Assessing the Cost of Disaster Recovery and Identifying Funding Sources in the HSOAC Puerto Rico Economic and Disaster Recovery Plan Project

Abstract

On August 8, 2018, the government of Puerto Rico submitted to the U.S. Congress its economic and disaster recovery plan, as required by the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018; it was simultaneously published as Transformation and Innovation in the Wake of Devastation: An Economic and Disaster Recovery Plan for Puerto Rico. 1 Under contract with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the Homeland Security Operational Analysis Center (HSOAC) provided substantial support in developing the plan by soliciting and integrating inputs from a wide variety of stakeholders, contributing analysis where needed, and assisting with drafting the plan. The plan included an overview of damage and needs, courses of action to meet those needs, costs of the courses of action, and potential funding mechanisms for those costs.To support federal agencies evaluating and funding recovery actions, HSOAC is releasing this detailed volume on the work done on estimating the cost of the recovery actions included in the plan, as well as on identifying potential funding sources for the recovery actions. HSOAC plans to release another report describing the overall process and methodology employed in this work, an in-depth description of hurricane damage and recovery needs, and detailed volumes for the sectors engaged as part of recovery planning. These volumes will provide decisionmakers greater detail on the conditions in Puerto Rico prior to the 2017 hurricane season, damage from Hurricanes Irma and Maria, courses of action that were identified to help the various sectors (and, more broadly, Puerto Rico) recover in a resilient manner, potential funding mechanisms for the courses of action, and considerations for implementers as they move forward. This document will likely also be of interest to other stakeholders funding or implementing recovery activities in Puerto Rico, including commonwealth-and local-level governmental agencies, nongovernmental organizations, and the private sector. Furthermore, this body of material contributes to the larger literature about disaster recovery and resilience, and may be of interest to other communities planning for or recovering from similar disasters.This research was sponsored by FEMA and conducted within the Strategy, Policy, and Operations Program of HSOAC, a federally funded research and development center (FFRDC). More information about HSOAC's contribution to planning for recovery in Puerto Rico, along with links to other reports being published as part of this series, can be found at www.rand.org/hsoac/puerto-rico-recovery.