Hurricane Maria Program Fact Sheet

Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico: NIST Researchers Study What 

Happened, Will Recommend Improvements

(PDF Version)

Background and Goals:

On September 20, 2017, Hurricane Maria caused devastating damage in Puerto Rico, 

severely affecting buildings that its communities relied upon for medical care, safety, 

communications, education, business, and more. To better understand failures in 

buildings and infrastructure as well as emergency communications – and how we can 

prevent such extensive failures in the future – in 2018 the U.S. National Institute of 

Standards and Technology (NIST) launched a multi-year effort. The NIST program is 

studying how critical buildings performed during the storm, as well as how emergency 

communications systems worked. NIST is a science and engineering agency of the U.S. 

Department of Commerce. 

The goal of this effort is to recommend improved building codes, standards and 

practices that would make communities in Puerto Rico and across the U.S. more 

resilient to hurricanes and other disasters. The results should help to mitigate future 

disasters and assist in recovery efforts to build back better, leading to more resilient 

communities. 

NIST has a long history of studying disasters so that we can learn from them and 

improve our buildings or practices. For example, after the World Trade Center disaster, 

NIST’s recommendations led to changes in how we build buildings and respond to 

emergencies. NIST’s work studying the effects of tornadoes, building codes, and 

communications practices have led to changes to keep people safer. NIST has statutory 

authority to study these disasters and to make recommendations but it has no 

regulatory authority to require its recommendations to be followed. Rather, NIST works 

cooperatively with government agencies at all levels as well as with the private sector 

and academia. 

In Puerto Rico, NIST specifically seeks to understand: 

• Hurricane Maria’s wind environment and the conditions that led to injuries and

deaths;

• how critical buildings (especially hospitals and schools) and designated shelters

performed – including their dependence on electricity, water, transportation and

other infrastructure;

• how emergency communications systems performed and the public’s response

to those communications; and the
• impacts to, and recovery of, selected businesses, hospitals and schools, as well 

as the critical social functions they provide

To get the most accurate information, the NIST team is involving local and regional 

emergency management officials; building departments, transportation and other public 

utilities; education and healthcare officials and staff; and local, regional, and 

Commonwealth elected officials and civil servants as well as individuals. NIST also is 

coordinating with other federal agencies, private sector organizations, and academic 

institutions. Several contractors are assisting the NIST team’s engineers, sociologists, 

economists, meteorologists, and other researchers who are carrying out the 

studies. NIST will work with all relevant public and private partners to encourage 

voluntary implementation of the recommendations in its final report.

Key Points:

• NIST is a science and engineering agency with a long track record of impartiality. 

It is not a regulatory agency.

• NIST has many decades of experience studying structures after disasters –

including, but not limited to, hurricanes.

• These studies have led to better understanding of how those structures perform 

and have helped to improve standards, codes, and practices.

• The recommendations NIST makes will be valuable to Puerto Rico and to the 

U.S. more broadly and result in improved standards, codes, and practices that 

will strengthen resilience, save lives, and make better use of resources.

• NIST studies are focused on fact finding, not fault finding, and are conducted 

separately from decisions by others about funding repair, recovery, or assistance 

efforts. NIST does not provide funding as part of, or as a result of, its studies of 

disasters.

• NIST’s work also includes pathbreaking research and the development of 

planning guides to help communities to become more resilient.

• NIST makes all of its findings and recommendations public and gives full credit to 

those who contribute to its research.

Timeframe and for Further Information:

NIST conducted a preliminary reconnaissance of the hurricane’s damage in Puerto Rico 

in December 2017 and launched the program in early 2018. This is a multi-year effort, 

with updates to be issued periodically.

A progress report, Learning from Hurricane Maria’s Impacts on Puerto 

Rico / Aprendiendo de los impactos del Huracán María en Puerto Rico, was issued in 

January 2021.

NIST will add details on a dedicated website: https://www.nist.gov/topics/disasterfailure-studies/hurricane-maria
For further information email: HurricaneMaria@NIST.gov

March 2021