US President Donald Trump has placed blame on Puerto Ricans for the slow recovery from Hurricane Maria after the mayor of San Juan said that his administration's response to the US territory's plight was insufficient.
Eleven days after the devastating storm wiped out power, water and communications systems, about half of the 3.4 million people on the island do not have access to drinking water, and 95% remain without power, according to the US Defense Department.
Maria, the most powerful storm to strike Puerto Rico in nearly 90 years, has destroyed roads, making it difficult to deliver aid and move the heavy equipment needed to fix damaged infrastructure across the island.
The hurricane has killed at least 16 people.
Mr Trump, who plans to visit the island on Tuesday, fired off a series of angry tweets taking aim at the mayor of San Juan, the island's capital and largest city.
On Friday, Carmen Yulin Cruz criticized Trump's administration and begged for more help, a plea that received widespread television coverage in the United States.
"Such poor leadership by the Mayor of San Juan and others in Puerto Rico who are not able to get their workers to help," he said.
"They want everything to be done for them when it should be a community effort."
Mr Trump accused Ms Cruz of being "told by the Democrats that you must be nasty to Trump" and blamed the media for not showing the "amazing job" of responders.
Ms Cruz, who has been living in a shelter after her home was destroyed in the hurricane, said municipal employees were working as hard as they could.
She also said her complaints had resulted in more food and water being provided.
Ms Cruz responded to Mr Trump's attack by saying she had no time for petty politics when lives were at stake.
"Sometimes you have to shake the tree in order to make things happen, she told the New York Times. "If that has a political cost, I will take it, as long as it saves lives," she added.
...Such poor leadership ability by the Mayor of San Juan, and others in Puerto Rico, who are not able to get their workers to help. They....
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 30, 2017
...want everything to be done for them when it should be a community effort. 10,000 Federal workers now on Island doing a fantastic job.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 30, 2017
The heated rhetoric took the political tensions around the disaster to new heights, but Puerto Rico Governor Ricardo Rossello tried to distance himself from the battle ahead of Mr Trump's visit.
In an interview yesterday, Mr Rossello said: "I'm not paying attention to social media," adding "my only focus right now is to make sure the people of Puerto Rico are well."
He said he did not interpret Mr Trump's tweets as a slight to Puerto Rico's people.
"When I read that tweet, it was in reference to the mayor of San Juan, not to the people of Puerto Rico," said Mr Rossello, who has made a point of working cooperatively with Mr Trump's administration on aid for the island.
"I saw it as a personal difference with the mayor of San Juan," he said.
The US military is moving in more equipment and personnel to help the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and state officials respond to the destruction from the storm, which landed just as the island was recovering from Hurricane Irma.
While FEMA has said it has delivered millions of meals and litres of water, many Puerto Ricans have said the aid has been too little and has not made it way to large parts of the island.
