Disaster recovery

The 20th anniversary of the terrorist attacks comes as New York City is trying to emerge from a newer crisis, the COVID-19 pandemic.

Forecasters at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Climate Prediction Center predict a 60% chance of an above-normal season.

The report found that the White House Office of Management and Budget played a key role in prodding HUD to add additional requirements for Puerto Rico to access the disaster aid.

The office designs and implements a plan that coordinates statewide resilience and disaster recovery efforts.

Gov. John Bel Edwards wrote to President Joe Biden requesting additional federal funding for communities hard hit by three hurricanes in 2020.

The White House has shortened the enhanced Medicaid formula funding to two years from a proposed four years and continues to stall on publication of a Federal Register notice about the availability of the disaster aid.

The $10.2 billion is designated for long-term mitigation work to prevent a future recurrence of the damage and to make electrical grid improvements that will withstand future storms.

The commonwealth overall has been allocated $42.3 billion in disaster aid since Hurricanes Maria and Irma struck the island, not counting the new funding approved by Congress.

The disaster-aid measure was delayed for about six months amid Trump’s objections to additional aid for Puerto Rico.

The House Natural Resources Committee has scheduled a May 2 hearing to examine the successes and failures of PROMESA.

Sergio Marxuach and other officials of the nonpartisan, San Juan-based Center for a New Economy said federal spending on disaster recovery has been slower than in other areas also struck by hurricanes in 2017.

Congress could pass legislation authorizing advance refundings and liberalizing private activity bond restrictions to aid in disaster recovery, NABL said.

An estimated $69.1 billion of the $139 billion is already committed through a combination of insurance claims and federal disaster aid.

Storm financing expert Alan Rubin, the "Hurricane Czar," examines ways to finance resiliency and recovery amid unprecedented natural disasters. Paul Burton hosts.