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Hard Lessons from Puerto Rico

Make a note to self — about Puerto Rico's lessons for emergency managers.

Puerto Rico is teaching some hard lessons and we should be paying attention to them and how they apply to us as emergency managers to those who serve cities, counties, states and other types of organizations, like businesses and utilities.

The first lesson is about logistics. There is a "time-space continuum" that cannot be bridged. Puerto Rico is just making logistics harder because there is 1,000 miles of ocean to be crossed before it even arrives on the island. The next logistic issue is that there are interdependencies in logistics and shipping. The harbor has to be cleared of debris; cranes must have electrical power to operate (generator cannot power cranes that unload containers); you might have all the hardware and supplies (like diesel), but if you don't have staff to operate "the system," you are still not functional. Lastly, that last mile, getting the supplies delivered to where they are needed, can be the hardest part once the system is working. Food was still being rationed and grocery store shelves are bare 10 days after storm landfall. Lt. Gen. (Ret.) Russel Honore who has been in the news lately had the best quote (back in Katrina days) that I've used over and over again, "Logistics, if it was easy, it would be called taxes."

Drilling down a bit on the staffing issue. Almost everyone's home was impacted by the storm. That means the breadwinners are at home and families are in "survival mode" trying to get the food, water and fuel that they need — to live. This applies to people in the government and private sectors. They were not going to work, because their first duty is to their family.

Which brings me to Continuity of Government Planning (COOP) and Continuity of Government (COG) planning. If you wonder why you need such plans — look at Puerto Rico. The COOP plan will help identify the essential functions of government that need to be performed — and, it is NOT everything you were doing before. 

The COG plan will identify the various lines of succession for who is in charge of what, when people are either killed, injured or just not available in a disaster. Sometimes you should mix up that list by geographical distance or just the buildings that they work in every day. When I was King County Emergency Management director, we worked with the county executive to establish his list. Then I realized every person worked in the County Courthouse, which was an unreinforced masonry building (URM). Upon our recommendation the executive added a department director who worked elsewhere in a modern building. 

President Trump's tweets and comments are totally inappropriate for the situation that Puerto Rico finds itself in. They were punched in the nose by Hurricane Maria and they are clawing their way back to become functional. Any jurisdiction, even New York City that suffered the level and extent of damages as Puerto Rico, would be brought to its knees (no, 9/11 was not that event and neither was Hurricane Sandy). 

As for us emergency managers, remember, "There but for the Grace of God go I." 

Eric Holdeman is a contributing writer for Emergency Management magazine and is the former director of the King County, Wash., Office of Emergency Management.