NWIRP Research Study of Hurricane Maria 

(Puerto Rico)

Infrastructure Systems Supporting Critical Buildings 

and Emergency Communications

Project Leader: Ken Harrison

Objective: From a study of power, water, transportation, and wireless 

communications infrastructure impacts, recovery, and decision-making, 

make recommendations for increasing resilience through changes to 

codes, standards and practice.

NCST Advisory Committee Meeting, June 10

-11, 2021
5/20/2021

Slide 2

Background and Motivation: Importance of Dependencies 

on the Support of Critical Buildings

Source: FCC

Cell Sites Out-of-Service 10/21/17, by Municipio (%) 

Transportation incidents: Hurricanes Irma/Maria

Hospitals and high-capacity water, power, and transportation links

• Dependencies leading to loss of function

− Propagation can impact the function of critical buildings

− Redundancy can stem loss

• Dependencies in recovery phase, e.g.,

− Repair of power lines can be dependent on road access
Slide 3

Background and Motivation: Resilience and Recovery

Prior 

Resilience 

State

Impacts Recovery

New 

Resilience 

State

• Damage

• Cascading Damage 

/ Loss of function

• Temporary 

measures

• Critical path 

activities

• Prior codes, 

standards, 

and practice

“The term ‘resilience’ means the ability to prepare 

for and adapt to changing conditions and 

withstand and recover rapidly from disruptions.” 

-Presidential Policy Directive/PPD-21, 2013

• New codes, 

standards, 

and practice
Slide 4

Power

Communications

Transportation

Water

Wireless 

Dependencies Communications

Transportation Incident Analysis (new project component)

Integrative Study

Objective: Investigate 

causes of the loss of 

functionality and 

extended-duration 

outage of the wireless 

communication system in 

Puerto Rico following 

Hurricane Maria. 

Objective: Evaluate 

dependencies in power, 

water, and transportation 

infrastructure impacts, 

recovery, and decisionmaking.

Objective: Mine the PR DTOP Transportation Incident 

Database to answer HM program questions.

Objective: In a case study 

for a community in Puerto 

Rico, evaluate the 

potential for model 

support of resilience 

decision-making.

Project Plan: Four Project Components
Slide 5

Project Plan: Data Collection and Analysis

Step Dependencies Transportation 

Incident Analysis

Wireless Communications Integrative Study

Data Collection Primary data collection: 

Semi-structured interviews 

of officials to gain 

community-scale 

information

PR DTOP 

Transportation 

Incident Database

Data from 

telecommunication 

companies, support 

industries, and regulatory 

agencies

Community data 

on infrastructure 

vulnerability and 

resilience actions

Data Processing Response database Recovery-oriented 

geospatial database

Geospatial database

• Tower locations

• Hazard exposure

• Code requirements

• Damage

NIST ARC model 

inputs

Analysis Contributors to recovery 

delays

Assessment for 

each municipality

Evaluate performance 

against hazards

Evaluate 

infrastructure 

resilience 

alternatives

Case Study Not applicable Not applicable Not applicable Apply NIST ARC 

model to PR 

community

Make 

recommendations Changes to codes, standards and practice
Slide 6

Power

Communications

Transportation

Water

Dependencies

Recent Progress: Dependencies (1/3)
Slide 7

Primary Data Collection:

• Contact list for interviews (in progress)

− Power (PREPA), water (PRASA) and transportation (DTOP), and at municipal level

− In aggregate, 200 interviews of 1 hour duration

• Semi-structured Interview Instrument questions (in review; 

incorporating feedback)

Recent Progress: Dependencies (2/3)

Prior 

Resilience 

State

Impacts Recovery

New 

Resilience 

State
Slide 8

Indicate the approximate time, as referenced from the time of HM 

landfall, that it took to reach the milestone of /critical buildings at 

30% function/, which is defined here as meeting all of the 

following minimums:

Access: 30% critical buildings receiving within /Caguas/

Reliability: 30%-of-day, min 5 days/week

Quantity: 30% of pre-HM total demand met

Quality: commensurate with boil water advisory

Was restoration of /Power/ on the critical path to 

reaching the /critical buildings at 30% function/ recovery 

milestone?

 Securing new /Water supply/ capacity

 Repair of the /Water supply/ system

 Restoration of inputs needed for normal operation of the 

/Water supply/ system (e.g., power)

 Restoration of the capacity of one or more other systems: 

['Water treatment', 'Transmission', 'Distribution']

Mark those activities that impacted the time to reach /30%/ 

operation of the /Water supply/ system.

You indicated that /Power/ was on the critical path to one or more 

of the recovery milestones. Which of the following were on the 

critical path to restoration of /Power/? 

 Restoration of power service

 Repair of generator(s)

 Enough fuel on-site

 Other _______

Examples of draft interview questions; instrument currently undergoing review

Recent Progress: Dependencies (3/3)
Slide 9

Power

Communications

Transportation

Water

Transportation Incident Analysis (new project component)

Recent Progress: Transportation Incident Analysis (1/4)
Slide 10

• Transportation Incident 

Database obtained from PR 

DTOP visit in 2019

• Aim: Process data to answer 

specific Hurricane Maria 

Program questions

• Requires mining database, 

primarily ‘Incident Type’ and 

‘Observations’ fields

• Many data processing steps 

(see below)

Raw Translated Quality 

Controlled Processed Results Iterate

Recent Progress: Transportation Incident Analysis (2/4)
Slide 11 0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900 1000

Traffic Signal

Downed power lines

Debris

Signage

NA

Downed power lines

Debris

Scour

Inundation

Landslide

Power

outage Wind Flooding Landslide

Number of incidents in the infrastructure study area

Classification of Incidents by Hazard and Impact

Recent Progress: Transportation Incident Analysis (3/4)

PRELIMINARY
Slide 12 0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350

Yabucoa

Utuado

Trujillo Alto

Toa Baja

San Lorenzo

San Juan

Naguabo

Maunabo

Las Piedras

Lares

Juncos

Jayuya

Humacao

Gurabo

Guaynabo

Cidra

Ciales

Cayey

Carolina

Caguas

Bayamón

Aibonito

Aguas Buenas

Adjuntas

Number of Incidents across infrastructure study area

Municipality

Landslide Flooding Wind

PRELIMINARY

Classification of Incidents by Hazard and Municipality

Recent Progress: Transportation Incident Analysis (4/4)
Slide 13

Recent Progress: Wireless Communications (1/2)

Power

Communications

Transportation

Water

Wireless 

Communications
• Conducted initial review of post-storm 

photo library received from American 

Tower Corporation

o Documents post-storm conditions at 131 

cell sites 

o Over 6,700 images

• Obtained additional data on cell site 

infrastructure from the Federal 

Communications Commission, including 

o Location of additional towers

o Structure Type, such as

o freestanding tower, guyed tower, mast, 

etc.

o Construction Date

o Ground Elevation

o Tower Height

© 2017 American Tower Corporation. Used with Permission.

Recent Progress: Wireless Communications (2/2)
Slide 15

Recent Progress: Integrative Study (1/2)

Power

Communications

Transportation

Water

Integrative Study
NIST ARC

An interactive tool for developing 

alternative sets of actions that 

meet community resilience and 

cost goals, given hazard and 

interdependency information, and 

socio-economic data.

Beta Version released 9/2020

Recent Progress: Integrative Study (2/2)
Slide 17

Project Plan: Next Steps

• Data collection/ 

processing/ mining

− FCC cell site damage

− American Tower Corp. 

photo library

− Geo-database

• Complete pre-pilot 

draft of interview 

instrument

• Geospatial analysis

• New version of NIST ARC

Power

Communications

Transportation

Water

Wireless 

Dependencies Communications

Transportation Incident Analysis (new sub-project)

Integrative Study
NWIRP Research Study of Recovery from 

Hurricane Maria’s Impacts on Puerto Rico

Infrastructure Systems Supporting Critical Buildings and 

Emergency Communications

Project Leader: Ken Harrison

Project Team: Marc Levitan, Jazalyn Dukes, Zeinab 

Farahmandfar, Horace Mitchell

Questions?

Please ‘raise your hand’ using the Blue Jeans 

Participant window and unmute your audio and video

NCST Advisory Committee Meeting, June 10

-11, 2021