In 2017, Puerto Rico was stricken by two hurricanes—Irma and Maria—that wiped out much of the island’s power, water, and communications infrastructure, hampering the coordination of recovery efforts and the delivery of basic municipal services.

Through funding provided to the RAND Corporation by the U.S Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), ICMA helped assemble a team of ICMA Members and partners as pro-bono volunteers to conduct service and governance assessments of Puerto Rico’s 78 municipalities as they recovered from Hurricanes Irma and Maria.

Together with FEMA planners and students and faculty from the University of Puerto Rico, the volunteers conducted research and interviewed mayors, emergency managers, finance directors, public works officials, and other department heads and staff to develop a road map to strengthen municipal disaster resilience in the future. Assessment of municipalities proved difficult given road closures, rolling blackouts and emotional and mental drain that many of the municipal staff were dealing with post-hurricanes, something noted as part of the report and need for additional social services to municipal staff.

Despite the challenges, the team gathered information about the municipal leaders’ long-term priorities to improve the resilience of their communities. The findings informed recommendations for technical assistance and long-term strategies that were reflected in the project’s final report, published by the Government of Puerto Rico, entitled “Transformation and Innovation in the Wake of Devastation: An Economic and Disaster Recovery Plan for Puerto Rico.” Included in the report were recommendations and suggested strategies for providing longer term technical assistance to Puerto Rico’s municipalities in topics like shared services and mutual aid, public private partnerships, and ways to improve capacity building expertise, including through strengthening local associations. This report in turn helped to inform the Governor’s  Congressional Disaster Recovery plan mandated by Congress.