The Trump Administration's decision to send the Navy hospital ship, the USNS Comfort, to Puerto Rico seven days after Hurricane Maria struck, stands in sharp contrast to the speed with which which it was detached to Haiti after the 2010 earthquake.

The mammoth ship was docked Tuesday in its home port of Norfolk, Virginia, with a minimal crew, requiring up to five days to stock up and get underway. When reached by phone Tuesday afternoon, the commanding officer of the ship's hospital, Capt. Kevin D. Buckley, said, "The Comfort is ready to go, if the call comes."

Now that the orders have arrived, the goal is to stock the ship with personnel, food, water and medical supplies within 96 hours and get underway Friday. "There's a whole slew of equipment that has to be brought on board to accommodate the mission, primarily medical supplies," says the ship's spokesman, Bill Mesta, of the Military Sealift Command, the civilian maritime agency that runs the ship, while the Navy commands its hospital facility.

Without running water on the island, he said, "cholera is an issue."

The Comfort's orders came after days of increasing pressure on the Trump Administration to help the more than 3.4 million American citizens in the United States Commonwealth, who are desperate for food, clean water and shelter. On Monday, Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo A. Rosselló called on Congress to send supplies and relief workers, warning that the U.S. territory faced an impending "humanitarian crisis."

"To avoid that, recognize that we Puerto Rican's are American citizens," he reminded Congress. "When we speak of a catastrophe, everyone must be treated equally."

On Sunday, Hillary Clinton urged the President, then focused on the player demonstrations in the NFL, to ratchet up its response to the disaster. "President Trump, Sec. Mattis, and DOD should send the Navy, including the USNS Comfort, to Puerto Rico now. These are American citizens," Clinton said in a morning tweet, referring to the Department of Defense and Secretary James Mattis.

When the orders were issued, the ship immediately was placed in "role 5" mode, readying to depart within five days. Critical intervening days between getting orders and stocking and preparing the ship could mean the difference between a cholera outbreak that's contained and one that verges on an epidemic. It means that residents suffering from injuries sustained in the storm and its aftermath may not get proper treatment for days.

Floods have damaged local hospitals and other medical facilities. Twenty of the island's hospitals are in working order, the rest are crippled. In the city of Aricebo, all five of the hospitals are closed, the New York Times reported today.

Haiti's earthquake occurred on January 12, 2010. The next day, the ship was ordered to prepare to depart. Four days later, the Comfort — which had been on shore power for painting and repairs — was fully stocked with food, linens and enough medical gear to supply the ship's 10 operating rooms and set off from Baltimore and passed under the Chesapeake Bay Bridge en route to Haiti.

Towering cranes worked through the night, stacking pallets of supplies on the ship's flight deck, as the ship's merchant marine crew stowed them below. The ship's hospital had been all but dismantled for maintenance, with beds shoved aside. Surgical instruments were packed in cases that needed to be unpacked.

The Comfort arrived on Jan. 20, and docked in about 90 feet of water a mile from Port-Au-Prince. A powerful aftershock that jolted the 70,000-ton ship the morning of its arrival jarred the ship's full-sized CT scanner off its moorings, disabling it for days until a repairman could be flown in to fix it.

In the days following its arrival, US military and civilian medical personnel treated 871 patients, many of them with crush injuries and tropical infections after days of surviving under concrete rubble. During the height of the emergency response, helicopters flying round the clock ferried in a patient every six to nine minutes. Nine babies were born aboard the ship.

The Comfort — at nearly 900 feet in length, just shorter than an aircraft carrier — carries berths for 1,200 patients and crew. The ship has an emergency room, 12 operating rooms, an 80-bed intensive care ward and radiological and laboratory facilities.

Photos: Puerto Rico in Ruins