3-8-18 NIMO's Puerto Rico Damage Assessment & Recovery Strategy Complete

Post Hurricane Damage –

El Portal Visitor Center, El Yunque National Forest

The destruction resulting from both Hurricanes Irma and Maria left El Yungue National Forest

(EYNF) and International Institute of Tropical Forestry (IITF) with significant infrastructure and resource damage; damage so severe that, in many cases, regaining full operational capacity will take several years or more.

On October 25, 2017, acting Regional Forester, Ken Arney tasked NIMO IC Joe Reinarz, to assist the EYNF and IITF in compiling a damage assessment summary and coordinated recovery strategy. 

El Yunque NF Hurricane Damage

In an effort to meet this delegation, Joe and NIMO PSC Dana Carter traveled to Puerto Rico where they spent a week working with the staff from both EYNF and IITF to begin gathering prioritized response and recovery needs and developing a Program of Work that would allow both EYNF and IITF to regain full operational capacity.

The Strategic Planning Package developed for this delegation includes a Strategic Project Planner and a Narrative with supporting documentation (i.e. damage assessments developed by EYNF and IITF). A Gantt chart-styled strategic project planner was developed to capture and display the prioritized and phased strategic level activities.

Locals hires clearing 

the right of way

along PR Hwy 191

Prior to leaving Puerto Rico, EYNF, IITF and the Southern Area Regional Office Staff were presented a copy of the draft Strategic Planner and were given time to validate and further develop activities, including the development of cost estimates for the prioritized work. In addition to developing the Strategic Project Planner, a supporting narrative was drafted to describe the strategic planning process used, and includes milestone conditions to help gauge progress throughout the response and recovery efforts.   

(above & below) Potable Water System

 Intakes – Approximately 20% of the 

island of PR’s fresh water supply 

is estimated to originate on EYNF

After leaving Puerto Rico, Joe and Dana continued to engage with the personnel from Puerto Rico and the Southern Area Regional Office. Daily coordination conference calls were attended through the end of the 2017 calendar year; after the first of the year 2018, the call schedule was moved to Monday, Wednesday, and Fridays. Additional calls were held to develop a phased approach to measuring accomplishments throughout the response and recovery efforts