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Strategies include a vision of reconstruction with nature-based solutions

Guaynabo, PUERTO RICO ― The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) declared 2024 as the Year of Resilience to address the need to translate disaster recovery into actions that take into account the effects of climate change.

Seven years after Hurricane María, Puerto Rico has nearly $34 billion in funding from the agency for over 11,000 projects. Of all those projects, 87 percent already have hazard mitigation measures that will specifically help infrastructure throughout the island sustain and reduce damage in the face of future weather events. 

“A large part of the projects that define and guide Puerto Rico’s recovery have already nearly $3.4 billion earmarked exclusively for mitigation. In addition to addressing the risks of future damage, we are also addressing a reconstruction that harmonizes human-made structures with the natural environment that surrounds them,” said Federal Disaster Recovery Coordinator José Baquero. 

Four examples of these works include road infrastructure projects in the municipalities of Peñuelas, San Lorenzo, Yabucoa and Naranjito, which have over $2.2 million for their work.

There is a project in Peñuelas that will soon be published for bidding and that has about $881,000 from FEMA for the reconstruction of municipal roads in the communities of Hacienda Loyola and La Colacha in the Barreal neighborhood. 

As part of the nature-based solutions to mitigate hazards on these roads, infiltration trenches will

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