FEMA Had a Plan for Responding to a Hurricane in Puerto Rico -- But It Doesn't Want You to See It
Source: ProPublica
The disaster-relief agency, under fire after Hurricane Maria, wont release the plan, even as a comparable document for Hawaii remains public.
by Justin Elliott and Decca Muldowney Oct. 26, 11:53 a.m. EDT
The Federal Emergency Management Agency, citing unspecified potentially sensitive information, is declining to release a document it drafted several years ago that details how it would respond to a major hurricane in Puerto Rico.
The plan, known as a hurricane annex, runs more than 100 pages and explains exactly what FEMA and other agencies would do in the event that a large storm struck the island. The document could help experts assess both how well the federal government had prepared for a storm the size of Hurricane Maria and whether FEMAs response matches what was planned. The agency began drafting such advance plans after it was excoriated for poor performance and lack of preparation in the wake of Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
ProPublica requested a copy of the Puerto Rico hurricane annex as part of its reporting on the federal response to Maria, the scale and speed of which has been the subject of scrutiny and criticism. More than a month after the storm made landfall, 73 percent of the island still lacks electricity.
Early last week, a FEMA spokesman said he would provide a copy of the plan that afternoon. It never came. After a week of follow-ups, FEMA sent a statement reversing its position. Due to the potentially sensitive information contained within the Hurricane Annex of the Region II All Hazards Plan, there are legal questions surrounding what, if any, portions of the annex can be released, the statement said. As such, the documents that you seek must be reviewed and analyzed under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) by FEMA. The statement did not explain what legal questions apply.
As ProPublica has previously reported, FEMAs Freedom of Information process is plagued by dysfunction and yearslong backlogs. For example, FEMA hasnt responded to a request for documents related to Superstorm Sandy that we filed more than three and a half years ago.
After FEMA declined to release the Puerto Rico hurricane plan, we found the agencys equivalent plan for Hawaii posted, unredacted, on the internet by the Department of Defense. The Hawaii plan includes granular details down to, for example, how many specially outfitted medical aircraft the federal government would send to Hawaii after a Category 4 hurricane. It also describes an 85-step process to restore electricity on the islands.
Asked why the Puerto Rico plan was too sensitive to release publicly while the Hawaii plan was not, a FEMA spokesman said: We arent able to speak for DoD or the State of Hawaii.
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Read more: https://www.propublica.org/article/fema-had-a-plan-for-responding-to-a-hurricane-in-puerto-rico
Full article posted with the permission of ProPublica -- Don
JustABozoOnThisBus
(23,367 posts)Plus, it probably cost a bundle to have some outside (offshore?) company put the plan together.
Finally, the plan probably has a bunch of pages where someone forgot to edit the cut-n-paste to alter all occurrences of "Oahu" to "Puerto Rico".
Or, an old quote:
No Battle Plan Survives Contact With the Enemy --German military strategist Helmuth von Moltke.
exboyfil
(17,865 posts)Then the Obama administration shares in the culpability. They had eight years to make that right.
Control-Z
(15,682 posts)that not one single step of the plan had been followed. That's my best guess.
Marthe48
(17,027 posts)There is probably no one in the office that understands the plans previous employees created. Or anyone who cares about Puerto Rico.
Achilleaze
(15,543 posts)...any and all considerations of economics, quality, or even common-sense.
TexasBushwhacker
(20,215 posts)Since Katrina happened in 2005, it was in the later part of GWB's tenure. I imagine a good part, if not all, of the planning was done under Obama's watch. If the plan was followed, Obama would have to get some of the credit, no? And just like they are unwilling to give the ACA credit for all the lives it's saved. Obama gets blamed for anything that's imperfect and ZERO credit for his accomplishments.
Turbineguy
(37,369 posts)groundloop
(11,523 posts)Refusing to suspend the Jones Act for any meaningful amount of time
Having a Commander-In-Chief who was more interested in golf than a natural disaster which nearly wiped out Puerto Rico
Awarding a huge contract to rebuild the power infrastructure to a 45* crony with zero experience
procon
(15,805 posts)try to find it. BTAIM, FEMA has slow-balled aid to Puerto Rico, and they still haven't adequately explained why the mainland disasters were treated much more vigorously.