Photo By Sgt. Avery Cunningham | Contractors working for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers finish installing a temporary...... read more read more
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PONCE, Puerto Rico – Thousands of homes throughout the island are without roofs. The United States Army Corps of Engineers and Federal Emergency Management Agency face high demand for roofing supplies throughout the island. Around 11,000 homes have damaged roofs in four municipalities in the southern part of the island, Juana Diaz, Penuelas, Ponce, and Yauco. Ten percent are beyond repair; USACE estimates that 60,000 homes in Puerto Rico need new roofs.
USACE uses Operation Blue Roof to support FEMA's mission by providing temporary, reinforced blue plastic coverings. Contractors install these using strips of wood secured with nails or screws. The roofs last for approximately 30 days and protect the homes from further damage.
“The municipalities have offices where there’s a FEMA representative, so they (residents) go there to file a request for an inspection of their home. The request is passed to the corps of engineers, and they come to inspect the house,” said Francisco “Paco” Esteras, a worksite supervisor contracted by FEMA.
“We do an assessment of the house, measure it, assess the damage, and see what we need to do to fix it if we can fix it,” said Capt. John Rossi, St. Louis District, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. “We are averaging around 500 assessments a day, spread across six or seven cities; the bulk of them in Ponce.”
As of October 28, crews have installed over 3,300 temporary blue roofs throughout the island. USACE continuously receives more rolls of the blue plastic sheeting. They currently have 11,000 rolls; enough for another 7,300 plus homes.
The work for USACE does not stop after contractors install the roof. “We send people back after the fact to assess the home for quality, make sure the contractor installed the roofing material properly, that it’s not still leaking, that they didn’t leave a mess, and talk to the home owner to make sure they are pleased with the roof’s performance,” said Rossi.
Currently, USACE is focusing on installing more temporary roofs to aid recovery.
“We get people that, when we get done, cry because they are so happy that they are able to go back to their homes to rebuild, clean, and sleep,” said Esteras. “Some of these people have been in shelters for a month and now with the blue roof mission they can come back and sleep in their homes.”
| Date Taken: | 10.28.2017 |
| Date Posted: | 10.29.2017 08:39 |
| Story ID: | 253372 |
| Location: | PONCE, PR |
| Web Views: | 860 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
This work, USACE Builds Blue Roofs for Puerto Rico, by SGT Avery Cunningham, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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