FEMA Hurricane Recovery Funds Not Spent in Puerto Rico or U.S. Virgin Islands

December 11, 2019

CHARLOTTE AMALIE, ST THOMAS, US VIRGIN ISLANDS - SEPTEMBER 18: Units inside the Tutu High Rise remain exposed to the outside more than a week after Hurricane Irma destroyed the building September 18, 2017 in Charlotte Amalie, St Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands. With sustained winds at 150mph, Irma blew completely through the Tutu High Rise building, killing one woman when she was sucked out of her apartment. Hurricane Irma slammed into the Leeward Islands on September 6 as a Category 5 storm, killing four and causing major damage on the islands of St. John and St. Thomas. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images,)

In the aftermath of the 2017 hurricane season, which devastated United States territories Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, more than five thousand projects were earmarked to receive federal recovery money. Two years later, the money has stalled, with fewer than 500 projects funded.

“We are in the same situation as we were in the days after the hurricane,” Rafael Surillo Ruiz, the mayor of Yabucoa in Puerto Rico, told The New York Times. Throughout Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, hospitals are still shut down, with patients receiving care in trailers, and roads and other infrastructure remain in disrepair.