DC D CM MC C Partners DCMC Putting Puerto Rico and Hurricane - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

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Mission Assignments and EMAC in Puerto Rico March 29, 2018

Putting Puerto Rico and Hurricane Maria Into Context

• Hurricane Maria was the nation’s first truly catastrophic

disaster

• Never before has the response period lasted as long
• It is unprecedented that an entire state population lost power,

water, telecommunications and basic services for such extended periods

• Entire infrastructure systems were devastated, and their loss caused

cascading impacts that plague Puerto Rico to this day

• Debris and mountainous terrain made movement nearly impossible
• Puerto Rico is an island located over 1,000 miles from the U.S.

mainland

• Government and first responders were themselves “victims”
• f the storm
• Early estimates are that the per-capita impact of Hurricane

Maria was 3+ times the impact of Hurricane Katrina in Louisiana

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The Need for Mission Assignments and EMAC Support

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• Catastrophic nature of the event
• Government was overwhelmed and had its own capacity and

capabilities devastated by the storm

• Puerto Rico was bankrupt and did not have the financial

flexibility or cash-flow to enter into contracts or seek reimbursement after paying their bills

• Many vendors would not contract with Puerto Rico
• Legal Constraints
• PROMESA / Bankruptcy
• Lack of on-island resources (materials, equipment, and

personnel)

• Logistical challenges

Mission Assignments Coming to the Rescue….

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• Mission assignments became a tool to not only obtain

resources, but to address fiscal challenges and facilitate response.

• Debris
• Blue Roof
• Repairs to critical governmental facilities
• Power Restoration (line repair; generators)
• Commodities and Fuel
• Medical
• Emergency Bridge and Road Repairs
• Infrastructure / Site Assessments
• Dam repairs and stabilization (Guajataca Dam)
• Utilized both for traditional emergency work and to jump-

start recovery

• Secondary benefit: MA’s brought resources to Puerto Rico

that could be left there for longer-term support

Puerto Rico Relied on EMAC Heavily Also

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• For similar reasons, EMAC was of critical importance.
• EMAC support was utilized heavily as well to support

emergency needs – aid was received from 33 States in all

• Police and Security
• Mobilization of Power Restoration Personnel and Equipment
• IMTs
• Staff Augmentation
• Approximately $1 billion has been spent on EMAC

assistance

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Observations and Challenges with Mission Assignments After Maria

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• Highly effective tool overall to address Puerto Rico’s fiscal

and operational challenges

• Less State control over process, priorities, and approach
• Reduced operational and financial transparency
• Logistics / timelines
• Operational status
• Strategic approach
• Planning
• Federal agency contracting process delays
• Logistics coordination and tracking was a major issue
• Challenge securing and moving resources
• Transition of responsibility back to Puerto Rico was

challenging

Observations and Challenges with EMAC After Maria

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• Use of EMAC teams from other states to help manage the

process was a huge success

• 2-week deployments are not problematic for catastrophic

events

• Field conditions….or people’s perceptions or concerns

about them….made EMAC less helpful and added significant additional burdens on the Puerto Rico

• Self-deployment of personnel and resources (with an

expectation of EMAC eventually covering the bills) was problematic

• Delays in providing documentation for reimbursement
• EMAC cannot be used for mitigation or long-term recovery

support….a problem for catastrophic events