inconsistency of american policy towards the territory. >> sugarcane, backbone of the island's economy...

>> sullivan: for decad, american companies profited from the island's cheap labor supply, and tourists flockedits beautiful beaches. >> welcome to puerto r you'll enjoy native barbecues, golf, tennis, swimming, or relaxing and enjoying the sights. >> sullivan: but less seen wasto puico's deep poverty. >> puerto rico, known as the poor house of the caribbean. >> many people find it uncomfortable to admit or to accept the fact that the unitedt stateslly had colonies at some point, and some people sayl they save, in the case of puerto rico, and i think deep down it goes against the grain of the american character, the whole idea of having cs with a different set of rights, you know? in general, it's very strange. >> sullivan: in the 1970s, the economy was struggling. congress created a special tax

break to attract investment to the island. it was called 93 companies that did business in puerto rico could avoid paying taxes on their earnings. it sparked an influx of manufacturing and jobs, and helped bui a middle class. but the economic boom wouldn't last. in 1996, washington ended the tax break. >> when that 936 tax credits were phased out, the industry started cutting jobs. and the tax base of the puerto g riernment was eroded. and as that happened, they needed to either reduce the size of the government or borrow money.n: >> sullivaith its economy heading into recession, the government's efforts to cut spending created an uproar. so instead, it kept bog money to coverts deficits, with one governor after the next piling up re and more debt. so from 2006 to 2014, what was that like here?

>> it was crazy. the government was borrowing at an incredible clip >> sullivan: so the debt is getting higher and higher. >> higher anhigher, and the ability... >> sullivan: and the economy is shrinking. >> yeah, is shrinking. we said, "look, we cannot tell yoat what point the music' going to stop, but we can tell you the music will stop at some point. this thing is not sustainable. this is going to explode." ar horns honking) >> sullivan: the cycle ofng constant borroelied on a place i didn't expect to be going for a story about maria-- new york city. that's where puerto rico found a financial lifeline in the municipal bond market, or what inders call muniland. >> muniland compared to the general financial market is like a backwater. it's very slow. most of the bonds are secure. there's almost no sk of default, so they're appropriate for, you know, your child's college account or your grandmother's retirement account.

>> sullivan: bonds are i.o.us. people buy them and they get paid back later th interest. and municipal bonds are a common way states and cities raise money they need. it's become a huge market-- $3.r illion last year. and because puerto rico isn't a state, it haa special advantage in selling its bonds. >> a new yorker can't buy a california bond and exempt the tax. puerto rico can sell their bonds all across america andbody gets tax exemption on the terest. >> sullivan: does that make puerto rican bonds very attractive? >> highly attractive. >> sullivan: attractive to investors for their tax, benefid they were relatively safe. and also attractive to banks, which put the deals together. and then sell the bonds to investors, like pensions and mutual funds. >> fund managers, they will not admit this now, but when puerto rico was selling debt like pancakes, they loved puerto rice . why? because you would put in these

puerto rico bonds in your portfolio and since they had slightly higher interest rates and no taxes attached to them, you immediately looked like a genius, right? you just bumped up the entire return for the entire portfolio. that's your bonus, rig? that's your new mercedes, your new yacht. >> sullivan: but in time, these bonds would become surprisingly risky, and there were signs that this wasn't going to end well for erto rico or investors. we reached out to major banks involved in putting puerto rican bond deals together. o an would agree interview. has anybody come forward from inside these banks to talk aut what was really going on? >> no, but it's a very close-knit world in wall street, and e tendency is just to keep quiet and keep working. >> sullivan: in a small office building in n juan, i found a former bank insider from tha close-knit world. he's speaking publiclyfo r the first time about wall street's role in the

island's economic demise for more than 25 years, he worked with u.b.s., the biggest wealth management firm on the island. >> i have to get this. (speaking spanish) s livan: his name is carlos capacete, and he rose through the ranks to run the bank's largest ofce in puerto rico. >> okay, bye. >> sulvan: okay, so take me back to the '90s. what was it like at that time? >> it was great. all the new york banks were here in puerto rico. there was a lot of activity. there was moneflowing. i was managing about a $3 billion book. >> sullivan: capacete spent mosh of career working here, along what'salled the "golden mile," where all the b business and banking deals get done. >> all the major banks in new york would come to puerto rico on a regular basis to pitch deals, and they'd bring in, "listen, we can do an additional 200 million, an additional 500 million."

and that's how the deficit was financed, with all these additional monies. >> sullivan: so what's in it for the banks? what do they get out of it? >> on a typical deal, th investment bankers will charge a structured f administrative fee, and all these other fees to get the deal don then the banks would go and sell these bonds and make a commission. >> sullivan: that sounds like a long line of people th make some money. >> this is kind of like a money-making machine. ayou're... as long as the transactions coming and going, the banks and the financial advisers are making money. they're making a ton of money. >> sullivan: but there were other lucrative deals getting done here, too, not just between the government and the banks, but also between the banks and ordinary investors. you must be ram. i'm laura sullivan, nice to meet you. >> nice to meet you. >> sullivan: pilar, nice to meet you. mfor more than 30 years, lamba and his wife, pilar, were university professors. s

they'd regulared money for retirement, and in 2004, ram wai offered estment opportunity with u.b.s. oh, how beautiful. >> i met this young fellow at u.b.s., who said, "listen, why don't you put this money in the puerto rican bonds?nd these are protected by the constitution of puerto rico." i said, "my god, what else can i ask for, you know?" >> sullivan: and the clouds roll in... after a number of years, hehi moved alretirement savings to u.b.s., more than $350,000. and then in 2011, his broker made him an fer. >> he said, "i can give you a colleral loan for a million dollars." >> sullivan: he said, "i'm going to give you a million-dollar loan"? >> a loan, and, "you invest that money in more bonds, puertoca bonds, and then..." >> to buy more bonds. >> buy more. >> sulvan: and buy more bonds. >> that's right, and i said, "i don't think i can handle that. t's go to half a million."

>> sullivan: what were your thoughts when he proposed this idea to you? >> that this is something unique. i really made it for my retirement, and this is great. >> sullivan: what ram lamba says he didn't know is that u.b.s. had invested his money into special bond funds that re riskier than what's allowed on the mainland.si and, that the bank, concerns were growing that those funds were in trouble, yet u.b.s. kept pressing brokers to sell them... >> there was some hardline tactics to sell the nds. you know, like, "go out and get them. let's go. you got to sell these funds." they were just trying to push the bond funds to whoever... ha whoevea heartbeat. (car horns honking) >> sullivan: capacete says he got wind of a secret trick some brokers had devised st bond sales and skirt bank policies. it involved loans.

>> one day this client comes up to me and tells me, "hey, you w knt? are you aware of what they're doing in this other branch?" and i said, "tell me." and he told me the scheme. they were taking out the loan. the adviser was telling them to take the money to a local bank. >> sullivan: a different bank. >> a different bank.ke it there for one or two weeks. bring back a similar amount and use it to buy more puerto rico bond funds.er theykind of like washing the money. >> sullivan: okay. >> it is unethical. it's against the bank's regulations, and it puts the clie in a really, really tou risk situation. s livan: capacete complained to u.b.s. managers, but heard nothing. and then, finally, aearly a year, he got a visit from u.b.s. compliance officers in the u.s. he says they called hi

a conference room and said they'd found no evidence that brokers were misusing loans. >> and i jumped up and i said, "y're kidding, right?" you know, this... this... you know, "this is a jok" and i said, "what did you do?" and one of them, she was very..b and i re these words, you know, said, "what would you have done?" >> sullivan: she said that to you? >> and i stood up and i told her, "look at the big accounts t and foll money. that's all you have to do." in>> sullivan: why do you the bank would want to turn a blind eye to something liketh ? >> because it was profitable and i was the one that was... how... in spanish, we say, "arruinao la fiesta." i was the one that was spoiling their party. >> sullivan: that party ended in 2013. there were growing concerns that

the government couldn't pay back all the bond debt it had taken on. the value of puerto rican bonds began to plummet.m mba eventually got a call into his broker's ofce. it was about that half a million dollar loan., >> he sa need that money back." i said, "what do you mean, you need that money back? i don't have that kind of money." and he said, "day after tomorrow i said, "what? in two days, i have to pay?" when i told her, we were both in shock. >> sullivan: he was given a week to pay back the loan.bu as bond prices kept falling, he says he lost much of his retirement savings. >> they knew these bonds were no good, and theyere selling it. they deceived so many people. it's not my faul you see, that they were doing this hanky-panky th.g, but they played with they played with my sentiments, see, and that's what i don't like. >> sullivan: u.b.s. declined to be interviewed, but inted to a separate case where the s.e.c.

found it didn't mislead its clients. the bank said the loan terms were disclosed, and its investigation und one broker violated u.b.s. policies. as for its former employee, carlos capacete, it called him disgruntled and said he'd sued the company. though they didn't acknowledge wrongdoing, u.b.s. and four other banks were fined by regulators for practices that failed to protect their puerto rican clients. billions of dollars of wealth on the island had been wiped out.te and years of rampant borrowing, the government's financial viability was being wiped out, too. the island was spiraling toward default. >> seven years of recessn, chronic deficits, lots of borrowing. now puerto rico owes more than $70 billion. >> the government's story wasal ys, "we're going to reduce the spending this year," right? "we're going to raise more money," yoknow? "we're going to get this under control." well, they never did.tu >> unftely, the government

of puerto rico was run as a big ponzi scheme. ad and what you has essentially a black box of a government ruing that had no clarity s what was being borrowed and what was beint. >> sullivan: by early 2014, puerto rico's bonds had beenwn doaded to junk status, but one government, desperate again, turned to muniland. >> we've hired plenty of good financial advisers. >> sullivan: and despite the island's economic woes, bankers raised $3.5 billion, mostly from hedge funds. it was the largest bond offering of its kind in u.s. histy. >> would you put this bond in your mother's portfolio? >> of course. >> really? >> yes. >> there's a famous picture at morgan stanley of the entire puerto rico financial teamin celebr they had their hands up, they were smiling. you could tell from the body language. i said, "i don't kw exactly what we are celebrating here. this is not good." >> sullivan: the celebration didn't last long.

just 15 months later... >> late today puerto rico, home to nearly four million americans, defaued on its largest debt payment so far. >> we're calling it erica's greece, and for very good reasons. the fact is puerto rico, yes, they have just run out of other people's money.th >> let me pu very clear: we are out of cash. >> so chapter nine... >> sullivan: within a year, congress put puerto rico on a path to bankruptcy and the financial control of an oversight board.ep but wewondering, why would the banks do a $3.5 billion deal with an island on the verge of default? the bank said they were trng to help puerto rico manage its finances. but we talked to half a dozen people who either worked on the deal or were close to it. what they said, is that this deal seemed to be more than just a bond deal. it was also an exit strategy fo nks. none of those we talked to would agree to go on camera. and then, we finally found one ouformer bond broker who w.

>> i started back in 1983 in wall street. >> sullivan: axel rivera was at morgan stanley when the record 2014 bond deal was done. he says that as the land got closer and closer to default, banks were getting nervous. what were you told specifically by bankers that you worked with at moranley about why they did the deal? >> they wanted to tret as much as they could of their exposure out of their books. >> sullivan: your colleagues at morgan stanl... >> yes. >> sullivan: ...told you that they had exposure to risk at that time? >> that they had much more than what they wanted, and they needed to unwind that. re waslivan: that expo huge. we discovered the banks had hundreds of millions of dollars tied up in puerto rican debt and bond documents show almost a eaarter of this deal went to pay them back --y 900 million dollars-- to pay back loans, pay fees or eliminate other risk for banks directly involved.

>> sullivan: they needed the 2014 bond to get them ou >> that is correct. >> sullivan: then who gets left paying theill? >> the bond holders, whomever they are. the banks get out, and everybody else gets stuck with the bill. >> sullivan: none of the banks that put the deal together would agree to an interview. but a few of them sent statements noting that, "the government of puerto rico approved the bond," and that the banks didn't have "any influence over" how the government used the bond proceeds. morgan stanley, one of the lead banks, told us the terms of the deal were "fully disclosed to investors" and it "extended an additional $250 million in credit" to puerto rico 8 months after the bond. stil investors in the 2014 deal and many other bond dealsha over the years been left trying to get their money back, like ram lamba, who's suing u.b.s. t so fear, then, is that you would lose this place? >> yeah. >> sullivan: do you guys think yok?ll ever get your money b

>> i don't think so. i don't think we'll ever get that money back. you strangle yourself thinking about, "why did i... what did i do?" and i tell her i think my karma are no good. s livan: you think that? >> if you believe in karma, andr law of, in some other life, i must have made something wrong, because i don't recollect, to be very honest with you, that in this life i did anything to hurt anyone. >> in puerto rico, the crisis is, "look at what the ricans did." wall street-- nobody talks about wall street, or very few people talk about what wall street did. waand i suppose i'm part o street. i don't know. but the bonds that were sold that created the huge $7 billion bond debt in puerto rico, was sold using all the

investment bankers in wall street. they would come down and pitch the deals and they knew they re doing deficit financing and they knew that they were increasing that amnt, and they knew that the economy was shrinking, and if the banks would have been responsible, ans would had, "hey, listen, you can't borrow this amount sor just going to limit this to that," we wouldn't be in this place right now. >> sullivan: the debt crisis had left the island dangerously vulnerable. basic services and infrastructure had been chronically neglected. more than ever, puerto rico needed a federal government ready to help. but in the many trips we made here after maria, we began toly realize not onas the island unprepared, so was the federal govement. four months after the storm,

we found a community doing what it could to try and rebuild. (horn honking) and we met one of its leaders, jossie lozada. (conversing inpanish) she'd taken it on herself to set up a relief center, haing out donated clothes right in front of where her house used to be. ki >> (sp spanish): >> sullivan (speaking spanish) >> (speaking spanish) >> sullivan: oh, no. >> (speaking spanish): >> sullivan: (gasps) that's your kitchen? it didn't look like it, buttu jossie is acly one of the lucky storm survivors. did you get any help from the federal government? >> sullivan: fema had given her its maximum amount of assistance, $33,300, enough for

her to rebuild her home. but the amounts fema has handed t have varied. how about your friend? how much did your friend get? >> sullivan: so far,nly half of those who applied for fema help are getting any. that's largely because people don't have the property records the agency requires.n >> sullivan: wu said that part of you, it makes you angry, what is it that makes you angry, feel angry?

>> sullivan: the months of waiting for help were taking a toll in communities all across the island. >> a lot of people in this commity, even though we're very close to san juan, haven't received assistance yet. >> sullivan: on one of oural trips, we mee thomas... >> and we can talk to her and ask her why that is. >> sullivan: ...an expert on disaster response with refugeesn rnational. this is her house here? >> this is her house here. >> sullivan: we joined her as she visited storm victims, checking on the pace recovery. (speaking spanish) oh, boy. >> yeah, so you can see, no roof. >> sullivan: thomas has worked disaster zones around the world-- pakistan, the suilippines, haiti, somalia. >> we were prettrised to see how slow the response was, compared especially to majorge emeries i've seen in foreign countries. >> yeah. >> for me, the philippiness mind. the response here was much slower. >> sullivan: the response here s slower? >> slower. >> sullivan: than it was in the philippines? >> after haiyan, yeah. >> sullivan: wow. >> and here we couldn't get over particularly how badhe shelter

response was. and that was something we really were focusing on. >> sullivan: along the east coast in yabucoa... >> we were here two months ago. we came. >> sullivan: ...we stopped in to see sara navarro and her husband. s (conversing nish) since alice saw them last, the fedel government had helped put up a temporary roof, but it came more than two months after the storm. is this from water? >> yeah. is the water still leaking down into your room? >> yes. oh, my gosh. >> the rain...co >> it's ng through? the longer people and theirs hoe exposed to the elements, the more at risk they are, the more at risk their health is, and the more their home is lost. ey homes that here were salvageable, if ad just gotten some decent tarpaulin. n sullivan: to keep the r out. >> to keep the rain out lthin... right away, within a week would've begely salvageable. what about mold? are you worried about mold? >> sí,ook.

>> sullivan: and how quickly do we usually get tarps out when we're working abroad? >> so we usually try to do that very quickly. if you can get access to a community, you're bringing tarps. >> sullivan: why could the u.s. government not get that done here in puerto rico in the united states of america? >> i do not ow. according to people who were terking on the ground the whole time, they said, qnquote, the whole tarpaulin thing is a "mystery." >> sullivan: a mystery. >> a mystery. why they couldn't distribute tarps, i do not know. >> sullivan: that was a mystery we were trying to unravel. why was a such aasic staple of emergency response like tarps not readily available on the island? we got our handsn internal fema documents and communications. they swed that when maria hit, key emergency supplies were dangerously low or not available at all. and as for tarps, fema had less than 12,000. >> sullivan: were you satisfied, as the person inharge of this

in puerto rico, that you had the tarpthat you needed? >> i'm never satisfied, okay? i never look at it as one single piece. >> sullivan: did you have ain problem getarps? >> we had problems getting everything.e when you h ship it, when you have to add seven days or rimetimes longer to everything that you want to in, so it is, yeah, it's definitely a challenge. >> sulvan: with such a small stockpile and nearly half a million homes damaged or destroyed, fema needed hundreds of thousands of tarps and need them fast. so it contracted with a small company called bronze star to t bring in 500,0ps. but bronze star had no experience working disasters or delivering tarps, and it didn't work out. the first contract that you canceled was bronze star, that was a $25 million contract. do you have any insight into why th were even chosen in the first place? >> what i know is that we followed our procurement practices, and they're very agid, but if they don't

perform, we canc we move on. >> sullivan: next up was global mputers for $30 million. their last federal contract was for $4,000 for kitchen utensils for federal prisons. that one didn't work out, either. do you have any insight into what happened with that one? n the only thing i do know is that in every single one of urese contracts, we follow federal procurement guidance, and if they pass that, we'll give them a shot. >> sullivan: the next company ts get a shot small atlanta firm called master group. its specialty? importing hookah tobacco. and then master group finally, for $30 million, did get the tarps. do you know why or how they were able to get tarps onto the island when the other contractors couldn't? >> they're good at what they do. i... you know, i don't know what woulhave made them different >> sullivan: we found one possible reason, by looking through import records. it turns out that most of the

tarps master group brought in came from china. none of the tarp companies would agree to an interview, but one company executive... you wanted to import the tarps from china? ...told me that fema wouldn't allow their mpany to import tarps from china. it's a violation of federal contracting regulations. is that okay or not okay to import tarps from china? >> i'll let my contracting officers answer that question. this is the first time i aware of that issue, that it's something about chinese tarps or china tarps. it's the first time it's been brought to me. >> sullivan: would it frustraten you toout that two of your contractors were told that they could not import tar then finally the third contractor just goes ahead and does it, brings the tarps from china, and that this entire process now has lasted months when it could have lasted weeks >> if we had 2,000 contracts,ev which is, i be and it may not be full-- it might have been 1,900 and something contracts-- that we've all successfully

executed, we had a couple of t ont didn't work out well and we dealt with it, okay? >> sulvan: but these are the tarp contracts. how are you not frustrated by that? >> i'm frustrated by everything that the disaster brings and i continue focus on getting it solved. and so if one path didn't work, i follow another path to get it ne. no>> sullivan: there was ather key program to help with shelter. this one's run by the armyng corps of eineers. >> good morning, i'm lieutenant general todd semonite.ul >>van: it's called blue roofs. >> and we're on the road again. today we're really here to look at what's called the blue roof mission. before i get into th, i want to pass... >> sullivan: the blue roof program provides storm victims with a sturdier temporary roof to help them get back home. but this program was having troubles, too. did u have the supplies that you needed on the island to do the blue roof program after th storm hit? >> the answer is no.

because a t of the supplies that were stored, some of the supplies in puerto rico, got sent to the virgin islands aer irma. so this is fema's challenge. it's nice to be able to have as much as you possibly can before the storm, but at some point you've really got to figure out, where's that storm going to hit? how do you go as fast as you can once you know? >> sullivan: fema documents indicate thawhen maria struck, there was no plastic sheeting on the island for the blue roof program. and an internal review by the puerto rican government found that after three months, only asabout 45% of those that kedha for a blue roogotten one. it said the program was plagued by "bureaucratic delays," a "lack of pre-planning," and continually fell "short of promises and expectations." when we checked the numbers, we found a glaring disparity. i mean, after 30 days in florida, you had 4,500 blue roofs up, and in puerto rico, after 30 days, you had 439. >> yeah, i think it goes back to how much material do you have?

almost all the warehouses were empty. so when we hit, the amount of available supplies-- either generators, blue roof material, whatever it might be, were just not there to be able to respond in an effort that would have probably been something that could have got us more of a jump start. >> sullivan: the level of response was definitely a stark contrastat i'd seen in houston after harvey and florida after irma, ere the government seemed far better prepared. has fema been good? has it been helping out? >> wonderful. >> sullivan: just over a week after the storms hit... >> all this stuff from the ice box is all... t >> sulliva federal government had 3 times as many people on the ground in texas,ic and as many in florida, as it did in puerto rico. >> just make sure that you and your neighbors are aware of that >> sullivan: local emergency managers on the mainland were well-financed and ready toon resp nine days into the disaster, federal officials had handed out, on average, twice as much water and more than four times as many meals and tarps in

houston and florida. is there any reason to believe that supplies were better pre-positioned in harvey in texas and in irma in florida, than they were in maria in puerto rico? >> i don't think so. i think what we need to evaluate is whether we had enough. i do know we had supplies. i do know we had... but did we have enough for a category-four storm? >> sullivan:ight. >> probably not.>> ullivan: fema's own documents point to problems beyond supplies. agat the time of maria, thency was stretched so thin,alf of its staff on the island were trainees or unqualified for this kind of disaster work. one government email described the troubles with ipping, "we cannot survive any longer with any delay of material. i need solutions." and while there was a

controversy about puertoico hiring a company called white fish, that had no experience restoring power grids, few knewt thhe federal government had done a similar thing. >> all of a sudden, abthe eighth day in, the administration asked us to be able to step up and to be able ri take on this mission of repair. but it is not something that we even plaed on doing in any kind of a disaster. we don't do grid repair,or usually,lly, doctrinally. so then when you've got the mission, the question is, how long does it take to write a contract? we can't afford that process. >> sullivan: to expedite the process, the corps turned to one of its largest standing contractors, fluor, a company with experience building power plantsbut no experience putting power grids back together. and re you satisfied with them? >> i was satisfied with them. now, you're going to ask me... >> sullivan: am going to ask you. >> "why should it take seven months to get puerto rico... >> sullivan: why is it takingo seven monthst puerto rico up and running? >> ...up and running?" i'm not satisfied with the level of response that it takes to get people electricity.ho

ver, when you understand the level of devastation and the fact this syst was 40 to 45 years old, been broken already bys, couple of different sto here's the other thing, laura... >> sullivan: but given all of those challenges and difficulties, is seven months for power restoration the best that the corps can do? >> i think in this particular occasion, with the challenges we had, i think it was the best the corps could do. >> sullivan: you know, you'vef got a blue rogram that's months behind. you've got hundreds of thousands of tarps that never arrid. tiyou've got a power resto company that has no experience restoring power. you've got materials stuck on docks in florida and puerto rico. you'veot a quarter of your workforce unqualified. how is any of this okay? al >> first o i don't agree with all of your characterizations of the situation there. and that i think we've done a lot of support. how can you look at the fact that we gave a billion dollars

in assistance out,hat we've given out 62 million liters of water, 52 million meals to theop . how can you categorize that as not providing assistance? i find that,hat it doesn't connect, you know? >> sullivan: yeah. because at the end of the day, you have three and a halfic million ams who spent months in the dark. sometimes without water. is this really the best that fema can do? >> i constantly look to get better. but, you know, if there's a villain here, okay, if there's a thing, it's the 0-mile-an- hour winds and the 50 inches .f rain. that's the villa that's what did the damage to the people. we've done nothing but try to remedy that. you've found a number places where we weren't perfect, i'll accept that, bring it on, ay? i'm gonna keep working to get better. >> sullivan: seven months after maria, more than 100,000 puerto ricans are still without power and the island is routinely

experiencing outages. as for those tarps, fema told recently that it had suspended master group's contract because of "quality" issues. but it insists it now has 200,000 tarps on the island.hu icane season starts in a month. the focus in puerto rico haste shifnow to long-term recovery. and the estimates r rebuilding run as high as $90 billion. so far, congress has approved nearly $30 billion, but lawmakers say they're reluctant to hand out more money until they see evidence that the island can better nage its fiscal affairs. people have said, "if puertoan rico handle its own finances, why should we come and help them if they can't keepin their own housrder?" >> because this is about fair treatment of the u.s. citizens that live in puerto rico, and, secondly, it doesn't take into consideration the fact that while there may have been,

and there has been, poor administration in the past, it a o the aftermath of being a territy. >> sullivan: do you think that the treatment of puerto rico has really changed in all these years? >> no, not really, unfortunately. and we're seeing that right now. a lot for peop are leaving the island for reasons that i can totally understand. >> sullivan: do you think yoll ay? >> i have no idea, but i certainly have to think about my options. i'm not going to lie. the main worry that i have is my children. >> sullivan: if people like you leave and the federal government continues down the patthat it's on, what will the future look like for puerto rico? th it will be bleak. if we don't get help we need from the federal governmenand we lose people in their prime working years, as is happening right now, we're going to have a very tough time generating the economic activity we need.

and we're going to end up with a place that's probably full of very old people and a lot of very poor families. it would be a very desolate place to live. >> i like the word in english, because it conveys a lot more of what we don't ve. we have no power. and what has happened is, in the darkest moment, people get tir energy not from an electrical grid, but from that strength of your soul. bus for heaven's sake, what it gonna take? how much more do we have to endure for somebody to understand that what is p happening rto rico is a violation of our human rights?

>> sullivan: it's been the worst blackout in u.s. history. and on one of our last trips here, we came across oscar carrion, who runa local corner store. he'd collected $2,500 from his neighbors, bought an old bucket truck, scavenged up some sparewi parts, and, no prior experience, taught himself how to string wire.n >> (conversinganish) >> sullivan: when we found oscar, he and his friends had restored power to re than half of the 6,000 residents here. >> (speaking spanish): (whistles)

>> sullivan: why do you get up there and put your life on the line for this? >> (speaking spanish):

♪ >> go to pbs.org/frontline... >> oh my god! look at this... >> ...to explore more puerto rico investigation with npr. >> how are you not fstrated by that? >> learn more about the government's "blue roof" program... >> today we're really here to look what's called the "blue roof mission". >> it's nice to have as much as you possibly can before the viorm. >> and watch our ps investigations with npr. connect to the frontline community on facebook and twitter. tten, sign up for our newser ar pbs.org/frontli. e,>> narrator: nobel laure aung san suu kyi, was seen as now, she's accused of standing by as the army waged a violent campaign against the rohingya minority. >> she had gone from a human rights heroine to a politician not taking the military on after

these atrocities the committed. >> narrator: with secret footage, frontline investigates. >> we believe the numbers of people killed are in tens of thousands. >> frontline is made possible by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you.by anhe corporation for public broadcasting. major support is provided by the john d. and catherine t. macarthur foundation, committed to buildmore just, verdant and peaceful world. more information is available at macfound.org. additional support is provided by the abrams undation: committed to excellence in journalism. the park foundation, dedicated p to heightenilic awareness of critical issues. the john and helen glessr family trust. supporting trustworthy journalism that informs and inspires. and by the frontline journalism fund, with major support from jon and jo ann hagler.

and additional support from joseph azrack and abigail congdon. captioned by media access group access.wgbh.org >> for more on this and other programsvisit our website at pbs.org/frontline. ♪ "frontline's"blackout in puerto rico" is available on dvd. to order, visit shop.pbs.org or call 1-800-play-pbs. "frontline" is also available for download on itunes. ♪

you're watchin pbs george lopez: 'charlotte's web' leslie stahl: 'war and peace' john green: 'the catcher the rye' vo: but whte is america's leslie favoriook?r and peace' gabrielle union: 'the color rple' allison williams: 'frankenstein' wil wheaton: 'ready player one' vo: we've goona list of americe hundred best-loved novels, to and we need you help us pick number one. minga wen: 'the joy luck clu devon kennard: 'to kill a mockingbird' jenna bush: 'the book thief'nd leelvin: 'the martian' vo: is your favorite on the list? join me meredith vieira, and cast your vote in the great american rea it all begins tuesday, may 22nd at 8/7c. only on pbs.

anikke: refugees flee their countries for many reasons. violence, abuse, health concerns, or the continuous cycle of poverty. but ny people outside of the situation don't understand t difficulty of life in refugee cps and what it's likeo live a life in limbo. in our first story, we meet writer inua ellams, who draws from the experiences of refugees to create stories that explore the struggles of children fleeing their homes andeeking safety in britain