Puerto Rico Electricity Grid Recovery: Better Information and Enhanced Coordination Is Needed to Address Challenges
GAO-20-141: Published: Oct 8, 2019.
GAO Report on PR Electric Grid Recovery
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Author Archives: recoverydiva
Rebuilding After a Flood?
Rebuilding is often the worst response to floods, in SC and across US.
Thanks to Chris Jones for the citation.
Rethinking Recovery
From the NY Times: After a Caribbean Hurricane, the Battle Is Where, or Even Whether, to Rebuild. When Hurricane Irma crushed Saint-Martin two years ago, the French state vowed swift assistance. Aid has flowed in, but a fight has followed about recovery plans, exposing racial and class tension. Two excerpts:
Storm Exposes Social, and Racial, Fault Lines. Hurricane Irma made clear that natural disasters not only obliterate structures and lives; they can also expose deep socioeconomic fault lines. In Saint-Martin, a long simmering discontent — loaded with racial and class tension — is on the verge of boiling over.
The Takeaway: As storms become more destructive, hurricane recovery is as much about rethinking as it is rebuilding.
Improve Disaster Response
The climate is changing, but our disaster-response system isn’t keeping up, experts say. Once again, the suggestion for the disaster version of the NTSB is made.
“The disaster-response industry is probably the only industry left in the world that uses self-analysis to measure impact and make improvements,” said Thomas Kirsch, director of the National Center for Disaster Medicine and Public Health at the Uniformed Services University.
A research-driven strategy that includes collecting data during or immediately after disasters and comparing results systematically with other studies is critical, said Mike Clarke, founder and research director of Evidence Aid, an organization that provides data on disasters to practitioners and policymakers around the world.
Credit Ratings and Climate Change
From Pew Trusts: Climate Change Could Make Borrowing Costlier for States and Cities.
Someday soon, analysts will determine that a city or county, or maybe a school district or utility, is so vulnerable to sea level rise, flooding, drought or wildfire that it is an investment risk.
To be sure, no community has yet seen its credit rating downgraded because of climate forecasting. And no one has heard of a government struggling to access capital because of its precarious geographical position.
But as ratings firms begin to focus on climate change, and investors increasingly talk about the issue, those involved in the market say now is the time for communities to make serious investments in climate resilience — or risk
Coastal Recovery
More frequent and intense tropical storms mean less recovery time for the world’s coastlines.
More frequent and intense tropical storms have far-reaching ecological impacts on coastlines that last for months or years after storms pass. They affect estuaries, bays and marshes that are crucial nurseries for major ocean fisheries.
Strategic Crisis Management
From GovTech: Strategic Crisis Management: Do Emergency Managers Have a Role?
Crisis management is a strategic function that is usually the province of senior leaders. But the skill set emergency managers offer can add value to an organization’s crisis response.
Safety and Security for Houses of Worship
This week is the Jewish New Year, which is a good chance to remind readers that I have another site that deals with houses and worship and security. That site is www.DisastersandFaith.wordpress.com
Ecosystems and Mitigation from Storms
Ecosystem Investments Could Minimize Storm Damage
A new study provides information on how to invest in natural coastal ecosystems that the Bahamian government, community leaders and development banks are applying in post-disaster recovery and future storm preparation in the Bahamas.
PR Plan to Get of of Bankruptcy
Puerto Rico unveils plans to pull the island out of bankruptcy.
The federal control board that oversees Puerto Rico’s finances on Friday released a plan that would cut the island’s debt by more than 60% and rescue it from bankruptcy. The highly-anticipated restructuring plan comes three years after Congress created the federal oversight board, which allowed the territory to seek bankruptcy protection after years of facing its inability to pay its debt.
Puerto Rico was dragged into billions of dollars in public debt after decades of mismanagement, corruption and excessive borrowing to balance budgets. The government declared the debt unpayable in June 2015, and nearly two years later filed for the biggest municipal bankruptcy in US history.
Recovery Diva 