Kickoff to Hurricane Season 2020: An update on the mitigation efforts in Puerto Rico from Hurricanes Irma and Maria

Puerto Rico was devastated in 2017 by Hurricanes Irma and Maria, which left behind billions of dollars in damages. In this episode, we’ll hear from the lead of FEMA’s Mitigation Assessment Team for the 2017 storms and have an update on the island’s current mitigation efforts from the previous State Hazard Mitigation Officer for Puerto Rico.

The Building Science Branch of FEMA’s Federal Insurance and Mitigation Administration (FIMA) oversees the Mitigation Assessment Team project to support the identification of mitigation requirements after a major disaster. After Hurricanes Irma and Maria in 2017, the Mitigation Assessment Team, led by our first guest Stuart Adams, identified several key mitigation needs for Puerto Rico, including adopting an updated building code. The key to any successful mitigation program is ensuring recommendations are implemented by state and local communities. Our second guest in this episode, Tidal Basin’s Senior Director of Recovery Jose Valenzuela, will share how Puerto Rico implemented FEMA’s mitigation recommendations from the 2017 Mitigation Assessment Team report.