Puerto Rico Gov. Wanda Vázquez fired the heads of the island’s housing and family departments in the latest fallout over the discovery of a warehouse filled with emergency supplies dating from Hurricane Maria.
The removals on Sunday came a day after the governor fired the director of Puerto Rico’s emergency management agency. Vázquez fired him hours after a Facebook video showed angry people breaking into the warehouse in an area where thousands have been in shelters since a recent earthquake.
The governor said she decided on the additional firings after officials were unable to provide information about other collection and distribution centers.
People in a southern Puerto Rico city discovered a warehouse filled with water, cots and other unused emergency supplies, then set off a social media uproar when they broke in to retrieve goods as the area struggles to recover from a strong earthquake.
Anger spread in the U.S. territory Saturday after video of the event in Ponce appeared on Facebook, and Gov. Wanda Vázquez quickly fired the director of the island's emergency management agency.
The governor said she had ordered an investigation after learning the emergency supplies had been piled in the warehouse since Hurricane Maria battered Puerto Rico in September 2017.