Scenario: You have been identified as an emergency preparedness and response expert. Because you do not live/work in any of the areas affected by the 2017 Hurricane Season, you are also viewed as an objective party with regards to the critique of the response effort. You have just been asked to appear at a hearing being held by the Government Accountability Office. Your role is to provide expert testimony on the federal government response to Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico. You consult a number of resources (videos, articles, etc.) that highlight the response effort. You also decide that as a local official, you should inform your jurisdiction’s leadership of the plan for your testimony.

Referring to the FEMA 2017 Hurricane Season AAR, I am requesting for a memo to the health dept. director and local elected officials describing the scope of the testimony. Provide the critique of the FEMA AAR and provide additional information regarding the response and any deficiencies or strengths . Justify the position you have taken with rationale and information from the sources you have selected. Identify 2-3 important response actions that were deficient and provide suggestions for how those actions could have been handled better. In the conclusion, highlight 3 lessons learned that should be implemented by FEMA and state/local emergency responders for future hurricane responses. 

Please use the following links:

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2018/09/30/aft…

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/how-the…

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/gao-report-criticizes…

https://www.cnn.com/2017/09/26/us/response-harvey-…