[House Hearing, 115 Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
THE HISTORIC 2017 HURRICANE SEASON: IMPACTS ON THE U.S. VIRGIN ISLANDS
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HEARING
BEFORE THE
SUBCOMMITTEE ON
THE INTERIOR, ENERGY, AND ENVIRONMENT
OF THE
COMMITTEE ON OVERSIGHT
AND GOVERNMENT REFORM
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
ONE HUNDRED FIFTEENTH CONGRESS
SECOND SESSION
__________
MARCH 12, 2018
__________
Serial No. 115-72
__________
Printed for the use of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.fdsys.gov
http://oversight.house.gov
_________
U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE
30-941 PDF WASHINGTON : 2018
Committee on Oversight and Government Reform
Trey Gowdy, South Carolina, Chairman
John J. Duncan, Jr., Tennessee Elijah E. Cummings, Maryland,
Darrell E. Issa, California Ranking Minority Member
Jim Jordan, Ohio Carolyn B. Maloney, New York
Mark Sanford, South Carolina Eleanor Holmes Norton, District of
Justin Amash, Michigan Columbia
Paul A. Gosar, Arizona Wm. Lacy Clay, Missouri
Scott DesJarlais, Tennessee Stephen F. Lynch, Massachusetts
Blake Farenthold, Texas Jim Cooper, Tennessee
Virginia Foxx, North Carolina Gerald E. Connolly, Virginia
Thomas Massie, Kentucky Robin L. Kelly, Illinois
Mark Meadows, North Carolina Brenda L. Lawrence, Michigan
Ron DeSantis, Florida Bonnie Watson Coleman, New Jersey
Dennis A. Ross, Florida Raja Krishnamoorthi, Illinois
Mark Walker, North Carolina Jamie Raskin, Maryland
Rod Blum, Iowa Jimmy Gomez, Maryland
Jody B. Hice, Georgia Peter Welch, Vermont
Steve Russell, Oklahoma Matt Cartwright, Pennsylvania
Glenn Grothman, Wisconsin Mark DeSaulnier, California
Will Hurd, Texas Stacey E. Plaskett, Virgin Islands
Gary J. Palmer, Alabama John P. Sarbanes, Maryland
James Comer, Kentucky
Paul Mitchell, Michigan
Greg Gianforte, Montana
Sheria Clarke, Staff Director
Robert Borden,Deputy Staff Director
William McKenna General Counsel
Jessica Conrad, Senior Counsel
Kiley Bidelman, Clerk
David Rapallo, Minority Staff Director
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Subcommittee on the Interior, Energy and Environment
Blake Farenthold, Texas Chairman
Paul A. Gosar, Arizona, Vice Chair Stacey E. Plaskett, Virgin Islands
Dennis Ross, Florida Jamie Raskin, Maryland
Gary J. Palmer, Alabama Jimmy Gomez, California
James Comer, Kentucky (Vacancy)
Greg Gianforte, Montana
C O N T E N T S
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Page
Hearing held on March 12, 2018................................... 1
WITNESSES
Panel I:
Senator Myron D. Jackson, Senate President, U.S. Virgin Islands
Legislature
Oral Statement............................................... 6
Written Statement............................................ 8
Senator Tregenza A. Roach, U.S. Virgin Islands Legislature
Oral Statement............................................... 16
Written Statement............................................ 18
Panel II:
Mr. William ``Bill'' Vogel, Federal Coordinating Officer, Federal
Emergency Management Agency
Oral Statement............................................... 29
Written Statement............................................ 32
Mr. Murad ``Mojo'' Raheem, ASPR Regional Emergency Coordinator,
Region 2 Department of Health and Human Services
Oral Statement............................................... 40
Written Statement............................................ 42
COL Scott Heintzelman, Defense Coordinating Officer for FEMA
Region II, Department of Defense
Oral Statement............................................... 51
Written Statement............................................ 52
COL Robert J. Clark, Commander, USACE Field Recovery Office, U.S.
Army Corps of Engineers
Oral Statement............................................... 56
Written Statement............................................ 58
Mr. Randy Lavasseur, Caribbean Group Superintendent, National
Park Service
Oral Statement............................................... 61
Written Statement............................................ 63
Mr. Henry ``Hank'' Dynka, Manager, In-Plant Support, Northeast
Area Operations, U.S. Postal Service
Oral Statement............................................... 66
Written Statement............................................ 68
APPENDIX
Statement for the Record of Ruby Simmonds Esannason, submitted by
Ranking Member Plaskett........................................ 90
Statement for the Record of Senator Janelle K. Sarauw, submitted
by Ranking Member Plaskett..................................... 93
Statement for the Record of Meaghan Enright, submitted by Ranking
Member Plaskett................................................ 95
THE HISTORIC 2017 HURRICANE SEASON: IMPACTS ON THE U.S. VIRGIN ISLANDS
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Monday, March 12, 2018
House of Representatives,
Subcommittee on the Interior, Energy and
Environment
Committee on Oversight and Government Reform,
Washington, D.C.
The subcommittee met, pursuant to call, at 9:40 a.m., at
the Legislature of the Virgin Islands Capitol Building,
Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas, Virgin Islands, Hon. Blake
Farenthold [chairman of the subcommittee] presiding.
Present: Representatives Farenthold and Plaskett.
Mr. Farenthold. Good morning. The Subcommittee on the
Interior and Environment will come to order. Without objection,
the Chair is authorized to declare a recess at any time.
Before we get started, I did want to take a moment to speak
directly to our audience. I want to thank the witnesses and
also those members of the community who have chosen to be here.
I do want to point out this is a formal hearing of the
subcommittee and not a townhall meeting. We are here to hear
from the witnesses. Though we value what members of the public
have to say, this is a formal hearing. If there is time
afterwards, Ms. Plaskett and I will come to the back and visit
and listen to anybody's concerns. Also we need to get back to
Washington because we have votes tomorrow in the House.
So we would appreciate it if the members of the audience
would basically just listen. If you've got something to say,
obviously you can write to us or we'll try to talk to you
after.
With that, I'll offer my opening statement before we get
started.
Today the subcommittee would examine the effects of the
historic 2017 Hurricane Season on the U.S. Virgin Islands.
However, before we get started, I do want to thank the ranking
member of this subcommittee, Ms. Plaskett, for being such a
wonderful host in showing us her beautiful home islands.
It's been almost 30 years since I've been here. There have
been substantial changes, not just based on time but obviously
based on the devastation of the hurricanes. These islands are
extremely beautiful but the effects of the hurricanes are
clear. It's painful to see the destruction in this area.
I'm especially sympathetic to what the residents of the
USVI are enduring because my home city of Corpus Christy, Texas
was slammed by Hurricane Harvey as well this year. We faced
wind gust up to 132 miles an hour in nearby Port Aransas, an
island community I grew up in having had a house there.
I'll tell you the devastation that we saw from Harvey it
reached as far as the Houston area based on rain. It was just
amazing. According to the National Weather Service, Houston saw
an all-time record daily rainfall accumulations on August 26th
and 27th.
The struggle of residents in Texas and the Virgin Islands
have faced in the aftermath of the storms have been intense.
Economic losses based on Harvey are as high as a 100 billion.
We are still awaiting numbers from here as we continue to do
recovery.
I bring up Texas to note that I do have experience with
these devastating hurricanes and made my trip here particularly
interesting. It's personally important for me to understand the
challenges that you all are facing.
Earlier this week I was in Port Aransas talking to the
Mayor about their recovery efforts. We see some of the same
challenges here with housing and debris removal. There is an
extra burden here based on logistics. It takes longer. It's
more expensive to get stuff out of here and the same is true to
get stuff here and get the debris out of here. So it's
interesting to see.
We are looking always to find ways to improve and reform
the Federal response to this. The Stafford Act, which is the
law governing Federal disaster assistance in the U.S., is
intended to be flexible and leave a great deal of decision
making to the localities in the State, territory, or the local
governments.
In our Federal system of government this is important
because it preserves the sovereignty of the territories,
States, and local governments and respects their expertise.
However, these locations and localities that often need Federal
assistance are faced with overwhelming disasters as happened
here and back home in Texas.
This Federal assistance is provided by an alphabet soup of
agencies ranging from FEMA, DOD to HHS, SBA. I think it's
important that the Congress play a role in this as well and
particularly this committee. We need to make sure these
interactions, especially those between local governments and
Federal agencies are working as well as possible.
Now by the very definition of the word, a disaster, is
disruptive. It causes chaos and upends the order of life that
we're used to, and as such, there is always going to be
difficulties coordinating the relief and recovery efforts, and
geography just adds to some of those challenges. There are
always ways we can improve this and that's certainly the case
here in the U.S. Virgin Islands. I hope today we can have a
productive discussion about advancing these improvements.
I want to thank the representatives of the Federal agencies
who have taken time out of their busy schedules to appear
today. I want to thank the participants of our panel
representing the local perspective because your voice is vital
to understanding what we need to do to fix the disaster relief
problem.
I want to point out that even though it's just Ms. Plaskett
and me here, we had originally scheduled this meeting in
December but the House schedule changed. The day we were
planning on being here, it got changed and as a result some of
the other members that were planning to attend were not able to
reschedule to come at this date. But Ms. Plaskett and I felt
like it was important that we get this hearing done as soon as
possible.
This transcript will be made available to the entire
subcommittee and committee as a whole. I'm looking forward to
hearing what you have to say.
And now I'll recognize Ms. Plaskett for her observations.
Ms. Plaskett. I first want to thank Chairman Farenthold for
calling this hearing to examine the impact of the Federal
Government's response to Hurricanes Irma and Maria in the U.S.
Virgin Islands. And I also would like to thank the chairman of
the committee, Trey Gowdy, who has made sure that this hearing
was able to take place.
I especially would like to thank the senate president,
Myron Jackson, as well as all the members of the legislature
for hosting us and having this hearing here in the Virgin
Islands legislative building.
I think people need to be aware that this is probably the
only time that the U.S. House of Representatives have had a
formal hearing here in the United States Virgin Islands. While
there have been townhalls, there have been meetings, this is in
fact a record that will go into the Congressional Record and
will demonstrate the people of the Virgin Islands' vigilance
and resilience and their concerns as U.S. citizens for the
effect and the impact of the Federal response on these islands.
Every sector of the U.S. Virgin Islands was devastated by
two Category 5 hurricanes which made landfall last September.
Eighty-five percent of the homes were destroyed or damaged.
Nine of the territory's K through 12 public schools remained
shuttered due to damages sustained by the hurricanes.
The University of the Virgin Islands suffered damage to its
campuses on both St. Thomas and St. Croix. Both the Roy Lester
Schneider Regional Medical Center in St. Thomas and the
Governor Juan Francisco Luis Hospital on St. Croix sustained
damage and could not perform critical care services, forcing
the evacuation of critical care and chronic patients to Puerto
Rico and eventually to the U.S. mainland.
Our airports and seaports remained closed for days.
Roadways and thoroughfares already in disrepair sustained
further damage. And critical communications, including radio
broadcast antennas and cell towers were crippled. Emergency 911
communications were inoperable.
Hurricanes Irma and Maria caused dozens of injuries and
some deaths. The damage from these storms and the psychological
and long-term economic impact is as unparalleled as the
occurrence of two Category 5 hurricanes making landfall in a
specific area in a two-week period could do.
While the Federal Government's response is welcomed and
appreciated, there are critical improvements that must be made
in advance of the next Atlantic hurricane season, which begins
June 1, and the ones to follow if we want to mitigate the loss
of life, injury and damage to property. To be clear, the people
of the Virgin Islands of the United States are grateful for the
efforts of the Federal Government in assisting our recovery. We
want to make that--I'd like to make that point at the
beginning.
Through our combined recovery efforts, disaster recovery
centers received over 63,000 visits from hurricane survivors.
Distribution centers provided approximately 100,000 meals and
some 72,000 liters of drinking water. As of January both FEMA
and SBA have approved more than $400 million in grants and low
interest disaster housing loans, and $68.7 million in aid to
various individual and household programs. Congress has passed
three disaster supplemental appropriations; still the recovery
is far from over.
The catastrophic destruction caused by Hurricanes Irma and
Maria continue to demand massive amounts of aid to address the
overwhelming needs of the victims who now face the daunting
task of rebuilding their lives. We will hear about the things
that went well, but we must also hear about the things that did
not go as well and ways that we can improve ourselves.
That is the sign of a true democracy and a mature country
that is able to hear where our shortfalls were so that we can
do better the next time. We must continually try to improve
ourselves. That's how we remain the greatest country in the
world.
So many of the issues that we have found are the U.S.
Citizenship and Immigration Services field offices in St. Croix
remain closed. There are currently no offices to process
permanent residency and naturalization applications for persons
without the means to travel to St. Thomas. And if they could
travel to St. Thomas, these persons would need to wait an
exorbitant amount of time for personnel to process the backlog
of applications. The hard working permanent residents and legal
immigrants who continue to contribute to our economy cannot
suffer any longer.
Additionally, the United States Postal Service has released
hundreds of workers hired to eliminate mail backlogs despite
the continuing delays. Packages have been delayed for months at
a time.
I have specific cases that I have given to the Assistant
Postmaster General regarding that. Mail has simply gone poof,
disappeared in distribution centers in Puerto Rico. That cannot
be. The United States Postal Service is a primary means of
commerce in the territory and that needs to be restored.
The Army Corps of Engineers and the Federal Emergency
Management Agency and working with the Government of the Virgin
Islands has not completely provided adequate plans for plant
and other hurricane debris removal. Mounds of hurricane debris,
including appliances and scrap metal are disposed of near
public schools and pose real health and safety risks. Virgin
Islanders are still struggling to achieve normalcy.
We are now 80 days away from the 2018 Hurricane Season, 16
months away from the 2019 Hurricane Season and 28 months away
from the following. The only thing we are ready for is freedom
from the longstanding problems caused by the last hurricane.
Without an adequate Federal investment in infrastructure
and other critical funding to harden systems like our energy
grid to make them more resilient to withstand future storms, we
will be in the same or worse predicament than we were following
the last major storm, particularly with so many homes still
exposed today.
In the aftermath of the storms, I and Ranking Member Elijah
Cummings wrote to Chairman Trey Gowdy in October to request a
hearing on the Federal recovery efforts in the Virgin Islands.
We received several briefings from FEMA, the Department of
Health and Human Services and the Department of Defense.
Today is our first public hearing on the hurricane response
and I'm pleased that we are able to receive testimony from
representatives of the Virgin Islands community and Federal
officials directly involved in the relief and recovery efforts.
To better prepare ourselves for future hurricanes, I've
worked with Congress to introduce H.R. 4782, the Puerto Rico
and Virgin Islands Equitable Rebuild. This is the Marshall Plan
we are requesting for the Virgin Islands.
Additionally, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands allows the
islands to use disaster funds to lay the groundwork for a more
resilient and clean energy grid. I believe that is what
Congress has been requesting.
Both Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, as well as Democratic
Whip Steny Hoyer, wrote an opinion piece together after coming
to the Virgin Islands who recognized that the Stafford Act must
be amended to allow for resiliency and the hardening of our
systems so that we can withstand the next hurricane season.
Throughout this hearing you will find that the Virgin
Islands is resilient. Because of this resilience, she has come
afar way since the previous hurricane season. However, normalcy
remains out of the reach for far too many Virgin Islands
residents, and to stop at the progress made is to impose on
American citizens a substandard quality of life.
Thank you again, Chairman, for having this hearing. I look
forward to hearing from our witnesses and asking pertinent
questions.
Mr. Farenthold. Thank you very much.
I'm now pleased to introduce our first panel of witnesses:
Senator Myron D. Jackson, the senate president of the United
States Virgin Islands, and senator--and I hope I get this
pronounced right--Tregenza A. Roach, the senator from the
Virgin Islands Legislature as well.
Pursuant to committee rules, all witnesses will be sworn in
before they testify. Will you please stand and raise your right
hand?
Do you solemnly swear or affirm that the testimony you are
about to give will be the truth, the whole truth and nothing
but the truth so help you God?
Let the record reflect both witnesses answered in the
affirmative. You all may be seated.
We do have two panels today. In order to allow time for
discussion, we'd appreciate it if you would limit your
testimony to 5 minutes. Your entire written statement will be
made a part of the record.
As you see there is a clock on the middle desk here. You
may not be able to read the time but it does have a green,
yellow and red light. That's like the traffic signal. Green
means go, yellow means hurry up and red means stop.
So we will start, I guess, with Senate President Jackson.
You are recognized for 5 minutes.
PANEL I
WITNESS STATEMENTS
STATEMENT OF MYRON D. JACKSON
Mr. Jackson. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman,
Good morning Honorable Blake Farenthold, Chairman, and
Honorable Stacey Plaskett, Delegate to the Virgin Islands and
Ranking Member.
Mr. Chairman, at this time I would ask your indulgence and
ask if the vice president of the institution to join me as we
have been partners through the process of our recovery?
Mr. Farenthold. Without objection so ordered.
Mr. Jackson. Thank you. That would be Senator Nereida
Rivera-O'Reilly.
It is a pleasure to host the Subcommittee on Interior,
Energy and Environment of the Committee on Oversight and
Government Reform today in the Earle B. Ottley Legislative
Chambers on St. Thomas. On behalf of the 32nd Legislature of
the Virgin Islands, we are grateful for the opportunity to
testify before you today at this field hearing to assess the
impacts of the 2017 Hurricane Season on the Virgin Islands of
the United States.
The double blow of the two Category 5 storms, Hurricanes
Irma and Maria to our territory had a crippling effect on our
territory from which we are still in turmoil in areas such as
healthcare, schools, emergency services, housing, our
electrical system, agriculture, and environment and our
cultural heritage and tourism industries.
Without the assistance of the U.S. Government, Federal
funds infused into our economy, and the hundreds of men and
women sent to assist the Virgin Islands, we could not be where
we are on the journey to recovery.
Thank you to the Federal Emergency Management Agency and
all of the linemen, engineers and national emergency workers
who have expended countless hours to work with our local
officials, first responders, local and national military
forces, volunteer groups and others in our restoration from the
devastating natural disaster we experienced last September.
As it relates to our Federal disaster assistance, community
disaster loan, the Virgin Islands is grateful for the financial
assistance approved by Congress in October of 2017 in the form
of $500 million in a low interest community disaster loan from
FEMA which will cover revenue loss and support the territory's
hospitals, central government operations, and the Water and
Power Authority over the course of the next three fiscal years.
We are also grateful that Congress approved $89 billion to
areas impacted by natural disasters to include the Virgin
Islands and Puerto Rico. It is calculated that the Virgin
Islands may ultimately receive in excess of $7.5 billion
requested for our recovery.
We ask you also to be our voice as advocates in forgiveness
of these loans so that the territory can fully recover and
continue to advance economically as efforts were being made
prior to the arrival of these storms.
The most glaring casualty of course for us is the medical
evacuees. The 2017 hurricane season has been very impactful to
our health system. The territory as a whole was adversely
impacted as we airlifted patients out of the territory. Over
500 patients were transported out of the Virgin Islands and
close to 140 remain on the mainland.
As of last month, according to the Commissioner of Health,
43 evacuees have died. Under the current response plan, FEMA,
the Department of Health, Human Services, the Department of
Defense all have responsibilities for medical evacuees.
Hurricanes Irma and Maria exposed the chaotic management of our
most vulnerable citizens.
This is a time that we need to consolidate the
responsibility for our medical evacuees under one agency. That
agency must keep a chain of command of each patient, including
the names of the accompanying family member and an additional
emergency contact.
We cannot allow evacuees to be further stressed by this
uncertainty. We must and can do better for our citizens as they
are forced to leave their homes to seek medical services during
disasters.
Another area of concern is housing. Our primary concern for
the territory in the wake of the hurricanes was a response to
our displaced residents.
A prime example of this is the Department of Housing and
Urban Development on February 2, 2018 announced it would afford
the territory $243 million to help the Virgin Islands recover
from the effects of the storm. The devastating picture of the
Tutu Hi-Rise and Lagoon Street communities could paint no
clearer image of the destruction to hundreds of homes that were
ripped open.
No immediate emergency housing was provided for residents
living in the devastated areas such as the Tutu Hi-Rise and
residential communities within the territory. In the immediate
aftermath of the storms, temporary housing is needed on the
ground.
Other areas of concern is our schools. The overriding
concerns in the area of education is the split sessions of many
of our schools in the territory. In retrospect we could have
done better in collaboration with FEMA.
I recognize that my time has ended. I'm available to answer
any questions the committee deems necessary. Thank you very
much, Mr. Chairman.
[Prepared statement of Mr. Jackson follows:]
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Mr. Farenthold. Thank you. We do have your testimony. I
read it beforehand and I appreciate it.
Senator Roach, you are now recognized for 5 minutes.
STATEMENT OF TREGENZA A. ROACH
Mr. Roach. Good morning, Chairman Farenthold. Good morning,
Delegate Plaskett, to your staff, to the people of the Virgin
Islands.
My name is Tregenza A. Roach, a member of the 32nd of the
United States Virgin Islands. This is my third term.
Despite my office, however, I would like to speak to you as
a private person, a resident who experienced both Hurricanes
Irma and Maria firsthand, as a person who had to navigate the
recovery process for my aging mother whose home sustained
substantial damage, and as a person who helped others navigate,
which has been an arduous recovery process.
Secondly, I would like to share my thoughts as a
policymaker, especially in light of the fact that a new
hurricane season starts in June, and in light of the
information provided by many of those who study the changes in
the world's climate and warned that most storms like these are
in our future, more fierce and damaging than those we have
experienced before.
My mother is an 82-year old widow who has her faculties.
She tills the soil and harvest everything from pumpkin to
guavaberry. That is to say that despite some of the maladies
that accompany aging, she is a fit and active woman. But for
the first time in a hurricane season I had to get her off the
island for her own sanity and for mine, and was then left to
take charge of dealing with FEMA, the Army Corps of Engineers,
the Small Business Administration, insurance companies, banks.
Immediately after Hurricane Irma, I was on a hunt for a
tarpaulin to cover the leaking roof. None was available up to
the coming of Hurricane Maria on September 19, 2018. I was able
to secure covering for the leaking roof only because a
colleague, Senator Alicia ``Chucky'' Hansen, was able to
purchase a tarpaulin commercially and bring it over on a mercy
flight from St. Croix before they were hit with Hurricane
Maria. I paid three men to go on the roof and put the tarp in
place, but Maria came and pretty much disposed of it.
Weeks after, the Army Corps of Engineers came on the scene
and covered the roof with blue. The tarpaulin has leaked since
then despite follow up visits from the Corps and a local
contractor who they identified to the project. I simply gave
up. Virgin Islanders are not begging people. So I, like others,
simply gave up and deployed pots and pans at strategic places
on the floor to capture the flow.
As for FEMA, they subsequently sent an inspector who I
thought was very thorough in verifying the damage. They
inquired about insurance. I told them there was a policy but no
content and limited structural. But their denial letter
followed and a check of $500.00.
I visited their center, sat with everyone else, provided
proof of the limits on insurance and then received my second
denial letter. I can appeal when I finally settle with the
insurance company, which has not yet taken place. The letters
have been terse with no consideration for the recipient.
The SBA process was initiated in October. Their denial was
also swift in coming.
This is an aging population, both nationally and locally,
and so I find it instructive to look at the impact of the
processes on the elderly. Of the many calls that I received
from the elderly, I want to tell you of another which
illustrates the insensitivity of the process to wounded persons
seeking only the assistance of their government.
Another 82-year old came to my office, a woman with her two
denial letters. FEMA denied her assistance because she could
not prove that she owned the property in which she lived and
SBA because she could not prove that the property in which she
lived was her primary residence. This is the case of a woman
who had moved into the house owned by her father. She had
continued to live in the house after taking care of him for 17
years up to his death.
I contacted FEMA and posed the question of whether the
woman could simply get a power of attorney from the four
siblings confirming that they were all part owners of the
property as per the will, that she lived on the property to
take care of her father, and that she continued to live there
with their consent and was authorized to proceed with the
recovery process on their behalf.
The FEMA officials to whom I spoke to said ``yes,'' but no
one at any of the centers had shared this possibility with this
aging, tired woman. She was on her own.
As a policymaker, I think we must address the following: A
more effective and timely process by the Army Corps of
Engineers with roof coverings after a storm.
A permanent FEMA process--presence, sorry, in the territory
or enter the fact that this is to become our new reality and
that a permanent presence would mean a more efficient
experience, particularly for our sister island of St. John who
can be cutoff totally of power and communications with the loss
of a cable from St. Thomas.
A Federal approach to recovery which considers the whole
person who suffer mental and health issues following a storm,
and a process which is more timely.
I thank you for listening to my testimony. I'll await any
questions that you may have.
[Prepared statement of Mr. Mr. Roach follows:]
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Mr. Farenthold. All right, thank you very much. I'll
recognize myself for 5 minutes of questioning.
So, Senator Roach, I want to first point out that I
understand the issues with FEMA having dealt with this with a
constituent issue as well. I've spoken to FEMA numerous times
and volunteered to rewrite their letters for them because
typically a denial letter from FEMA is not a denial letter.
It's there is something wrong with your file. It needs to not
say denial right there up in the top in big lettering. It needs
to--it definitely does need to be more compassionate.
With that being said, let's talk a little bit about
housing. You've got a unique situation in the Virgin Islands
with respect to housing. In the district I represent we have
hundreds of people living in temporary housing in hotels. But a
vast majority of the hotels in the Virgin Islands are
unoccupied, and filling those hotel rooms with local residents
takes away from the ability of other local residents to make
money off of tourist.
If you were the President or if you were the head of FEMA,
what would you do to address the short-term housing needs? It's
my understanding we still have people in the Virgin Islands
living in tents.
Mr. Roach. Well, I think I would offer a two-pronged
approach. I remember in the aftermath of Hurricane Marilyn that
there were temporary structures that were erected. I can recall
at least two places on the Island of St. Thomas, one on the
east and one just adjacent to the Charlotte Amalie High School
which provided temporary housing.
I think the other consideration would be how to make
damaged homes more liveable. The second part of my testimony,
which I didn't read, which you have for the record was a new
program, at least new to the extent that I was made aware of it
on approximately the 10th of February. That is a program that
is being conducted under the auspices of the Virgin Islands
Housing Finance Authority and it is intended to make living
spaces more habitable.
So I applied for that program on the 14th of February. I
know because it was Valentine's Day. They subsequently sent out
an inspector, who I believe--actually a team of inspectors who
were very thorough.
I mean, they asked questions about whether there was hot
water to the property. They asked questions whether there was
any damage to the gas lines bringing gas into the kitchen. They
asked if there was a working refrigerator. They asked about
smoke detectors. They asked about whether the cistern had been
cleaned, et cetera.
But then the follow-up visit I just found out on Saturday
that just past, the 10th of March, that they are now coming
again to the property with an inspector.
Now, although it seems to me that is a very thorough
program, we are looking again. I initiated my FEMA application
on the 14th of September. I was one of those few people who had
internet access and I did the application online, the 14th of
September. This is the 12th of March and except for the leaking
tarp, except for the $500.00 from FEMA, I think that sums up
about the assistance.
And I think making the space more liveable would be
incredibly good for the mental health of the person, one; and,
two, particularly--and I always want to emphasis the elderly--
particularly in the instances of the elderly, if they could
stay in their home with just some accommodations to make it
more liveable, I think they would be in a better condition to
complete the recovery process.
Mr. Farenthold. Thank you.
Senator Jackson referred a little bit about insurance as
well and how long it's taking for the insurance company to pay.
In Texas the vast majority of hurricane assistance--insurances
is handled by TWIA, which is the State-operated insurance
programming. Believe me we've had plenty of complaints about
that. I'm glad I'm not in the Texas legislature. I only have to
deal with FEMA, not TWIA.
In the Virgin Islands can you talk a little bit about the
experience of collecting insurance, and if there is anything
you think either the State or the territory or the Federal
Government ought to do to improve that?
Mr. Jackson. I thank you, Mr. Chairman.
The issues relating to insurance in the territory has been
one of contention. Many of the homeowners have expressed their
displeasure in the manner to which their insurance companies
have taken them through the process of their adjustors and
likewise the time that it took for the adjuster to arrive at
their homes.
In addition to that, the issue of under insurance continues
to be a big issue here in the territory. Of course education is
key. And through Banking and Insurance and several of the
forums prior to the storm encouraging our residents to be much
more educated in the process to which they purchase insurance
and likewise what under insurance would mean in the event of a
devastating hurricane or disaster. For the most part most
residents here have windstorm insurance coverage, very little
have flood insurance.
So as a result of the challenges that many have had with
our insurance companies, we have had an engagement with Banking
and Insurance in reference to how we can improve the process
here in the territory and likewise protect the interest of the
consumer as they are purchasing insurance through these
companies, and likewise the fine line that many may not read in
reference to the coverage and likewise make informed decisions.
Likewise the banking community also has a responsibility to
make sure that their customers are also fully aware of the
process to which the banks and the customer have a relationship
with coverage for their homes in the territory.
Mr. Farenthold. And I see my time is up. Hopefully, we'll
have time to do one more round of questions because I do have
some questions. I do have one quick question, though. It's kind
of a yes or no.
The flood insurance here is the same as in the continental
United States, right? It's underwritten by FEMA?
Mr. Jackson. Yes.
Mr. Farenthold. All right, Ms. Plaskett, you are up for 5
minutes.
Ms. Plaskett. Thank you.
I did, Mr. Chairman, I want you to know, however, that it's
my understanding for most homeowners here what the insurance
that they need would be in fact windstorm insurance, which for
many homeowners can run over a thousand dollars a month.
Mr. Farenthold. Trust me, I live in a hurricane zone.
Ms. Plaskett. Right, so that's the concern.
Thank you so much for being here. And, Senator Jackson, so
much of your testimony that you were not able to give but it's
written testimony, it's very informative. I'm sure that the
Committee will have a chance to read through much of it. So the
questions that I'm going to ask are directly related to your
statement so that you can get that information on the record as
well.
I wanted to ask you, Senator Jackson, about debris removal.
If you could or, Senator O'Reilly, talk about the difference
between the debris removal on St. Thomas, which was run by the
Army Corps--managed by the Army Corps and St. Croix, which was
managed by the Department of Public Works which I understand.
Could you tell us about how that process has occurred here in
the Virgin Islands?
Mr. Jackson. I'll let Senator O'Reilly speak to St. Croix.
I'll speak to St. Thomas in that for many of us it's been
very frustrating with the process of debris removal from our
neighborhoods, highways and the like. I would say that the
early process to how we get to clean up our communities has
been one of contention.
I say contention in that many of the areas of our
communities still have debris. We visited St. John yesterday on
the east end and I was aghast of the amount of debris that is
still on the roadsides in addition to the utility wiring and
some of the remnants of our electrical poles and the like that
are littered on the side of our roads.
The Army Corps of Engineers in collaboration with the
Department of Public Works and of course the company series has
been engaged in this district. And of course through the
process of public announcements, which I feel in many ways have
not been very successful because if you don't listen to a
particular radio program, you may not know the schedule coming
into your neighborhood and the like.
So there needs to be more on the ground communications with
residents in terms of when do you put out your green waste,
when do you put out your electronic waste and other items? In
some cases residents have had to really struggle, especially
our elderly in getting that waste to the curbside in many of
our neighborhoods, which has been very challenging for many of
our residents, especially our elderly.
Ms. Plaskett. Can I ask when did you first see Federal
agencies on the ground doing waste removal, debris removal? Can
you recall?
Mr. Jackson. Well, right after the storm the Department of
Public Works was mobilized. In addition to that, we had the
military on the ground and other emergency entities like what
we have here in terms of the response.
Ms. Plaskett. Do you know when that was? Because as I
recall for quite a number of weeks it was Public Works, yes,
the local Public Works and residents who were doing much of the
debris removal.
Mr. Jackson. Much of the debris removal began with the
residents of the territory. Public Works started to deal with
the main thoroughfares. But within our residential communities
they were challenged with the lack of assistance in getting out
of their respective neighborhoods and into the main
thoroughfares of our roadway system.
Ms. Plaskett. Thank you.
Senator O'Reilly, you have spent an enormous amount of time
in the hospitals in dealing with the issues there. Is there
anything that you would like to share with the committee about
the evacuation, the hospital process or anything you'd like to
add at this point?
Ms. Rivera-O'Reilly. I would. And good morning, Chairman
Farenthold and Ms. Plaskett.
With the few seconds left, I'd like to share----
Ms. Plaskett. You can take more than a second.
Ms. Rivera-O'Reilly. Thank you.
I'd like to share the--since the president already
mentioned the concerns regarding the medical evacuees, I'd like
to share specifically regarding the structures of the
hospitals.
It is my opinion, as the chair of the Ad Hoc Committee on
Hospitals and Human Services, that the assessment by FEMA of
the structures is too slow, that the change in personnel by
FEMA has delayed the final assessment of the structures. Now
the assessment has to establish that the repairs would cost 50
or more percent in order for a new structure to be built.
As of today, we still do not know whether we will have new
hospitals. In the interim, individuals are flown out of the
territory on a daily basis to receive medical care. I think it
is unacceptable that a Federal agency that is trained to
respond to disasters such as FEMA has taken this long to make a
final determination regarding the status and the condition and
the future of our healthcare structures, infrastructures and
our healthcare services.
Ms. Plaskett. Thank you.
Mr. Farenthold. Now we'll move to the second round of
questions because I've probably got enough to keep us here all
day. But let's visit for a second and I'll ask each of our
panel members if you would tell us what--with respect to the
Federal response, if you would give us what you think the best
thing done is and the worse or a suggestion for improvement,
where we need to focus primarily on improvement.
I'm one of these people who believes if you are going to
criticize something you also need to say something good or have
a suggestion for fixing it. So I'll give each of our folks a
chance to do that.
Senator Roach. Senators are an ambiguous term here.
Mr. Roach. Well, I would echo the Delegate in recognizing
that the assistance provided by the Federal Government is
valuable and useful, and that the people who came to assist
with the process are people who left their homes and their
families to come here and spend time with us in a very
difficult moment. So I think we definitely would have to be
appreciative of that.
I think one of the programs that I got the least complaints
about was the food, the SNAP Emergency Disaster Funding. But as
a thought on how we could improve going forward, I really
believe that the people involved in the process have to be more
sensitive to what we are experiencing here, and to be mindful
of the fact that we are living in a place that is going to be
exposed to more of these storms.
We're living in a place that has, if not the highest, it's
certainly one of the highest cost of living under the United
States flag, and that construction cost and food cost are not
what they imagine them to be. And if they approach it with that
kind of information and with that sensitivity, I think the
process can be improved for everyone.
Mr. Farenthold. Senator Jackson, do you want to take the
same question?
Mr. Jackson. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
As Senator Roach stated in reference to the aid that the
FEMA disaster has provided to the territory and their response
to the territory, we are grateful. I think the areas that I
would like to see improved is that how do you deal with
territories during a natural disaster?
Of course we're separated by water by thousands of miles.
The protocols that were put in place, for example, for the
storage of emergency goods in Puerto Rico, we can all say that
that's a failure, that likewise the Virgin Islands was impacted
by these two hurricanes, and that Puerto Rico also was severely
impacted, and that the ability to provision the U.S. Virgin
Islands became even more so challenging.
In areas, for example, a hurricane zone like the Virgin
Islands or the Caribbean, but specifically to the Virgin
Islands, the loss of roofing material is going to be the
greatest impact that you would have from storms and
infrastructure. The issues relating to not having available
tarps in the territory to sufficiently cover our people during
these storms is an area that we should improve in terms of how
do we take care of the population?
One of the areas also was food security. Many of the meals
ready to eat coming on the ground it's understandable as you
address the immediate recovery or response to the community.
But then at the same time who makes those decisions in terms of
what meals, whether they are culturally sensitive?
So the Red Cross stepped up to the plate as well as
individuals like Tim Duncan that provided wholesome meals to
our community versus meals ready to eat and snacks in boxes. So
the nutritional health of our communities is really very
important. I think those were the areas that FEMA could do
better in.
And likewise the response on the ground in getting the
professionals in to the territory. For example, we've been
advocating for the impact of cultural resources and only most
recently professionals have come in to the territory to assist
entities in this regard of our cultural institutions, our
libraries, our museums, our cultural heritage sites and the
like.
Those are just some examples that I provided to you, Mr.
Chairman, that we could do improvement in.
Mr. Farenthold. And, Senator Rivera-O'Reilly, do you want
to take a stab at that one as well.
Ms. Rivera-O'Reilly. I'd like to. Thank you so very much.
I think that shelter, water and food are essential in the
immediate response. We felt very comforted by the presence of
the military and we are so thankful. As soon as military trucks
were on the ground in collaboration with our National Guard, it
gave our citizens a sense that they were being taken care of.
There were truckloads moving across the islands filled with
water and MREs. I am so grateful, I am so grateful for that.
There are a number of areas that I believe can be improved.
I urge you to consider the increase in the reimbursement rates
under CMS for Medicare and Medicaid. It will help our hospitals
significantly to remain operational.
I also urge you to look at the manner in which the Army
Corps of Engineers rolls out their Blue Roof Program. It is
designed for stateside housing, for stateside roofs, not
Caribbean construction. And so when they came out and installed
the blue roofs, what they did was caused greater damage to the
roofs. So where there was one leak after the blue roof was
installed, the residents expected there would be no leaks,
there were multiple leaks.
I also would like to recommend that when FEMA comes to the
ground that it comes with its own pods, that it brings its own
shelters because they have saturated the remaining hotel rooms
in the territory. What that did was that it inhibited and
impeded adjusters from coming to the territory because there
was no housing. So all of your Federal personnel completely
saturated the remaining hotel rooms, also limiting hotel rooms
for the tourists.
I will also ask that you consider including the Virgin
Islands in the Denton Act. It turns out that we are not.
So military airplanes cannot be utilized to move
humanitarian aid to our Virgin Islands after disasters. We need
to be able to use military planes so that individuals in the
mainland who want to send supplies are able to do so.
Those would be my requests. Of course if you allow me more
time, I'd say that FEMA should as well as SBA consider
including non-English proficient individuals in the teams that
they send to the territory.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Farenthold. Thank you.
I thought FEMA did that. We've got a lot of Spanish
speakers down in our area. I'll certainly look into that as
well.
Ms. Rivera-O'Reilly. They didn't here.
Mr. Farenthold. All right, Ms. Plaskett, we'll let you go
and then we'll finish this round of questioning and go to our
Federal agencies.
Ms. Plaskett. Thank you, sure.
I have three pieces--three written testimonies that I'd
like to include in the record. One is from Virginia Clairmont,
Queen Street, Frederiksted. The other is presented by Mrs. Ruby
Simmonds Esannason here on St. Thomas. And then the third is by
Senator Jenelle Sarauw, a Senator in the 32nd Legislature.
Mr. Farenthold. Without objection so ordered.
Ms. Plaskett. Thank you. And before I ask questions, there
was just a couple of pieces in this testimony that I wanted to
get on the record before I ask these questions.
One, of course, is the very moving testimony and statement
that was given by Mrs. Simmonds Esannason talking about the
evacuees which has been discussed by the witnesses here this
morning, by the senators. She says in the State of the
Territory Address presented on January 22, 2018, Governor
Kenneth E. Mapp noted that 682 persons were evacuated for
medical reasons and some 248 still remain on the mainland at
that time. Since then I have asked what happened to the other
434 persons? How many of them came home in the cargo section of
the plane?
I can tell you specifically about the ones I know of,
including my son-in-law, the aunts of two of my stepdaughters,
a very dear friend, and the relatives of other persons with
whom I've spoken or whose stories have been reported in the
news.
There are so many people that we lost during these
hurricanes. But she gives specifically the names of Sergeant
Aaron Hodge, Sr., Ashley Frett, Sr., Cynthia Thomas, Arroya
Correa Rivera and El Marina Palmer, all of whom died after the
hurricanes in the States as medical evacuees.
I think that's important for us to remember that the
effects of hurricanes here in the Virgin Islands continued well
after the actual hurricanes took place.
One of the things that she points out that I'd like to then
present a question to the witnesses is that she talks about
going to VITEMA, which is the Virgin Islands Territorial
Emergency Management Agency seeking information about where
individuals were after leaving the hospital.
Were they in Puerto Rico? Were they in St. Croix? Where
were they located? For quite a period of time many individuals
could not be found.
She says she was able to find out from Sergeant Hodge that
when he was in Puerto Rico the situation that he faced there
was really not a very good one. When he was in Puerto Rico, I'm
quoting, ``He told me that drinking water was being rationed.
He was being given water in a container the size of a fruit
cup. That's about three ounces. This is what was given to a
full grown adult. He was eventually evacuated to Atlanta,
Georgia where, unfortunately, he passed away.''
I would like to ask the senators these questions. And
Senator Sarauw also talks about the situation on St. John
probably being more dire than the situation on the other
islands. She talks about the distribution sites which Senator
O'Reilly also gave us some indication about how important they
were.
My question to you all really relates to the relationship
and the amount of communication and the coordination between
the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the local one.
Knowing that we're dealing with two Category 5 hurricanes
and that our own resources are very restrained, FEMA has been
at this for innumerable years, do you feel that there was
sufficient support coming from FEMA to pick up the gaps
initially knowing where they were? How did that work? Was that
done correctly? Are there ways that it could be improved, the
coordination between FEMA and the local agencies that are in
place? How can we work on that better?
Senator Jackson.
Mr. Jackson. It's a very good question and we've spent a
tremendous amount of time in the EOC and VITEMA and had the
opportunity to actually witness and to be engaged with the
process of response. I have to say on both sides we need to
work on the response from a natural disaster in the territory.
I think given the fact that we are islands, we are outside of
the continental United States and that likewise FEMA's history
in the territory, of course Hurricane Hugo and Hurricane
Marilyn, gave the territory some experience as it relates to
FEMA and what is necessary for emergency response.
Who would have imagined that the Virgin Islands in its
centennial year would be struck with two Category 5 hurricanes
12 days apart? Who prepares for that? And how does an emergency
entity like VITEMA with limited resources really rise to the
occasion of responding to the disaster? They, themselves, were
not fully prepared and likewise FEMA representatives coming
into the territory with the lack of communications, driving
around this territory most time were lost, not having the local
scout or representative with them as they were going into these
various neighborhoods was very challenging.
I do think that we really need to revisit how FEMA and the
territory protocols are put in place for a response in light of
these two hurricanes. And likewise most recently the tsunami
notification to the territory that created a panic to our
residents, we need to be prepared, fully prepared. Likewise how
our relationship with the Federal Government hitting the ground
is to be done because it was very chaotic.
Ms. Plaskett. Did anyone else want to add something to
that?
Ms. Rivera-O'Reilly. I'd like to, Congresswoman Plaskett.
I believe that we should consider training a cadre of local
residents who are now currently working with FEMA, train them
so that they, too, are able to be deployed to other areas in
the United States that are hit. So that when, not if, but when
this territory is again the victim of a disaster, that those
FEMA trained local residents are deployed here because they are
more familiar with the territory.
I also felt that FEMA took a back seat and allowed VITEMA
to take the lead. I am not sure--and I know that that is the
protocol. I know that we are in charge. But I'm not sure that
we can be in charge of solving our own disasters when our own
homes are affected.
Ms. Plaskett. When you are in the middle of it yourself.
Ms. Rivera-O'Reilly. Yes, if you are in the middle of the
disaster it is difficult to really see, and so FEMA would take
a step back and allow the local government to make the
decision. I would prefer to see a real partnership, a side by
side relationship where best practices are recommended to the
local government so that VITEMA is empowered because it had to
respond to disasters on all four islands.
Ms. Plaskett. Thank you.
I know that I had heated and very colorful discussions with
Brock Long because FEMA of course as we know in the Federal
Government only gives what is requested. But if you don't know
what to request and you are dealing with the magnitude of
disaster, it's difficult to make those kind of assessments on
the ground.
There needs to be--we end up hiring companies to assist us
in making the request. There should be a natural liaison in
working with FEMA. It's kind of like they are almost hiding the
money or hiding the ball and you have to figure out which hand
it's in to ask the right thing. So, thank you.
I know that's also frustrating for the FEMA workers who are
here on the ground who want to do the right thing, who have
empathy and want to be a part of the recovery. But they have to
wait for the okays that they are getting in Washington.
And if you would, Senator Roach.
Mr. Roach. Thank you, Delegate Plaskett.
I think we have to consider the need for adjustment of
policies and processes both locally and federally. In our case
we have a statute that gives the Governor complete authority to
deal with the Federal structures in a state of emergency. He's
the point person for FEMA. He gets to determine whether a state
of emergency should be extended and the length of time that it
can be renewed. I think we ought to look at that structure.
I think if the reality of the persons living offshore of
the United States, and in particular the residents of the
Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico, that it is time to also
consider new structures.
I believe that FEMA should have a permanent presence in the
territory, that they should literally be here year-round. I
believe that that would assist in having better relationships
with them and the local agencies. It would lead to a more
timely response in the case of natural disasters, and that we
are living in extraordinary times that call for extraordinary
solutions that we might not have considered before.
Thank you.
Ms. Plaskett. Thank you.
I know we are finishing this, but I would like to also
place into the record another testimony, written testimony, a
statement for the record that was given to me by Meaghan
Enright. She is a resident of St. John and has been working
with Love City Strong and Love for Love City Foundation on the
recovery efforts in St. John.
Mr. Farenthold. Without objection so ordered.
Mr. Farenthold. I'd like to thank our panel for being here
and answering our questions and providing both the written and
verbal testimony. We could go on but we do have a panel of
Federal folks that we would like to talk to as well. So thank
you all for being here. It's been great visiting your island.
In order to allow us time to set up for the next panel,
we're going to take a 5-minute recess.
[Recess.]
Mr. Farenthold. The subcommittee will come to order. I love
the big gavel. It's like twice the size of the one we use in
Washington.
We've got a new panel of witnesses. I'd like to take the
opportunity to introduce them.
First we have Mr. William ``Bill'' Vogel. He's the Federal
Coordinating Officer at the Federal Emergency Management Agency
a/k/a FEMA.
We have Mr. Murad ``Mojo'' Raheem, the ASPR Regional
Emergency Coordinator for Region II at the Department of Health
and Human Services. Welcome.
We have Colonel Scott Heintzelman, Defense Coordinating
Officer for FEMA Region II at the Department of Defense.
We have Colonel Robert J. Clark, Commander of the U.S. Army
Corps of Engineers Field Recovery Officer or Office.
Mr. Randy Lavasseur, Caribbean Group Superintendent for the
National Park Service.
And we have Mr. Henry ``Hank'' Dynka. He's the manager of
In-Plant Support for the Northeast Area of Operations for the
United States Postal Service.
Welcome, gentlemen. And pursuant to committee rules, we ask
that you stand and be sworn in.
Do you solemnly swear or affirm that the testimony you are
about to give is the truth, the whole and nothing but the truth
so help you God?
Thank you. You all may be seated.
Let the record reflect all the witnesses answered in the
affirmative.
I believe all of you were in the audience for our first
panel. The same basic rules apply. We've got your entire
written testimony and we ask that you give a synopsis within 5
minutes, hit the high points. As I said, the yellow light means
we're just about done. Red light means wrap it up.
So we'll start first with Mr. Vogel. You're recognized for
5 minutes, sir.
PANEL II
WITNESS STATEMENTS
STATEMENT OF WILLIAM VOGEL
Mr. Vogel. Good morning, Chairman Farenthold, Ranking
Member Plaskett. My name is William Vogel, the Federal
Coordinating Officer. I'm here to testify about the critical
role that FEMA has played in the U.S. Virgin Islands over the
past 6 months.
U.S. Virgin Islanders were making progress after the
devastation of Hurricane Irma in September when just two weeks
later the second Category 5 storm struck the territory. And in
the months since Hurricane Maria, a large scale coordinated
effort has been underway to help the island communities and
survivors get back on their feet.
FEMA and our Federal partners are working with the U.S.
Virgin Islands Government to drive the recovery forward to meet
the needs of hurricane survivors and to repair and rebuild
communities stronger and safer and to lessen the impact when
storms strike in the future.
FEMA coordinates the Federal response to a disaster and in
the U.S. Virgin Islands we initially assigned 55 other Federal
agencies to assist in response and recovery. These agencies
responded immediately and deployed personnel to the territory
along with the Department of the--I'm sorry, the Department of
Homeland Security served capacity for us and FEMA.
Within two weeks of Maria, 2,500 Federal employees had been
deployed to the U.S. Virgin Islands in addition to 6,000 Coast
Guard and Department of Defense staff served both the USVI and
Puerto Rico. All totaled we issued 331 mission assignments
totaling $698 million.
In the 6 months of recovery, milestones have been achieved.
Roads have been cleared of storm related debris, most of the
airline flights have resumed, seaports are active, and stores
and restaurants have opened. I'm pleased to note that the
Virgin Islands Water and Power Authority reports that power has
been restored to all customers able to receive electrical
hookups in the territory, more than 55,000 customers.
For FEMA's individual assistance and public assistance
programs and low interest disaster loans from the U.S. Small
Business Administration and claim payments by the National
Flood Insurance Program, more than $810 million has been
provided to households, businesses and territorial agencies as
a result of Irma and Maria. As of the 9th of March, more than
$74 million has been provided directly to individuals and
households for rental assistance, housing repairs and other
needs.
Housing is a priority for us because many homes were
damaged and there are few rental resources available. There is
no standard solution for survivors. Each person's situation is
very unique. We are very much aware of the people living with
friends and relatives creating very difficult living
conditions. I can tell you that I have spoken personally to
people who are desperate for housing on the islands.
We have several programs that are helping. We provide
grants for home repair. We provide rental assistance. We are
funding territorial programs for the Emergency Home Repair V.I.
to provide money for people to make basic emergency repairs so
that they can stay in their home while they work on a long-term
solution. The funding comes from FEMA's Sheltering and
Temporary Essential Power Program.
We have the Multi-Family Lease and Repair Program to pay
for repairs to rental units if the landlord will let us place
disaster survivors in those units.
We have a direct lease program in which we lease rental
units and place survivors in them. We also have a permanent
housing construction direct repairs so that we can hire
contractors to make essential repairs in lieu of providing
other financial assistance.
We've operated a total of 10 disaster recovery centers
across all three islands to help answer questions related to
these assistance programs and survivors' specific housing
needs. These centers receive more than 65,000 visits.
We've completed all housing inspections and we are reaching
out to individual survivors who have special housing needs.
The housing side of recovery is never a simple process. But
for a territory that expands several islands where housing
resources are scarce, the challenges are multiplied. We're
looking for every possible way to support survivors who need
housing. This is my number one priority.
Installing temporary facilities for critical infrastructure
is also a top priority. FEMA's public assistance program staff
is working closely with the Virgin Islands Department of Health
and Education to construct interim facilities for medical and
hospitals and schools that were damaged. FEMA is also working
with our Federal and local partners on making permanent repairs
to those critical facilities and other public infrastructure.
To date we have reimbursed the territory $262 and a half
million for emergency work, mostly for debris removal and other
power restoration. At the outset it was important to get
electrical power restored and remove debris from roadways.
I can report that, working with the Army Corps of Engineers
and the territorial agencies, we've removed 887,000 cubic years
of debris left by the storms, a 102 percent is the total
estimated debris beginning at the operation. FEMA has
authorized a 100 percent cost share for debris removal.
Nearly 800 power company workers were deployed to the
islands to restore power. Students were able to return to
school within weeks after the hurricanes because of the
generators installed by the Army Corps of Engineers. In all,
the Army Corps installed 180 generators in critical facilities
such as schools, hospitals, emergency services, government
agencies and other places enabling communities to continue
functioning after the storms.
It's been a big operation, particularly with the logistics,
challenges involved in providing assistance to the island
communities. We are deeply aware of the stress that these
hurricanes have placed on the population and the territorial
government. We will continue to support the territory's
priorities and we will be on the job until the territory tells
us when we have completed our work.
I appreciate the opportunity to appear before you today and
I look forward to answering your questions. Thank you.
[Prepared statement of Mr. Vogel follows:]
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Mr. Farenthold. Thank you very much.
Mr. Raheem, you are recognized for 5 minutes.
STATEMENT OF MURAD RAHEEM
Mr. Raheem. Good morning, Chairman Farenthold and Ranking
Member Plaskett.
Thanks for the opportunity to testify on behalf of the
Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response, ASPR, to
discuss our Nation's medical and public health response and
recovery efforts to the hurricanes that impacted Puerto Rico
and the United States. I am Murad Raheem, the Regional
Administrator of Region II within ASPR.
The scale and scope of this year's hurricane season was
unprecedented. Never before has a response system been tested
to support the impact of three major storm systems within such
a short period. While the National Disaster Medical System,
NDMS, was supporting the response following landfall of
Hurricane Harvey in Texas, the system had to mobilize in
Florida, Puerto Rico and the USVI to support Hurricane Irma.
Then, within days, Hurricane Maria made landfall in Puerto
Rico and the USVI impacting many of the same communities.
Despite the challenges, ASPR provided professional and trained
personnel and resources to mitigate the impact of the storms
ultimately saving lives.
When ASPR was originally established by Congress a decade
ago, the objective was to create ``unity of command'' by
consolidating all Federal public health and medical
preparedness and response functions under ASPR. ASPR leads the
Federal public health and medical, preparedness, response and
recovery to disasters and public health emergencies in
accordance with the National Response Framework and Emergency
Support Function No. 8, public health and medical support.
ASPR also coordinates with other components of HHS with
respect to HHS' role in ESF No. 6, which is health and social
services and HHS' lead role as the coordinating agency with
respect to the Health and Social Services Recovery Support
Function. ASPR is in effect the national security mission
manager for HHS.
Specific to my role within ASPR as the REC in Regional II,
I worked to build and maintain relationships with State, local,
territorial and tribal officials and healthcare representatives
daily. These established relationships proved critical during
the immediate preparedness for and response to Hurricanes Irma
and Maria.
Given my daily coordination and communication with
officials before the hurricanes hit, I was familiar with local
resources and, as such, was able to ensure the Federal response
to local needs.
Since late October, I've also served as the Federal Health
Coordinating Official. In this role I'm the primary point of
contact supporting information between HHS and local officials.
Specific to the response provided following Hurricanes Irma
and Maria, ASPR's strategy has been three-fold, save lives,
stabilize the healthcare system and restore services. To save
lives and stabilize the healthcare system, approximately 2,500
NDMS personnel were deployed to the impacted areas and were
supported by approximately 21.5 tons of equipment.
While deployed, personnel provided care to over 2,500
patients in the USVI specifically. Care included providing
access to trained medical assessments, treating minor injuries,
dispensing medicine and water, wound care and assessing
injuries.
When care exceeded capabilities, NDMS supported the
evacuation of patients. We evacuated approximately 211,000
patients from the USVI before, between and after Hurricanes
Irma and Maria.
Our partners, the DOD and the Department of Veterans
Affairs were key components of these moves. Once the hurricanes
passed, teams provided onsite medical care through Federal
Medical Stations with 50 to 250 beds provided through the
strategic national stockpile.
HHS also activated the Emergency Prescription Assistance
Program known as EPAP for both the USVI and Puerto Rico to
ensure victims who were unable to pay for prescriptions
received the required medication. Ensuring that people are
still able to access these supplies that they rely on everyday
helps patients cope with disaster more effectively and prevent
stress on the healthcare system.
Now that much of the response effort is concluding, ASPR is
continuing to support the USVI through its recovery operations.
Currently, HHS personnel are deployed long-term under the
authorities of the National Disaster Recovery Framework and are
in continual coordination with local officials to maintain
situational awareness, link local officials to resources, and
assist with challenges or issues as they arise.
Our primary mission is to support a locally led recovery by
building capacity with the USVI government and other key
stakeholders that carryout the critical health and social
services to the island residents.
In conclusion, the devastation caused by Hurricanes Irma
and Maria overwhelmed local, State and territorial healthcare
capabilities. ASPR provided the resources to meet existing
medical requirements, transport patients to ensure proper care
when needed, utilize authorities like EPAP to ensure the
population received critical prescriptions, and will continue
to coordinate on issues impacting long-term recovery.
There is much work left to be done, but we have ensured the
public health and medical requirements within the impacted
communities are able to support the population.
I thank you again for this opportunity to address these
issues. I'm happy to answer any questions.
[Prepared statement of Mr. Mr. Raheem follows:]
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Mr. Farenthold. Thank you very much.
Colonel Heintzelman, you are up for 5 minutes, sir.
STATEMENT OF SCOTT HEINTZELMAN
Colonel Heintzelman. Good morning, Chairman Farenthold and
Ranking Member Plaskett. I'm honored to be here and pleased to
testify alongside my fellow mission partners for the 2017
Hurricane Season.
As USNORTHCOM's Defense Coordinating Officer for FEMA
Region II, I'm proud to represent the active duty soldiers,
sailors, airmen and marines, activated reservist and Department
of Defense civilians who tirelessly supported the Federal
responses to both Hurricanes Irma and Maria in the U.S. Virgin
Islands. The enormous damage caused by these storms requires
significant interagency response led by FEMA and supported by a
range of Federal, State and local partners. USNORTHCOM is proud
to be a part of that critical mission.
As you all are well aware, the 2017 Hurricane Season was
the most active in years with three major storms impacting
millions of Americans. In the immediate aftermath of those
hurricanes, active duty personnel were there to provide
military capabilities to the FEMA led Federal response. Key
contributions included strategic airlift, sea and airport
surveys, search and rescue, route clearance, commodity
distribution, rotary wing lift, high water vehicle support and
medical capabilities. The active duty men and women under
USNORTHCOM's direction made significant contributions to the
response and recovery efforts in the U.S. Virgin Islands.
I'm grateful for the support this committee has provided in
support of the Federal response. I thank you again for giving
me the opportunity to appear today and I welcome your
questions. Thank you.
[Prepared statement of Colonel Heintzelman follows:]
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Mr. Farenthold. Thank you.
Colonel Clark.
STATEMENT OF ROBERT J. CLARK
Colonel Clark. Good morning, Chair Farenthold and Ranking
Member Plaskett.
I am honored to testify before you today to discuss the
authorities and responsibilities of the United States Army
Corps of Engineers during disaster response and recovery
operations and the impacts to the U.S. Virgin Islands during
the 2017 Hurricane Season.
I am Colonel Robert Clark. I'm Commander for the Corps
Field Recovery Office in the U.S. Virgin Islands. My permanent
position is I'm the Commander of the Corps' Wilmington, North
Carolina District.
The Corps conducts its emergency response activities under
two basic authorities, the Stafford Act and under Public Law
84-99. Under the Stafford Act we are the Federal agency in
support of FEMA under the national response framework. In this
capacity the Corps is the lead Federal agency for Emergency
Support Function 3, Public Works and engineering, and works
under FEMA's direction.
ESF-3 provides temporary emergency power, temporary
roofing, debris management, emergency infrastructure
assessment, critical public facility restoration, temporary
housing, demolition and structural stability and support to
FEMA command and control.
Under Public Law 84-99, we prepare for disasters through
planning, coordination and training with local, State, Federal
partners, and by assisting State and local entities in
implementing advanced measures to prevent/reduce storm event
damages.
When a disaster occurs, Corps teams and other resources are
mobilized from across the country to assist the local Corps
districts response to an event. As part of this mission, the
Corps has more than 50 specially-trained response teams
supported by emergency contracts to perform the wide range of
Public Works and engineering support missions I just described.
Additionally, the Corps uses pre-awarded contracts that can be
quickly activated for missions such as temporary roofing,
commodity distribution and generator installations.
With regard to the hurricane activities, 2017 was an
unusually active season. The Corps has been involved in a FEMA
led Federal response and recovery operations for multiple
events to include Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria.
FEMA has identified close to $3 billion in mission
assignments for the Corps to assist in Hurricanes Irma and
Maria response and recovery. In the USVI there have been 25
mission assignments totaling 256 million.
For temporary emergency power, the Corps and its
contractors completed 316 pre-installation inspections for
temporary generators and installed 180 generators in the U.S.
Virgin Islands. The Corps has de-installed 165 generators out
of the 180 installed with the remaining 15 installed generators
that were turned over to FEMA logistics, which are being
maintained by a long-term contract. The Corps' temporary power
mission was completed on February 11, 2018.
For temporary roofing, in order for the Corps and its
contractors to install temporary covering, the blue roofing,
the government and its contractors require a valid right of
entry. In the U.S. Virgin Islands the Corps and its contractors
have completed 3,658 blue roof installations. The blue roof
mission was completed on December 15, 2017.
For debris management, the Corps and the territory combined
has removed over 822,000 cubic yards of the estimated 870,000
cubic yards of debris in the U.S. Virgin Islands.
The Corps remains fully committed and capable of executing
its Civil Works activities across the Nation despite our heavy
involvement in these ongoing response and recovery operations.
We also remain ready and poised to assist in future events as
they may occur.
This concludes my testimony. I look forward to answering
any questions you might have. Thank you.
[Prepared statement of Colonel Clark follows:]
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Mr. Farenthold. Thank you.
Mr. Lavasseur.
STATEMENT OF RANDY LAVASSEUR
Mr. Lavasseur. Chairman Farenthold and Ranking Member
Plaskett, thank you for your invitation to present the
Department of Interior's views regarding the impacts on the
U.S. Virgin Islands from the historic 2017 Hurricane Season.
I'm accompanied by Daryl Heckles who's in the audience, the
Acting Superintendent of the Virgin Islands National Park. I'll
summarize my remarks and ask that my full statement be included
in the hearing record.
Mr. Farenthold. It will be.
Mr. Lavasseur. Thank you.
The National Park Service sites in the U.S. Virgin Islands
include Christiansted National Historic Site, Buck Island Reef
National Monument and the Salt River Bay National Historic Park
and Ecological Preserve on St. Croix; and the Virgin Islands
National Park and the Virgin Islands Coral Reef National
Monument on St. John.
These national parks play an integral part of the tourism
economy. Nearly 600,000 people visited the national parks in
the Virgin Islands in 2016, supporting nearly a 1,000 jobs and
about $100 million in economic output. Hurricanes Irma and
Maria significantly impacted the areas we manage.
On St. John the storms displaced a dozen staff members and
destroyed or significantly damaged 25 facilities. The storms
substantially eroded shorelines, deposited significant amounts
of sediment and debris on the Virgin Islands National Park's
iconic coral reefs. These storms caused 90 vessels to wash
aground or sink and destroyed strands of Pillar coral, a
threatened species. In addition, they substantially damaged the
park's largest concession operations mainly at Cinnamon Bay as
well as Caneel Bay Resort, the largest single employer on the
island.
Immediately following Hurricanes Irma and Maria, the
National Park Service activated an Incident Command Structure
at all the national park sites within the Caribbean. The
Incident Management Team mobilized hotshot fire crews of units
and sawyers to remove debris from roads, parking lots and
walkways; completed initial building repairs and restored
operations where possible to help reinstate park visitation.
To assist during the immediate aftermath, among other
things, the National Park Service made the visitor center at
the Virgin Islands National Park available to St. John
residents as a temporary shelter; provided fuel to operate
generators at local health clinics; provided staging areas used
by the U.S. Navy and BBC Electric; provided radio dispatch
support to augment remaining emergency radio services; and
helped ensure emergency services were available on the island.
In turn, the National Park Service received a tremendous
support from other Federal agencies as well as the territorial
government, nonprofit organizations, the business community and
of course our citizens.
On St. Croix, Christiansted National Historic Site resumed
normal operations in November. The water and hiking trails at
Buck Island Reef National Monument are made open to visitors
but the pier remains closed. The Salt River Bay visitor contact
station remains closed at this time.
St. John, Virgin Islands National Park reopened in early
December but is still in a major recovery phase. Initial
repairs restored basic visitor services and reopened the park's
visitor center, trails, beaches and their adjacent waterways.
However, much of the park's infrastructure such as roads,
water systems, signs, concession facilities and fee structures
were destroyed or badly damaged. Over 500 archaeological sites
and historic structures still needs stabilization and 35
derelict vessels remain in sensitive habitats.
The ongoing closure of Caneel Bay Resort has left an
indelible imprint on our visitor services and the community at
large. The same holds true for park concession operations
throughout St. John. The National Park Service recognizes the
importance of these businesses to the economy of the Virgin
Islands and is dedicated to working with them to resume
operations as soon as possible.
The Department appreciates the cooperation and
collaboration with Delegate Plaskett and Governor Mapp. We look
forward to continuing these efforts throughout the recovery
phase.
Recovery of the Virgin Islands National Parks will be
significantly spurred by funds from the hurricane supplemental
appropriation recently approved by Congress. The total amount
of recovery funding that has been allocated to the National
Park Service for parks on the mainland and in the Caribbean is
$207 million.
Mr. Chairman, this concludes my statement. I would be
pleased to answer any questions that you or Congressman
Plaskett have.
[Prepared statement of Mr. Lavasseur follows:]
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Mr. Farenthold. Thank you very much.
And it's Mr. Dynka. Is that how you pronounce your name?
Mr. Dynka. Dynka.
Mr. Farenthold. Dynka, okay. Mr. Dynka, you are recognized
for 5 minutes.
STATEMENT OF HENRY DYNKA
Mr. Dynka. Good morning, Chairman Farenthold, Ranking
Member Plaskett. My name is Henry Dynka and I'm the manager of
In-Plant Support for the Northeast area.
Mr. Farenthold. Could you pull that microphone a little bit
closer to your mouth?
Mr. Dynka. All right.
Mr. Farenthold. Thank you.
Mr. Dynka. In this role I oversee the ongoing review and
evaluation of service and quality performance at processing and
distribution centers. I was personally deployed to the
Caribbean for approximately seven weeks after the storm. I
appreciate the opportunity to provide the subcommittee
information on the preparation, response and recovery efforts
the Postal Service employed in the Virgin Islands as a result
of Hurricanes Irma and Maria.
In the event of a hurricane, the Postal Service's primary
focus is the safety and well-being of our employees, customers
and the integrity of the Nation's mail system. We have an
extensive hurricane preparedness guide to provide the necessary
direction, coordination and support to ensure we are prepared
to respond to and recover from a hurricane.
When we knew that the Virgin Islands were in the direct
paths of Hurricanes Irma and Maria, employees were asked to
confirm their contact information. All postal vehicles,
facilities and unprocessed and undelivered mail was secured to
the fullest extent possible. We notified potentially impacted
post offices to be prepared for closure. Emergency equipment
was assessed for operability and electronic equipment was
powered down, disconnected and moved to higher ground.
Devastation in the Virgin Islands from back to back
Category 5 hurricanes was unlike any experience in recent
history. We partnered with some several Federal agencies such
as FEMA, FBI, Customs, HHS, DOD and DEA in our response and
recovery efforts. We confirmed the safety of our employees as
quickly as we could and provided them aid such as water and
meals ready to eat, which had been staged before the storms
hit.
Many postal facilities sustained significant damage.
Despite our best efforts, we lost mail due to weather damage
and looting that occurred before we were able to secure those
facilities. Communication was sporadic and we relied heavily on
social media, traditional news outlets, news outlets that
communicate post office hours and served as updates.
Post offices were left without power and internet services
for extended periods of time, which hampered our efforts to
restore retail operations and track delivery of mail and
packages. St. Thomas Airport was closed for 10 days following
Hurricane Maria and later reopened with limited daily flights
and operating hours which remain in effect today.
Also, the barge that carries mail from St. Thomas to St.
John was down for approximately two weeks. Road closures and
debris made it difficult for our employees on the Virgin
Islands to get to work and deliver mail.
Every postal facility in the Virgin Islands was damaged,
obstructed or impacted. The Frederiksted Post Office on St.
Croix in particular was severely damaged. These challenges
impacted mail delivery.
Executives at the highest level of the organization were
engaged with the recovery efforts and the leadership team was
deployed to the Virgin Islands over a 3-month period. We worked
diligently to restore retail and delivery services where safe
despite stringent curfews.
We reprogrammed equipment to pre-sort mail to help expedite
delivery when it arrived in the Virgin Islands. We contracted
with a commercial air carrier to transport oversized packages
directly into St. Thomas. We used an expedited process to hire
temporary employees to help with the backlogged mail and we
installed satellite dishes to improve mail tracking and retail
services.
Currently all post offices in the Virgin Islands are
operational with the exception of Frederiksted. Repairs at
Frederiksted and Veterans Station are on schedule for
completion this summer.
Also last week we sent review teams to every office in the
Virgin Islands to assess staffing needs. We are grateful for
the transportation and communication assistance provided by our
Federal partners. We are proud of our employees who worked
tirelessly to restore mail service in the Virgin Islands, many
doing so while working to rebuild their homes and lives.
While we recognize the challenges remain, we are committed
to ensuring we fulfill our mandate to provide secure, efficient
and affordable mail service to all Virgin Islands customers.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for the opportunity to testify. I
welcome any questions that you and the subcommittee members may
have.
[Prepared statement of Mr. Dynka follows:]
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Mr. Farenthold. All right, thank you very much. I think
we'll start with FEMA.
So, Mr. Vogel, I'll recognize myself for 5 minutes. I want
to talk a little bit about debris removal.
We are 80 days away from a new hurricane season here.
You've still got mounds of debris in various places, some of
which are in pretty urban areas. My experience with hurricanes
is you get all the loose stuff from outside and put it inside
so it doesn't become a projectile. Is there some concern about
a timeline for getting some of these debris piles removed
before they become possible missiles in another hurricane?
Mr. Vogel. Yes, Mr. Chairman, we've been working real hard
with the Army Corps of Engineers and the territory in order to
be able to come up with a final resting place for the debris
that's been collected. Just recently the Army Corps of
Engineers has asked for contracts in order to be able to have
debris removed from the islands. We are awaiting information on
that.
Mr. Farenthold. So do you know where it's going to go yet.
Mr. Vogel. That's in the process of being discussed and the
contractors have that option.
Mr. Farenthold. All right, let's talk a little bit--a lot
of the local witnesses talked about the interaction with FEMA.
At the hotel I was staying at the other night there was a FEMA
employee. I talked to him for about 10 or 15 minutes.
It seems like part of the issue is FEMA hires when it needs
to hire. Obviously you've got the need to staff up when there
are big events. But somebody might get hired and then when they
are finished, they are laid off and 6 months or a year later
there is a need again. You may get some of the same people back
or you may not. There is a loss of institutional knowledge
there.
Have you all thought about some way of preserving that
institutional knowledge or getting the training to new folks
that are fast enough and fashioned where they can be of more
service to the people faster?
Mr. Vogel. Mr. Chairman, in any operation we want to be
able to provide the best service that we can for those that we
support. We are always looking at ways to be able to train
those people as efficiently as we can and deploy them to the
areas where they need to work.
Of course as work is completed, those employees may go to
other operations, some may elect to leave. But we continue to
work with everyone in order to have some type of stability in
our force. I'm happy to say that we have hired 92 local hires
here for this operation that will be able to remain working
with FEMA as the recovery transpires.
Mr. Farenthold. I think Ms. Plaskett and I are going to
talk to some of the FEMA folks in Washington about a program to
train locals and come up with something similar to the reserves
that the Police Department has or the National Guard. That
really sounds like a good idea that would be a minimum
investment that would pay big dividends.
One of the other concerns was the fact that there is no
local storage of blue roofs or water or food. Can you talk
about why we don't have those more strategically placed?
Mr. Vogel. Mr. Chairman, I know that the plan for the
Caribbean was to provide those necessary commodities from the
warehouse that was established in San Juan. I don't know if
there is a facility in the Virgin Islands that would be able to
properly store those necessary commodities in a climate
controlled area. But we'll certainly take a look and work with
the territory and see----
Mr. Farenthold. Why would you need air conditioned bottles
of water and plastic tarps.
Mr. Vogel. Well, the tarps will eventually deteriorate in a
hot, humid warehouse environment, and water certainly has an
expiration date on it. We certainly wouldn't want to give any
expired water to any survivors to use.
So there is inventory control procedures that would have to
be followed. We'll work real hard with the territory in order
to be able to see if we can help identify a system to make that
happen.
Mr. Farenthold. You're not saying water expires. There is
probably contamination from the containers or something. I mean
water has been around since the beginning of time.
Mr. Vogel. Yes, that's correct, Mr. Chairman. But I will
say that the supply system, the logistic system, although
taxed, did work very well in order to be able to get those
essential commodities here on the islands for those survivors.
Mr. Farenthold. And also let's talk for one second--I'll
come back to it in my second round of questioning. I'll go
ahead and let Ms. Plaskett go. That's my 5 minutes.
Do you want to go ten and ten? That might be a little bit
more efficient.
Ms. Plaskett. Okay.
Mr. Farenthold. So we're going to go 10 and 10. So give me
5 more, please.
So from a hurricane prone area, myself just recovering from
Harvey and particularly some of our coastal resort communities
like Port Aransas and Rockport in Texas, we've seen problems
with FEMA using up all the hotel rooms, whether it's for relief
personnel--and that's not all FEMA. That's government-wide as
well as the linemen and all the other folks that come in. But
in Texas we've still got several hundred people in hotels. In
an economy based on tourism, that's a problem.
There was a witness previously that suggested that FEMA had
the ability to bring in some sort of modular housing. I've
visited our military and State Department facilities in places
like Afghanistan where a standard container unit is basically
converted into a residence. It seems like something like that
might be easy to transport and relieve some of the pressure on
the local economy for housing relief from government personnel.
Is that something you all have tossed around?
Mr. Vogel. Mr. Chairman, we are very concerned about the
amount of space that we take when we come to any area that's
been devastated by storms. This past storm we had assistance in
housing our staff and also linemen and other volunteer agencies
on ships that were docked in Frederiksted and in
Christiansted--I'm sorry, Frederiksted and at Charlotte Amalie.
We had those ships with us until February when there was
sufficient housing that had been identified within the islands
to be able to help support the economy and move our staff and
the rest of the survivors into existing facilities that had
been repaired.
Mr. Farenthold. Let's talk a little bit more about housing
challenges for permanent residents. It seems like there is a
delay obviously of getting the housing back on line. We've
talked some about insurance. I think that's particularly true
of owners of apartment complexes and other multi-family
dwellings that rent things out.
Do you see any way we can improve that so we've got places
to put people other than hotels?
Mr. Vogel. Yes, Mr. Chairman, we have the Multi-Family
Leasing Repair Program. It's ongoing here in the islands where
we will pay a landowner to be able to--we will help repair the
apartments that they have. And then as long as they are willing
to accept one of our survivors, one of the survivors that we
identify that needs housing, we will repair that and then we
will pay that property owner for 18 months while we're working
on a permanent housing solution for that survivor.
Mr. Farenthold. All right, thank you very much.
Mr. Raheem, you said you are talking to the local officials
on a daily basis in coordinating?
Mr. Raheem. Yes, sir.
Mr. Farenthold. Is that by phone, via email? How do you
talk to those guys.
Mr. Raheem. It depends on where I am at the moment. The
times that I'm here, predominantly on St. Croix because that's
where the joint field office is, Commissioner Davis, Deputy
Commissioner Reuben, folks from Housing, Human Services,
VITEMA, et cetera, we are in face to face meetings. When I'm
back in New York and doing other things, it's obviously by
phone, email, videoconference, whatever is required, sir.
Mr. Farenthold. Well, this committee has requested from
your agency copies of emails related to this disaster relief
and we've only got a handful. It seems like if you all have the
level of coordination that you are talking about, there ought
to be more emails. I'd like to request that you get with your
IT folks and the appropriate folks and see about getting our
document production request met.
Mr. Raheem. Certainly, sir.
Mr. Farenthold. We also heard from our local panel
beforehand that there was an issue tracking victims who are
medivacked out to Puerto Rico or wherever. What are you all
doing to improve the tracking of people so family members know
where their relatives are, who's safe, who's not and that sort
of thing.
Mr. Raheem. Mr. Chairman, so currently all the folks are in
Atlanta, Georgia. We've consolidated all the folks that have
been evacuated from the various locations to Atlanta, Georgia,
and all those records are made available on a daily basis. In
fact, the Virgin Islands very kindly provided three nurses.
There is currently two remaining from St. Croix that are
actually acting as case managers to all those folks.
So Virgin Islanders are directly speaking to other Virgin
Islanders, discussing the needs and requirements. All those
lists are available to the Virgin Islands Department of Health
and are made available on an actual daily basis.
Anytime we return anyone, someone has met the needs of care
and they return--actually three are being done this morning--
those records are being done here. Obviously that's after the
fact.
For this current season if that need arises again, using
established IT systems in conjunction and coordination with the
VIDOH is a critical planning factor. Something called JPATS,
Joint Patient Assessment & Tracking System is something we are
working with the VA to bring here for this hurricane season.
Clearly in the last one those evacuations occurred on a
very urgent basis. Sometimes in those emergencies and as you
are well aware from Texas and other places, those things don't
always get all the details collected at the moment. The detail
was collected relatively quickly after the fact. But certainly
there is always opportunities to improve.
Mr. Farenthold. Great. I've still got some more for the
right-hand side of the panel as I look at you guys. But we'll
let Ms. Plaskett do ten minutes, and, hopefully, we'll have
time to do a second round.
Ms. Plaskett. Sounds great. Thank you.
I have some very specific questions that I wanted to ask
very quickly. I'm hoping you can just quickly give me the
answers so that we can cover a lot of material.
Mr. Vogel, one of the questions that has arisen and there
seems to be some confusion about in terms of the Department of
Education in the modular units that are going to be used.
Recognizing that our children are back in school, we need to
put on the record that the children are only in the school, in
the public schools for four hours a day because they are
sharing space with other schools because we don't have all the
facilities in place.
When will the modular units that's been discussed be on
island for the next coming school year?
Mr. Vogel. Delegate Plaskett, I can't tell you the exact
date. I can tell you that we have been working very, very hard
with the Department of Education and with the territory in
order to be able to identify the number and type of----
Ms. Plaskett. So it has not been done?
Mr. Vogel. Yes, that has been done.
Ms. Plaskett. Do you have the type?
Mr. Vogel. That has been done.
Ms. Plaskett. Is there a person who has created them and do
we have a date of shipment?
Mr. Vogel. The contract is ready to be let. I don't know
the date of shipment. We will get back to you.
Ms. Plaskett. When you say the contract has been ready to
be let, does that mean it has been signed and it's in place?
Mr. Vogel. Ma'am, I would have to check with the Department
of Education.
Ms. Plaskett. So it's the Department of Education that's
been responsible for that?
Mr. Vogel. Yes. And we have been working with the
Department of Education to assist them and identify what it was
that they need.
Ms. Plaskett. So your position is more advisory in terms of
what should be needed and what specs you all would be willing
to support?
Mr. Vogel. We'll support whatever specs they ask for. And
what we do is work with them in order to be able to develop the
project worksheet that would reimburse the territory for that
process.
Ms. Plaskett. Okay, got it.
And now in terms of the hospitals as well, we have heard
about evacuation of individuals. We know that dialysis units as
well as people are really pretty much just being triaged at
this point. If there is long-term care that's needed, they have
to be removed.
We've heard the Governor talk about creating units on the
ground as an assessment is done. Are those units on their way
as well?
Mr. Vogel. Yes, they are. And the units were delayed
somewhat last week as a result of the storms but the units are
on their way.
Ms. Plaskett. And then in terms of the assessment, in the
previous panel there was a discussion about the assessment.
Colonel Clark, I don't know if that's in your department with
the Army Corps of Engineers, has an assessment been made of the
hospitals to determine whether it's 50 percent or more
destruction or when is that going to happen?
Colonel Clark. Ma'am, that assessment is ongoing.
Mr. Farenthold. Could you turn on your microphone, please,
sir.
Colonel Clark. Yes, sir.
The assessments are ongoing. I believe the actual
assessments are complete. Right now they are working with the
Federal agencies and all the partners in completing that
report. I think the draft report will be done in about two
weeks with the final report done by the 18th of April, ma'am.
Ms. Plaskett. And then that report goes to our Governor and
then goes to the Federal partners in FEMA as well to make a
determination of what reimbursement will take place?
Colonel Clark. Ma'am, we'll get that report to FEMA, yes.
Ms. Plaskett. So you'll send the report to FEMA and then
FEMA sends the report to the Governor. Is that how that works?
Mr. Vogel. Yes, ma'am, that's correct.
Ms. Plaskett. Okay, thank you.
Now turning the question to the actual hurricanes and the
recovery and the process, one of the things ongoing on the
ground is I'd like to focus a little attention on St. John, in
particular on the Coral Bay area which was probably the most
isolated area in the Virgin Islands after both of those
hurricanes struck.
I was struck by testimony from some of the witnesses who
talked about the psychological feeling of having waiting days
and seeing the Navy and others circling waiting for them to
come on the ground after Irma, them being there and then them
leaving again to move themselves out of the way of the storm
while Maria came and then waiting again.
Could you explain that process--I think that would be you,
Colonel Heintzelman--how that works? And what is the protocol
in the Virgin Islands for getting people on the ground, the
military on the ground to support?
Colonel Heintzelman. Sure. Delegate Plaskett, thank you for
your question.
So I think I'll start with the national response framework.
We respond to the mission assignment of the lead agency, in
this instance FEMA asked us to do, and we do those in
collaboration also with the territory. So whatever they ask us
do, that's where we put our capabilities.
Ms. Plaskett. And did you receive a request before the
storms to be prepared to come?
Colonel Heintzelman. Yes, ma'am. In fact I think me and Mr.
Vogel first spoke on Friday or Saturday, the 1st or 2nd of
September, we did our first mission assignment. It really
allowed us to deploy the fleet, the maritime platforms. It take
about 4 or 5 days to sail here, and that allowed us to have
them offshore.
So when Irma hit the very next morning, the 7th of
September, myself, Mr. Vogel, the Governor, the Adjutant
General were over here on St. Thomas within hours after the
storm passing.
Ms. Plaskett. And how long did it take for all of the
troops to actually be able to come on the ground?
Colonel Heintzelman. You've had a lot of talk about where
you house responders in hotels. What we did is we berthed all
our marines and sailors on the ships. They came in every day.
They performed their mission assignments. They went back to the
ship at night where they slept and ate. Some stayed overnight.
They would stay in the National Guard Armory or points of
distribution. But what we didn't want to do was to be a burden
to anybody else. So they came and went every single day.
The morning after the storm, on the 7th of September, we
had forces ashore. We immediately started doing medical
evacuation. We did search and rescue. We immediately started
opening the roads.
Ms. Plaskett. So in the case of Northern Florida I know
that the Army deployed troops to be in shelters before the
storms took place. Had there been a discussion about having
people in place in shelters before? If it was done, how many?
If not, why was it not done?
Colonel Heintzelman. We have about 26 people of soldiers,
airmen and marines that come down before the storm. We locate
with the FEMA Incident Management Assistance Team at the VITEMA
office and I coordinate the response. Other than that, it's
just me. Out of the ships, which were just offshore, we had I
think 3300 sailors and marines ready to go.
Ms. Plaskett. And do you think that that was the proper
mechanism for doing it rather than having individuals here
berthed and staying in shelters on the ground? Was the ship the
proper means with which to give the recovery and why?
Colonel Heintzelman. Ma'am, I think it's ideal because you
can keep them out of the way. They can stay out of the storms
and they don't become victims. And then immediately following
the storm with their helicopters--I think we had 30 some
helicopters, landing craft, we are able to quickly move them to
ashore. They are able to do their mission but at the same time
they don't get in anybody's way. They don't take up the hotel
rooms.
There is not much room for say responder based camps here
in the islands. So they can go back and forth to the ship. I
think it's kind of an ideal way to do it.
Ms. Plaskett. And then one last question before I move on
to someone else. In terms of communication, we know the
communication systems were down, towers were down. Did you
receive a request for I think they are called COWS or
satellites or things? And how was that then deployed so that
communication can occur?
Colonel Heintzelman. Communication was definitely a
challenge after the storms. We lost most of the cell phone
towers.
So I provided a lot of the communications. I supported both
FEMA and VITEMA. Everything we had is satellite based. We did
that for several days until they were able to bring in more
robust systems.
One of the challenges, though, with satellite based
communications is you have to put up a dish antenna. If you
remember after Maria the winds the next day, I think it was the
21st were still like 70-knot winds, you really can't put a dish
antenna up in that.
So we were without communications for about 24 hours. We
knew that would be the case. We went into that with what we
call a no-communications plan.
[Power Interruption in Hearing Room.]
Colonel Heintzelman. Would you like me to continue?
Ms. Plaskett. I think we should wait for just a minute.
Mr. Farenthold. We are certainly not in the dark on this
issue.
So until we get our lights back on or if we determine we're
not going to be able to, we'll take a recess subject to the
recall of the Chair.
[Recess.]
Mr. Farenthold. The subcommittee will come back to order.
It seems we've got enough power for our reporter to record what
we're saying and keep the official record. We've got the
windows open. We've got some daylight and we feel like we're
working on a generator now.
Are you still good without the microphones to record us,
ma'am?
The Reporter. Yes.
Mr. Farenthold. All right, we'll just go on and speak up
the best we can.
Ms. Plaskett. Sure. I guess my question would be a follow-
up.
Colonel Heintzelman, when you talked about an immediate
time after the hurricane, after Irma you and the Governor or
others were able to get onto St. Thomas very quickly, when were
you able to get to St. John?
Colonel Heintzelman. The same day, ma'am, within an hour.
Ms. Plaskett. And when were you able to bring your deployed
personnel to actually be there and assist with the recovery on
St. John?
Colonel Heintzelman. I know, ma'am, on St. Thomas it was
the same day. So it would have been that Thursday, the 7th of
September. I believe there was another day, until Friday the
8th until we got over to St. John
Ms. Plaskett. Because in the testimony I have from Miss
Enwright, who is with St. John with Love City Strong and
others, she discusses in her testimony that it took at least
three days before they were able to see the Navy and others
come after Irma. Would that be correct?
Colonel Heintzelman. Ma'am, I know we had some people on
Cruz Bay that Friday, the 8th of September.
Ms. Plaskett. Okay, on Cruz Bay. And it took a little
longer to get to Coral Bay, correct?
Colonel Heintzelman. We did, ma'am, we did do some search
and rescue over there. We took some urban search and rescue
teams. We did some patient evacuations. I'm not sure the exact
date, though, that people actually went over to Coral Bay and
spent any time.
Ms. Plaskett. Okay. Colonel Clark, in talking about the
Army Corps, Senator Roach talked about--and I think what he was
describing that he had applied for was the STEP, the Rapid
Repair Program. Could you tell me if the Rapid Repair Program
has that been deployed as yet in the Virgin Islands?
Colonel Clark. Ma'am, what I can tell you is we deployed
working through FEMA the Blue Roof Program and the Blue Tarp
Program. We did not commission or assign for a repaid repair.
Ms. Plaskett. Mr. Vogel, would that be through you, FEMA,
that the Rapid Repair Program is now being initiated rather
than--and that's supposed to be rather than having creating
temporary housing, you repaired the homes that are in place
already, correct?
Mr. Vogel. Delegate Plaskett, that is correct. That program
is administered and controlled by the territory. We reimburse
the territory for those expenses that are associated with the
homes that they repair and what FEMA calls the Sheltering and
Temporary Essential Power Program
Ms. Plaskett. STEP, correct?
Mr. Vogel. That is correct, that's STEP.
Ms. Plaskett. But now it's administered by the Virgin
Islands Government. But of course the Virgin Islands Government
is not going to initiate this until they are assured that the
Federal Government has approved the reimbursement for it,
right?
Mr. Vogel. Ma'am, the territory----
Ms. Plaskett. Why would you expend the money for the
program if you didn't think that the Federal Government was
going to reimburse you for it, which is how the STEP program
works? When did the Federal Government agree to reimburse the
Virgin Islands Government for it?
Mr. Vogel. Delegate Plaskett, the territory elected to do
this program through a contractor. We had been working with the
territory in order to be able to develop a project worksheet
and authorize them and obligate monies to them so that they
were able to initiate that contract.
Ms. Plaskett. Right. But the Virgin Islands Government,
Governor Mapp, did not go into the contract negotiations until
he knew that Brock Long had agreed to begin the reimbursement
at a reasonable amount for each one of those homes; is that
correct? And when was that negotiated with the Director of
FEMA?
Mr. Vogel. Ma'am, I'm sorry, I don't have a date when that
was negotiated. I was not aware that that negotiation took
place. I do know that we had worked with the territory.
We have also worked with the territory's subject matter
expert, which is Witt O'Brien's. We have come up with a
reasonable number in order to be able to have that project
worksheet obligated.
Ms. Plaskett. And what is that reasonable number?
Mr. Vogel. The reasonable number that was initially sent
forward to OLA was some $634 million.
Ms. Plaskett. And per home, what would that break down to?
Mr. Vogel. The STEP authorization per home is $25,000.
Ms. Plaskett. And, Colonel Clark, what is the application
of how much it cost per home for the Blue Roof Program?
Colonel Clark. Ma'am, I don't know the exact number but it
was up to $25,000.00 repair for the Blue Roof Program.
Ms. Plaskett. So if you are putting temporary housing and
you are putting a temporary blue roof on a home at 25,000, then
you are saying to permanently fix the roof at 25,000 does that
seem like a reasonable amount for a roof? Because I know that
part of the negotiation that the Governor had was that he
wanted to increase the amount per roof because he did not
believe that 25,000 was going to fix people's roof.
Mr. Vogel. Delegate Plaskett, we initially had received
from FEMA headquarters a ceiling of $20,000.00 per home. We
went back and asked for that to be adjusted and they adjusted
it to $25,000.00.
Ms. Plaskett. So you are now saying that there was some
negotiation back and forth that went on?
Mr. Vogel. That was not in accordance with the negotiation
of the contract, ma'am. That was in negotiation with FEMA
headquarters that had established a $20,000.00 ceiling for the
amount of money that we were authorized to spend in the
Sheltering and Temporary Essential Power Program per home.
Yes, we asked that to be increased. We asked for that to be
increased. The Governor asked me to ask for that to be
increased. We sent that forward and they favorably approved
$25,000 as the maximum per home.
Ms. Plaskett. I know my time has run out.
Mr. Farenthold. We've got time to do one more round of 5
minutes each. The committee staff and I need to get to the
airport. We're trying to save the taxpayers some money and not
spend another night in the Virgin Islands.
Ms. Plaskett. Although you'd like to.
Mr. Farenthold. That's exactly right.
Mr. Lavasseur, at the Park Service you talked a little bit
about the damage sustained by your concessionaires. Obviously
the largest is Caneel Bay. I was able to drive through and
walk-through a little bit of that. It's pretty close to a total
loss.
How much longer do they have on their concession contract?
Mr. Lavasseur. They are currently not under a concession
contract. They are under a retained use estate. That's the
legal mechanism on how they are sitting on the island right
now.
Mr. Farenthold. How much longer do they have under their
agreement.
Mr. Lavasseur. Seven more years, sir.
Mr. Farenthold. So as a businessperson and I'm looking at
replacing a resort that obviously is hundreds of millions of
dollars' worth of improvements, there is no way I'm going to be
able to recoup that investment with only a guarantee that there
is seven years left on my contract.
Are you all negotiating with them? Is there a legal
procedure in place for them to either extend it or forfeit it
for somebody else to come in?
To me it seems like it's going to take a minimum of a 50-
year agreement. I think the original agreement with the
Rockefellers was, what, 60 years?
Mr. Lavasseur. I believe it was, yes.
Mr. Farenthold. So are you all working on anything? I mean
that's got to be critical to the hundreds of people who work
there.
Mr. Lavasseur. So the current negotiations are happening at
the highest levels of the Department of Interior and the
National Park Service. Because they understand the significance
and the importance of this, and the business issues of it, they
have taken that from the park to ensure that it was their top
priority. It's being handled from the Washington office.
Mr. Farenthold. All right, thank you. And I assume you've
got the other issue with the other hotel there. It's very
similar. I did not get to look at that.
Mr. Lavasseur. Yes, Cinnamon Bay right now operates out of
Cinnamon Bay and Trunk Bay. We are working with the
concessionaire who has not received his insurance yet. So the
concessionaire there is still working through insurance to try
and get the facility up and running.
Now we at the National Park Service have taken upon
ourselves to cleanup Trunk Bay knowing that that's an important
function of the cruise ships to make sure that Trunk Bay is
operational. It's currently operational right now and can be
occupied by the concessionaire.
As you mentioned earlier with the business solution, the
concessionaire has struggles with putting employees there with
the amount of visitor base that we are currently having. It's
one of those things, the chicken before the egg. If you don't
put business there, visitors won't come. If visitors don't
come, the business doesn't survive.
So there is that happening throughout all the territories
and the commonwealth.
Mr. Farenthold. All right, Colonel Clark, some of the local
folks said that there was an issue with how you all installed
the blue roofs here. As opposed to in the U.S., most of us have
composition shingles and wood decking on the roof. That's not
the primary form of construction here.
Can you talk about some of the challenges you are faced
with the blue roof and anything you all have learned and would
do different next time?
Colonel Clark. Yes, sir.
First of all, I think the blue roof is a very important
program that allows temporary roofing or shelter in place. We
were able to put on 3,658 roofs across the territory. As you
mentioned, it's really geared for shingle roofs like you would
see in Florida and other places and not so much the metal
roofing we have here.
So one of the things we're trying to strive to be better is
next week we have what they call the remedial action plan
workshop in which the enterprise, the Corps of Engineers
enterprise will look at procedures, techniques that would be
more useful for the Virgin Islands.
So I would say another thing is the roof systems that are
here with the damage it was more than 50 percent, more than
what you would have seen in Florida. Most of the baseboards
were torn off. So we had to put down the baseboards, put on the
blue roofs. So we'll look at other techniques that might be
able to do it faster.
Mr. Farenthold. Finally--and I'll open this up because I
don't know particularly who to ask this to and I saw this in
Texas. One of the really important things you needed towards
your return to normalcy aside from the debris removal and
getting the grocery stores open is getting your communications
restored. We saw some news stories about new technologies like
either a drone or balloon based cell towers or even potentially
using some form of specially equipped aircraft that would form
an orbit around an area to provide cell service until the
towers are in place.
Has anybody worked with that or have any thoughts on what,
if any, the government involvement should be with that or
should that be something left with the private sector? I guess
Mr. Vogel----
Mr. Vogel. Mr. Chairman, I can tell you----
Mr. Farenthold. You are in the hot seat today.
Mr. Vogel. I can tell you a system that worked very well
here and it was the first time that FEMA had used that. We used
part of the 82nd Airborne's Civil Authority Information Systems
team. They had a great capability to go out and, number one,
repair some of the radio stations.
Number two, they can do print media.
Number three, they have loudspeakers on their vehicles.
And, number four, it's a great bunch of soldiers who go out
and meet people face to face in the remote areas. They have
special vehicles that they can use, altering vehicles and it
worked very well.
I am not aware of some of the other communications
infrastructure that people are looking at. But I agree with you
that anything that we might be able to do to improve the
resiliency of communications and come up with other programs to
be able to help that immediate need right after a devastating
event like both of these hurricanes was is absolutely
essential.
I know that just this past week the Chairman of the Federal
Communications Commission was here. I know that they are
looking real hard at what is it that they can do in order to be
able to support it.
Mr. Farenthold. Again as a fellow survivor of a rather
severe hurricane last year, my heart goes out to the folks in
this area, and my thanks go to our Federal responders.
I'll now recognize Ms. Plaskett for 5 minutes and again
with apologizes that we don't have time to spend a full day on
this. We just simply can't.
Ms. Plaskett. Thank you. Thanks so much.
Colonel Clark, when you talked about the installation of
the blue roofs, you said there were 3,658 that were put up. How
many applications were submitted for the Blue Roof Program?
Colonel Clark. Ma'am, we received about 6,000 ROEs. By the
time we looked to take out the duplicates, triplicates, it was
closer to about 5,000. Of that 5,000 there is about 500 that
just did not meet the requirements, that the damage was so much
that they didn't meet the requirements. The rest were people
who either found other means to repair the roof, either
insurance or repaired it themselves or canceled the program.
Ms. Plaskett. And, Mr. Vogel, do you know approximately how
many roofs or how many homes were damaged in the Virgin
Islands? Do we have an estimate of that?
Mr. Vogel. We have an estimate of some 12,500 homes.
Ms. Plaskett. So we know that a lot of people then probably
just did not apply. Is that what we think happened in terms of
people not applying for the Blue Roof Program if there were
12,000?
Mr. Vogel. Delegate Plaskett, many of those homes may not
have had sufficient damage to apply for a blue roof. Many of
those homes may have only received minor damage.
Ms. Plaskett. So I guess the reason I'm asking this
question is I'm concerned about those homes that still appear
to be extremely damaged. And I know, Colonel, that you can only
do for those that have applied.
The staff yesterday were on the Island of St. John and took
some pictures of some of the homes that people are living in.
We don't have the monitors up anymore but I know that we've
made pictures of this.
What can we do as the Federal Government and the local
government working together to ensure that people who are
living in homes that look like this don't have to go into the
2018 Hurricane Season like this?
If you could see on one of these, people are actually
living in one of the little sheltered areas there. How do we
deal with this for the next hurricane season that's right upon
us? And if it's not a hurricane, at least the rain that's
incessant during those months.
Does anyone have suggestions on what do we do for these
cases for people who are living in homes that look like this?
How do we as a community or the Federal Government deal with
that?
Mr. Vogel. Well, Delegate Plaskett, we continue to work
with the Virgin Islands Housing Authority and the Department of
Human Services to identify any available structure to be able
to support those survivors who are living in conditions like
this and encourage them to be able to reach out and work with
us to find a safe, sanitary and secure place to live while
their permanent homes are either being replaced or repaired.
We are in the process of doing a Permanent Housing
Construction Direct Repair Program, and that program will help
those homes that have up to $75,000.00 worth of damage done to
them. And, hopefully, that will take care of the number of the
homes that we see are damaged and the survivors are still in
there.
I have also requested that permanent housing construction--
a new construction program be authorized for the Virgin
Islands. I'm awaiting headquarters, FEMA's decision on that.
Ms. Plaskett. Thank you. And you all have done--you know
I've asked some questions about what the deficiencies are.
Please don't think that that means that I don't recognize the
tremendous work and the amount of hours that you all put in. I
know that cannot be understated as well. So many of you have
really stepped up to the plate and gone outside of your mission
statement.
So I guess my parting question would be if you could really
talk about the lessons that were learned very succinctly. What
maybe you did really well and what could be changed or improved
or things that we as members of this committee that's our
purpose is to find out what Federal legislation is within your
purview to add to the support of your agencies in your missions
as we move into the next hurricane season and to other places?
Mr. Vogel. Delegate Plaskett, I'm taking all the time here.
I'm sorry.
First of all, I think that the coordination that took place
just prior to the storm, and the fact that we had been down
here in May on a major military exercise and I was able to
bring some of my staff with me, they got a chance to see where
the critical infrastructure was, what the islands looked like.
They hadn't been here before. That was absolutely essential for
them to be able to see that. So once they got here and saw what
had happened, they were then able to operate.
I think the relationship that I have with Colonel
Heintzelman is absolutely critical in these types of
operations. We talk all the time. He's in FEMA Region II as am
I. Our discussions prior to the time as that black cloud was
coming across the Eastern Atlantic looking at what it was that
we ought to be able to say, okay, somebody needs to be able to
make a decision here. It's going to cost a lot of money to
deploy a joint task force. But if we don't have them with the
forecast of the effects that this storm is going to have, we
will be unable to provide the commodities immediately after the
storm.
Colonel Heintzelman was able to make sure that those--all
of those assets and resources were available to us. The joint
task force was here. So that part of the process worked really
well along with the initial coordination of the 55 Federal
agencies that I asked for to come and help in this effort.
Never in my 12 short years of working in FEMA have I seen such
good cooperation.
We had great communications with the National Response and
Coordination Center at FEMA headquarters. We were on with them
early in the morning and very late at night. We had visibility
on what was going to arrive the next day. As I identified
additional requirements from all of the agencies that they
identified to me, we would discuss that. They had arrangements
made so that we would be able to have that commodity or that
service shipped to us.
The thing that I would recommend and we were able to very
quickly reorganize, but we need air operation assets on each
one of the islands here. Initially the plan was to do that from
Puerto Rico. We quickly had to change the way we did that
business so that we had visibility on what type of essential
equipment was here to be able to service the aircraft when they
arrived, what kind of people we needed here in order to be able
to make sure that those commodities and those services got out
to the territory.
So for that part of the operation I think went really well.
I know that there are processes in place in the coming years to
make sure that those air operation sections are sufficiently
staff for each one of the islands.
Believe me, our heart goes out to all the people that have
been affected by this thing. We certainly understand how
critical it is in order to be able to get things back in place.
I commend the Virgin Islanders with their resiliency. I've
just got to tell you that we will be here as long as it takes
in order to be able to get this place put back together again
and be more resilient in the future. And I'm committed to do
whatever I can in order to be able to help.
Ms. Plaskett. Colonels, did you have anything additional to
add?
Colonel Heintzelman. Ma'am, I would second what Mr. Vogel
said. The most important lesson learned for NORTHCOM is pre-
positioning those forces before the storm like you mentioned
with the amphibious readiness group so that the capabilities
are immediately available post-storm.
That's a big decision me and Mr. Vogel talked directly in
person with Mr. Long back on the 5th of December. It's about a
$10 million decision but we intend to do that every year. I
mean you can't anticipate everything in a big disaster like
this. What we did anticipate we've taken note of those
capabilities in order to prepare for next season.
Ms. Plaskett. And, Colonel Clark, because now after the
disaster and the initial recovery, so much of this falls on the
Army Corps in terms of the rebuilding.
Colonel Clark. Ma'am, we all know in the response and
recovery effort it's never fast enough for those that are in
need. That's why the Corps and all the Federal partners,
territory partners take doing after action reviews and lessons
learned very seriously. The Corps enterprise itself in October
and November sent outside personnel down to the Virgin Islands
that did interviews with all Federal partners, local partners
and other folks to collect those lessons learned.
As I mentioned before, we are always looking for ways to
get better. One example is next week in New Orleans where we
are getting with some of the Federal partners to discuss in the
remedial action plan workshop to review some of those lessons
learned; to review and prioritize the issues that relate to the
Corps' response to this disaster; consider courses of action
for addressing those issues and developing action plans to
innovate improvement for correcting operational deficiencies
like we encountered for the blue roof; look at ways of how the
blue roof mission could be unique to the Virgin Islands and how
we can improve.
Ms. Plaskett. Thank you.
And thank you, Mr. Chairman, for this.
One of the things I would hope that the Committee would
consider in listening to some of the testimony and the changes
and the one you have discussed about having a cadre of
training, I wholeheartedly agree with you and support that.
But also I think there needs to be a serious look from our
level as to whether or not we need to continue having regional
offices that are in Puerto Rico for the Virgin Islands. Because
when issues like this come up, there is a fight for limited
resources between ourselves and our brothers and sisters in
Puerto Rico.
They are also compromised. I think that the Virgin Islands
should not be reporting to Puerto Rico but potentially Florida
or other places who have the resources and the isolation in
times of need like this.
Mr. Farenthold. Thank you very much.
I'd like to thank the witnesses again for appearing before
us today.
We'll hold the record open for 2 weeks for any member who
is not here to submit written opening statements or a question
for the record. If you folks would be willing to answer any of
the written questions should they appear, we would greatly
appreciate that.
If there is no further business, without objection this
subcommittee stands adjourned.
[Whereupon, the subcommittee was adjourned.]
APPENDIX
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Material Submitted for the Hearing Record
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