Hurricane Maria Emergency Management Response

Today, the Caribbean island and unincorporated U.S. territory of Puerto Rico is still struggling to recover from the devastation wrought by Hurricane Maria in September 2017. This category 5 storm was considered to be the most destructive natural disaster in the island’s history. The purpose of this paper is to provide a systematic discussion concerning the planning, response, stakeholders, recovery, cost/loss and social impact of Hurricane Maria. In addition, an analysis of the after action/mitigation/changes made following this natural disaster to reduce the impact should similar incidents recur. Finally, a summary of the research and important findings concerning the emergency management response and after action changes regarding Hurricane Maria are provided in the conclusion.
Review and Discussion
Preparation and Response to Hurricane Maria
Prior to Hurricane Maria, the Puerto Rican government commissioned a study by an emergency management response team from Harvard in order to identify weaknesses and opportunities to strengthen the island’s responsiveness to natural disasters. Nevertheless, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) concedes that the organization was largely unprepared for the onset of a storm of the magnitude of Hurricane Maria nor was it ready to respond to the enormity of the devastation that it caused (Schmidt, 2018). Although government officials in Puerto Rico confirm that FEMA planned to stockpile millions of meals and bottles of water on the island in preparation for this and other natural disasters, in far too many cases this preparedness was either not fully implemented or was awaiting additional federal funding to complete (Schmidt, 2018). As a result, the impact on stakeholders was especially pronounced as discussed further below.
Stakeholders, Recovery, Costs and Losses Associated with Hurricane Maria
By all accounts, Hurricane Maria caused billions of dollars in losses but the cost in human lives and suffering were immeasurable. In this regard, Mora and Davila (2018) emphasize that, “With wind speeds of 155 miles per hour, equivalent to an EF-3 tornado, Hurricane Maria ripped through Puerto Rico on September 20, 2017, leaving behind a trail of catastrophic destruction, suffering, and death” (p. 208). Consequently, the direct stakeholders affected by Hurricane Maria were the 3.3 million residents of Puerto Rico (who are citizens of the United States), but in a larger sense all Americans were affected by this major weather event. Moreover, although thousands of Puerto Ricans were believed to have died as a result of Hurricane Maria, the federal and territorial governments only officially identified 64 victims initially (Campoy & Pascual, 2018). Almost a year passed, however, before the original estimates were updated to more accurately reflect the total number of fatalities which now stand at 2,975 people, representing nearly 1 percent of the island’s total population at the time of the disaster (Mora & Davila, 2018).
In addition, tens of thousands of islanders were injured and/or displaced, and the suffering continues to this day. For instance, Mora and Davila (2018) point out that, “In the immediate aftermath, Maria left the island's then-3.3 million American citizens without electricity, running water, telecommunications, and transportation systems. Other critical necessities, such as food supplies, drinking water, and medicine were in short supply” (p. 209). While clean-up and recovery efforts continue, the island’s efforts to rebuild after Hurricane Maria have been severely hampered by the sluggish response of the U.S. federal government (Mora & Davila, 2018). Not surprisingly, the social impact of Hurricane Maria has been broad-based and severe as discussed below.
Social Impact of Hurricane Maria
Besides the casualties caused by Hurricane Maria in the immediate aftermath of the storm, there have also been some major social impacts that have yet to be fully resolved. For instance, according to Ferguson (2018), “Hurricane Maria altered the course of daily life in Puerto Rico in every way, but it hit the island's public K-12 schools especially hard” (p. 74). Power was lost in virtually every school in Puerto Rico as a result of Hurricane Maria, and the outages lasted for several months in some cases (Mora & Davila, 2018). This meant that more than one-third of a million young learners were left without a school to attend for unpredictable lengths of time and most Puerto Rican parents were literally left in the dark concerning when or even if their children’s schools would reopen (Ferguson, 2018). Further, many of the schools in Puerto Rico were used for disaster relief purposes, thereby extending the length of time that the schools would be closed even longer (Ferguson, 2018).
The social impact of these events compelled many Puerto Rican parents to move to the mainland United States in order to return their children to school and secure some normalcy in their lives. In this regard, Ferguson (2018) notes that, “President Donald Trump's attempts to lowball the impact of the hurricane and the administration's lackluster response effort have had a chilling effect on Puerto Ricans, many of whom have fled for the mainland with their school-age children in tow” (p. 209). Current estimates place the number of school children that have left the island at between 25,000 and 30,000, and although the federal government has reiterated its commitment to helping Puerto Rico rebuild, most observers agree that the island’s schools were never fully recover from this natural disaster to the point where they were prior to its onset (Ferguson, 2018). Indeed, hundreds of schools remain without power today and those that have reopened are unable to consistently rely upon water and power supplies. Likewise, the structural damage to the island’s infrastructure has created additional safety concerns for the public buildings, including schools, that have managed to reopen (Ferguson, 2018). Clearly, there were a number of valuable lessons to be learned from a storm of this magnitude as discussed further below.
After Action/Mitigation/Changes Made in Response to Hurricane Maria
In the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Maria, the U.S. federal government was quick to place the blame for the severity of the storm squarely on the Puerto Rican government. In fact, President Trump famously “tweeted” that the island had received “91 billion dollars” to help prepare for these types of natural disasters (Sherman, 2019). In reality, however, just over $19 billion has been allocated to date and only a fraction of these monies have been released for Hurricane Maria recovery efforts (Sherman, 2019).
Notwithstanding the otherwise sluggish response by the U.S. federal government to the devastation caused by Hurricane Maria, there have been some substantive steps taken to mitigate the impact of future storms of this magnitude. For instance, according to a recent report from FEMA, residents of Puerto Rico are receiving assistance from the federal government to help make their homes more resistant to natural disaster on the scale of Hurricane Maria. In this regard, FEMA (2018) reports that, “Under the Permanent Housing Construction program, FEMA is providing better, stronger, more resilient constructions in which families can live safer in their new homes” (Hurricane Maria mitigation, 2019, para. 4).
Besides the efforts by the U.S. federal government to help Puerto Rico rebuild stronger for the future, the Puerto Rican government has also taken steps to mitigate future damage from hurricanes. For example, the Puerto Rican government has installed radio and satellite towers and buried fiber optic cables throughout the island as a redundant communications systems in case other channels are damaged (Florido, 2018). In addition, the Puerto Rican government has also installed hundreds of new water pumps and electric generators at hospitals (Florido, 2018). Likewise, many of the warehouses that were empty prior to Hurricane Maria have since been stockpiled with emergency food and water rations sufficient for the short-term relief of the millions of Puerto Ricans who remain (Schmidt, 2018).
Whether these steps are sufficient or not will depend in large part on the severity of the next natural disaster, but most local observers believe that Puerto Rico is now much better prepared than it was pre-Hurricane Maria. For instance, according to Florido (2018), “Overall officials say that even though you can never really predict what Mother Nature is going to throw at you, operationally, they feel that they are much better-positioned than they were when Hurricane Maria hit” (para. 6). In sum, the U.S. citizens living in Puerto Rico have once again bravely faced yet another natural disaster and are seeking to rebuild their lives, but it is clear that the road ahead is all uphill.
Conclusion
On September 20, 2017, a category 5 hurricane, Maria, struck Puerto Rico with devastating effect, and thousands of people lost their lives in the immediate aftermath of this storm. Tens of thousands more were injured and/or displaced as a result, and most observers agree that the island was woefully unprepared for a weather event of this magnitude. While the argument can be made that it is impossible to adequately prepare for storms of this unprecedented magnitude, the research was consistent in showing that far more could have been done prior to and following Hurricane Maria to mitigate the damage it caused.

References
Campoy, A. & Pascual, O. S. (2018, September 14). Hurricane Maria was a manmade disaster. Hundreds of families told us what really happened. Quartz. Retrieved from https://qz.com/1390559/how-many-people-died-in-hurricane-maria-an-investigation/
Ferguson, M. (2018, April). The plight of Puerto Rico: What does the future hold for Puerto Rico's public schools in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria? Phi Delta Kappan, 99(7), 74.
Florido, A. (2018, May 29). Puerto Rico’s governor outlines island’s hurricane preparedness plans. National Public Radio. Retrieved from https://www.npr.org/2018/05/29/ 615263459/puerto-rico-governor-outlines-islands-hurricane-preparedness-plans.
Hurricane Maria mitigation. (2019). Federal Emergency Management Agency. Retrieved from https://www.fema.gov/hurricane-maria.
Mora, M. T. & Davila, A. (2018, Fall). Migration, geographic destinations, and socioeconomic outcomes of Puerto Ricans during la Crisis Boricua: Implications for island and stateside communities post-Maria. Centro Journal, 30(3), 208-210.
Schmidt, S. (2018, August 5). Report: FEMA wasn't ready for Hurricane Maria, destruction in Puerto Rico. Public Radio International. Retrieved from https://www.pri.org/stories/ 2018-08-05/report-fema-wasnt-ready-hurricane-maria-destruction-puerto-rico.
Sherman, A. (2019, April 3). Donald Trump falsely tweets that Puerto Rico got $91 billion in hurricane aid. Politifact Florida. Retrieved from https://www.politifact.com/florida/ statements/2019/apr/03/donald-trump/trumps-false-tweet-puerto-rico-got-91-billion-hurr/.