Disaster Programs as Technology Transfers: The Case of Puerto Rico in the Aftermath of Hurricane Hugo *

Abstract

This paper identifies a set of processes which characterized the organized disaster response to Hurricane Hugo in Puerto Rico. It uses insights generated from the technology transfer literature to compare the relative effectiveness of three disaster mitigation programs in Puerto Rico, and to generalize to the likely difficulties inherent in international disaster mitigation programs emanating from core societies. In Puerto Rico the services of the Weather Service Forecasting Office and the computer model used to evacuate and shelter populations worked well. However, the coastal management program has had mixed success at best. This paper attempts to identify the causes of the differential effectiveness of these three programs by showing the similarities between the WSFO program and the SLOSH computer model and their differences from the coastal management program. It also considers other elements in the disaster response system that did not work as well: sheltering, long term emergency housing, and lifeline protection.

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