Disaster Relief Architecture

Over one year after Hurricane Maria, rebuilding efforts are still underway. Tim recently traveled down to the island to help rebuild a home. In this episode, he and Carolina talk about architecture disaster building and what disaster relief really means.\

More About the Show

The Build Perspectives podcast shares insider knowledge to build connections and community in the facade and cladding industry. Tim and Carolina are friends, colleagues and former coworkers who love facades and their clients, and want to share their passion and insights to attract future talent to the building industry.

In this episode, Tim and Carolina talk about Tim’s recent trip to Puerto Rico to help rebuild a home, how the island is faring over a year later, what disaster relief really means to them and how companies can improve their relief efforts.

Hurricane Maria & Puerto Rico: Over One Year Later

Tim recently went down to Puerto Rico to help rebuild a home for a family over the course of three weeks and he was impressed by the resiliency of both nature and people. 

After Hurricane Maria, the trees were completely stripped of their leaves (at least, the trees that were left). And yet, less than two years later, the island’s trees are already full of leaves again. It was impactful to see people paying $50-100 for leaves right after Maria to an island full of life again.

And the people of Puerto Rico were resilient too, says Tim. People would help each other to buy gasoline for their generators or find clean water from rivers to boil. Others would pool food to sustain all of their families together. Tim wanted to show these resilient people that he and others cared about them as well, and so he took vacation time, brought tools and resources and traveled down to help rebuild a home. 

The Long Wait to Rebuild

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One of the biggest issues with rebuilding down in Puerto Rico was getting a permit. The log permit approval process took a year and a half. It’s hard to rebuild a community when they can’t get permits to be able to rebuild. 

There was also the issue of money. While some people got plenty of money to rebuild their home, others didn’t get any money. So you would see these big rebuilds next to homes with tarps for roofs. 

Tim talked to one woman who was living among rats and insects with no roof because she couldn’t get a permit or money to rebuild. 

And while lumber yards and contractors donated tools and supplies, as with donations after any disaster, some supplies were used well and some rotted away. Part of the issue is organization after a disaster. There was no one person to organize the supplies and show where they should go or allocate them appropriately. 

Once Tim and the other volunteers were able to get the permits, they were able to quickly arrange transportation, housing, food and other logistics to get down there and get the house rebuilt. To Tim, disaster relief isn’t about the project though, it’s about the people. As a doer, he wanted to get down there and help a family get their life back together, starting with their home.

Helping in a Disaster

While donating money and materials is great in a disaster, it’s hard to know if there’s someone on the other side who is willing and able to distribute, organize and mobilize. So even more than our money and materials, people in a disaster need our time, expertise, love and willingness to help out.

If your company wants to donate materials and supplies, you first need to ensure that there’s someone there who can make sure the materials don’t go to waste. Or offer paid vacation for employees who want to travel to the disaster location to donate their time and expertise to help rebuild.

For those who are interested in helping to rebuild after disasters, Tim recommends a book called: Design Like You Give A Damn: Architectural Responses To Humanitarian Crises. It talks about preparing structures and communities for refugees and people displaced by natural disasters, terrorism or political upheaval. It’s a great resource if you want to ensure what you are building will truly work for the people you are trying to help.

In our industry, we walk about building technology, construction technology, hardware, software, modular, offsite prefab and all these cool things that increase ROI. But it’s important to remember: There’s no better ROI than helping another human being.

Join the Conversation

We’d love to hear your thoughts on this week’s episode! Shoot us an email at buildperspectives@gmail.com