Assessing the Cost of Disaster Recovery and Identifying Funding Sources in the HSOAC Puerto Rico Economic and Disaster Recovery Plan Project

In August 2018 the government of Puerto Rico submitted an economic and disaster recovery plan to Congress describing a strategic approach toward recovery from the destruction caused by Hurricanes Irma and Maria, building resilience to withstand future disasters, and restoring the struggling economy. The Homeland Security Operational Analysis Center (HSOAC) provided substantial input for the plan's development. This report describes the work of the HSOAC cost and funding team—work that informed the overall development of the recovery plan on estimating the costs of courses of action (COAs) that comprise the plan, and on identifying potential funding sources for each COA.

A primary challenge was the sheer diversity of the activities included in the plan, which is due to the substantial number of COAs (276), their sectoral specificity, and the technical complexity of infrastructure and other investments. The total cost of the recovery plan is estimated to be $139 billion. This report also identifies potential funders for the COAs of the plan. Almost all the COAs are eligible for U.S. federal funding, but only $86 billion of such funding was estimated to be available when the recovery plan was submitted. $8 billion of private insurance claim funding was also estimated to be available, which leaves a $45 billion gap. Potential additional funders to close this gap include Puerto Rico government entities, either at the commonwealth or municipal level; proceeds from COAs that are revenue-generating projects; and non-government sources, such as private-sector funding, public-private partnerships, and philanthropies.