The National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) has shared draft principal findings from its multi-year investigation of Hurricane Maria's impact on Puerto Rico.
One finding stands out for Puerto Rico's business community: businesses, schools and hospitals that prepared before the storm, with emergency plans, diversified suppliers, dedicated risk mitigation funds and backup power, resumed operations more quickly afterward.
The draft findings also document how communication outages, blocked roads and extended power loss cut off access to medical care, and how schools served as shelters for more than two months on average, far beyond the 24 to 72 hours they are designed for.
NIST's final recommendations are expected to shape building codes, standards and emergency practices in Puerto Rico and across the U.S. The National Puerto Rican Chamber of Commerce will be following this closely and encourages our stakeholders to review the findings and take part in the public comment process when draft reports are released. Read the update below: