The U.S. Virgin Islands Gov. Kenneth Mapp is set to meet with President Trump on Tuesday, and intends to request more money for disaster recovery.
The governor said the U.S. military will fly him and a few other people involved in disaster recovery out to a naval vessel off the coast of Puerto Rico, where he will meet with the president at 11 a.m.
Mapp said he is generally pleased with the federal government's response to the two Category 5 storms that struck the U.S. Virgin Islands on Sept. 6 and Sept. 20 and 21. Five people died in the storms.
About 105,000 people live on the four islands, almost all of whom reside on Saint Thomas and Saint Croix.
Most of the buildings sustained some damage.
Mapp has four main points that he wants to bring up with Trump, and almost all of them are about more money for the disaster recovery on the U.S. Virgin Islands.
But Mapp also said he wants to deal with some apparent bureaucracy, and he said he was very dissatisfied with the Blue Roof Program, especially because it has been raining lately.
For that program, blue tarps are placed on the homes that no longer have roofs, or homes with holes in their roof.
Mapp said the program is moving at a snail's program.
"It was not on my list. But with my meeting tomorrow with President Trump, it will be on my list, because that is clearly a bureaucracy issue," Mapp said. "Somebody isn't seeing the trees, because of the forest."
"I don't care how many contractors it takes to rapidly produce tarps on roof," Mapp continued. "The Army Corps of Engineers knows how many roofs they anticipate they will fix."
Mapp said there should be 50 tarps placed on roofs per day, but only 47 homes have had tarps installed in the eight days of the program.
At best, about five percent of locations on the four islands have any electricity. Mapp said he hopes that 90 percent will have power by December so they can claim some of the tourism this coming season.