The Anniversary of Hurricane Maria: Title Trouble Still Remains After the Eye of the Storm

      On September 20, 2017, the worst storm to strike Puerto Rico in over 80 years left the island in sheer devastation: Hurricane Maria. The scale of Maria’s destruction has left Puerto Rico’s government requesting $139 billion for the island to make a full recovery — an amount more than 15 times the entire island’s annual budget.

           Hurricane Maria is responsible for damaging and destroying more than 160,000 homes, and in order to rebuild those and build new housing alone, the government estimates it needs $33 billion. Yet nearly two years after the storm, thousands of Puerto Rico’s residents are still recovering from the storm’s destruction.

           Plus, Hurricane season has returned. For the 2019 hurricane season, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration forecasts that four to eight named storms could become hurricanes. And with a community still attempting to recover from the aftermath of Hurricane Maria, another hurricane could set Puerto Rico back even further.

           The title trouble is one of the greatest obstacles everyday Puerto Ricans face in rebuilding from Hurricane Maria. Thousands of Puerto Ricans battling the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) over hurricane aid are denied because they do not hold record title to their properties, even after living in their homes for decades.

           The University of Puerto Rico School of Law conducted a study of more than 2,000 people on the island and found that 49 percent of residents have problems with the title on their property or lack record title. Without evidence of record title, residents have a difficult time proving ownership of their properties to federal agencies distributing aid to repair homes.

           As many as half the dwellings on the island were built informally, without plans, permits, or a formal address, making it impossible for FEMA assessors to corroborate occupancy. As such, only about 65 percent of Puerto Rico’s properties are formally registered with the government. As a result, legitimate homeowners are left with little to know means to meet FEMA’s requirements.

           In total, more than 1.1 million applications for FEMA aid were filed after Hurricane Maria; however, less than half of those applications have been approved. Acknowledging its ill-preparedness, FEMA released a 2017 Hurricane Season After-Action Report on July 12, 2018. In the report, the agency explained how it even underestimated the quantity of food and fresh water supplies needed.

           Although the report admits to an unprepared and disorganized relief effort, FEMA seeks to use this unfortunate disaster as an opportunity to improve its efforts. FEMA Administrator Brock Long wrote, “[t]he hurricanes also showed that governments need to be better prepared with their own supplies, to have pre-positioned contracts with enforcement mechanisms, and to be ready for the financial implications of a disaster.”

           Indeed, the situation may also serve as evidence that emergency response agencies, like FEMA, need flexibility in their regulations and guidelines to ensure that they are able to adapt to the norms and practices of the communities they serve in order to fulfill their mandate.

For more information, please see the sources below, including articles which were used in drafting this post.

1. https://www.mercycorps.org/articles/united-states/hurricane-maria-puerto-rico

2. https://www.npr.org/2018/08/09/637230089/puerto-rico-estimates-it-will-cost-139-billion-to-fully-recover-from-hurricane-m

3. https://www.curbed.com/2018/9/20/17870542/puerto-rico-hurricane-maria-damage-rebuilding

4. https://www.noaa.gov/media-release/noaa-predicts-near-normal-2019-atlantic-hurricane-season

5. https://www.law360.com/articles/1123340

6. https://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/national/article217935625.html

7. https://slate.com/technology/2018/06/hurricane-maria-aftermath-fema-rejects-60-percent-of-assistance-requests.html

8. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/puerto-ricos-recovery-7-months-after-hurricane-maria

9. https://www.fema.gov/media-library-data/1531743865541-d16794d43d3082544435e1471da07880/2017FEMAHurricaneAAR.pdf