Program Change 1 – Caribbean Area Office and Warehouse Support:
Description
The FY 2023 Budget includes an increase of $1.4M for the staffing and
operational costs of the Puerto Rico Distribution Centers (DC). Staff will
manage readiness, disaster response operations and the distribution of
commodities for the FEMA DCs in Puerto Rico.
[...]
As a result of lesson learned responding during the 2017 and 2018
hurricane seasons, analysis of observed maritime parameters has determined
the requirement for one week of supply necessary to bridge a tailored
disaster supply chain from CONUS.
[...]
To meet these readiness targets, the sites require staffing that are
prepared to respond to all future major declarations, in lieu of
being temporarily funded by a single, current major disaster declaration.
This will allow sustained continuity of disaster support within the
Caribbean. Organization structure of these facilities are based on models
used at other FEMA distribution centers.
https://www.dhs.gov/sites/default/files/2022-03/Federal%20Emergency%20Management%20Agency_Remediated.pdf
Reminder: The annual president's budget proposal is mostly imaginary. The
traditional joke is Congress tosses it in the trash bin immediately after
the press conference. Nevertheless, its good to see some of the problems
after the 2017/2018 caribbean hurricanes mentioned.
In 2017/2018 took over a month to get the disaster response supply chain
from CONUS to the island territories (PR/USVI) working in spite of many
heroic efforts at the time.
