San Juan, Puerto Rico (CNN) Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson on Tuesday said Puerto Rico is recovering far beyond what he had heard, as he visited the island for the first time since it was devastated by Hurricane Maria. Carson, new Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen and a handful of other federal officials managing disaster response were visiting the island for a one-day trip. "You know, interestingly enough from the reports that I had gotten, I had no idea that we had moved this far along," Carson said, speaking to staff at the Federal Emergency Management Agency's Joint Field Operations Center near San Juan.It was Carson and Nielsen's first trips to the island as secretariesRecovery has been slow since the September hurricane
The pair had a full day of meetings with officials but did not tour the island, or visit or fly over the hardest-hit areas outside _.