That’s likely true for the rescue operations not being established in time but I think the “even worse” in the title is referring to this part:

The government deployed the military to the disaster areas not to help but to diffuse any expression of public discontent. “Here there are more rifles than shovels,” a volunteer reportedly shouted in despair. Civil-society groups pleaded for the government to unblock access to social media and censored news outlets, even if only temporarily, so that people could get information. Instead, Rodríguez announced that local and international journalists would be subjected to further restrictions.