Breaking

9-Year-Old Boy Dies After Being Shot in Head in Croixville Housing Community; Police Detain 15-Year-Old

Concerned Residents Clean Christiansted Town Using Their Own Tools, Money, and Some Help from the VI Fire Service

Territory May See Veterans Cemetery Through DeGazon-Sponsored Bill

Credit and Debit Cards of WAPA Customers Were Compromised Since August 30th, WAPA Says, Authority to Finally Start Issuing Notification Via Mail and Email

Sports Tourism in VI Gains Momentum as DC United Team is set to Play Exhibition Soccer Game on St. Croix

Carnival Breeze Brings 3,700 Tourists to St. Croix During Maiden Call; Senators, Tourism Officials Want to See More

Limetree Bay Willing To Provide $10 Million To Help Add Life to a Dying G.E.R.S.

American Airlines to Serve St. Croix With New Flights Next Summer

The Sudden Death of Influential Roots Reggae Visionary, Vaughn Benjamin of Midnite Band and Akae Beka, Has Rocked the Virgin Islands and Reggae Community Around the World

Arthur A. Richards K-8 School Hosts Anti-Bullying Campaign

Come Out. Hang Out. Have Fun at The Meat Up, One of St. Thomas’ Latest Hot-Spot for Good Food with Friends and Family.

UVI Board of Trustees Approves $47.1 Million Fiscal Year 2020 Budget; Sets $3 Million Fundraising Goal

Man Dies During Early Morning Car Accident on St. Croix; Driver of Car Arrested (Updated)

'You Did Everything You Could to Prevent this from Happening': An Emotional Goodbye to Young Aaron Benjamin

Back in Business: Cost U Less on St. Thomas Opened its Doors Friday to Thousands of Customers 2 Years after Irma and Maria

Bill Aimed at Regulating Credit Use by Gov't Departments and Agencies Among Others Held in Committee

Juan Luis Hospital Announces Completion and Availability of Mobile Dialysis Facilities

Tractor Trailer With Tank Carrying Thousands Of Gallons of Liquified Gas Flips Near Cool Out Bar; Driver Injured But Alive

Credit and Debit Card Hack Through WAPA Appears to be Widespread in Virgin Islands; WAPA Says Support Services Will be Made Available to Affected Customers

Facing Life in Prison Without Parole, Mother and Boyfriend Plead Not Guilty in Murder of 4-Year-Old Boy

FEMA Was Unprepared For Hurricane Maria’s Aftermath In Puerto Rico, Report Says

Featured / Hurricane Recovery / Hurricane Season / News / Virgin Islands / July 15, 2018

The Federal Emergency Management Agency disaster plan vastly underestimated Hurricane Maria’s impact on Puerto Rico, because it was based on a focused disaster such as a tsunami and not a Category 5 hurricane affecting an island of over 3 million people. FEMA also badly underestimated how much fresh water and food would be needed, and how difficult it would be to resupply the island once stock was depleted.

Exacerbating FEMA’s lack of preparation for the commonwealth, the agency’s Puerto Rico warehouse was almost empty, as its contents were rushed to the U.S. Virgin Islands to supply St. Thomas and St. John, which had been ravaged by Hurricane Irma two weeks prior to Maria’s arrival.

That’s according to a report FEMA issued on July 12 detailing its response to the 2017 disasters — including the California fires — called the After-Action Report.

The report says FEMA had thousands fewer workers than it needed, and many of those it had were not qualified to handle such disasters. And FEMA had to borrow many workers from other agencies to help it manage the tremendous demand for essential needs that arose as a direct result of Hurricane Maria.

The agency distributed 130 million meals, 35 million of which were delivered to Puerto Rico. But according to its own report, FEMA took longer than expected to secure supplies, and it lost track of much of the aid and who needed it.

The report also says that FEMA failed to take account of the logistical problems that its own disaster planning drills had shown it could face when managing a disaster in Puerto Rico.

“The 2017 hurricane season showed that all levels of government — and individual families — need to be much better prepared with their own supplies, particularly in remote or insular areas where commodities take longer to deliver,” the agency administrator, Brock Long, wrote in a draft report obtained by The New York Times ahead of official release. “In Puerto Rico, little of the communications infrastructure survived Hurricane Maria, and as a result, it was extremely difficult for the local, territory, or federal agencies to know what was needed and where in the immediate aftermath of the storm.”

See the full report here.

Hurricane Maria made landfall in Puerto Rico on Sept. 20 as a Category 4 storm, laying waste to most of the island while knocking out all its electric power and most of its cellphone towers.


Tags: , ,



Staff Consortium




Previous Post

VI Hotel And Tourism Association To Host Destination Symposium Less Than One Year After Devastating Hurricanes

Next Post

All Students Will Be Off Of Split Session For 2018-19 School Year, D.O.E. Says





You might also like

Leave a Reply


More Story

VI Hotel And Tourism Association To Host Destination Symposium Less Than One Year After Devastating Hurricanes

Less than one year after the 2017 hurricanes, the U.S. Virgin Islands will host major online travel agents as the USVI Hotel...

July 15, 2018