The Federal Emergency Management Agency just released its plan from 2014 for how to respond to a hurricane in Puerto Rico, after having denied ProPublica’s request for the same document in October.
ProPublica reporters Justin Elliot and Decca Muldowney requested the document, called a hurricane annex, in the midst of the swarm of criticism FEMA was facing for its response to Hurricane Maria: FEMA hired a contractor that failed to deliver millions of meals, and a month after the disaster, only 27 percent of the island had electricity.
But when the ProPublica reporters requested the hurricane annex, their request was denied. FEMA cited unspecified “potentially sensitive information,” even though a similar document, the hurricane annex for Hawaii, was already available online through the Department of Defense.
So MuckRock requested the document from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, assuming that they would also have a copy. ACoE forwarded the request on to FEMA, which oddly enough, fulfilled it.
Read FEMA’s plan for responding to a hurricane in Puerto Rico in its entirety below, or on the request page.
Image by Roosevelt Skerrit via Wikimedia Commons
