Budget news: Proposed Puerto Rico FEMA distribution center (warehouse)

[Sean Donelan <sean () donelan com>]

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.