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The USVI has increased its management, fiscal, workforce, and supply-chain capacity

• It has started permanent improvements to infrastructure, public buildings, and housing and restored education and critical health care services.
• Key accomplishments include creating the Office of Disaster Recovery to oversee recovery, designating federal block grant funds for public projects, training staff, using contractors to boost territory government management capacity, making plans to upgrade existing infrastructure, identifying funding options to restore housing, and working to restore natural and cultural Key accomplishments include creating the Office of Disaster Recovery to oversee recovery, designating federal block grant funds for public projects, training staff, using contractors to boost territory government management capacity, making plans to upgrade existing infrastructure, identifying funding options to restore housing, and working to restore natural and cultural resources.

The USVI faces multiple barriers and challenges to recovery

• Crosscutting structural issues have impeded the USVI's ability to manage, finance, and execute recovery efforts. Improving capacity is therefore foundational to implementing recovery. If these are not addressed, recovery will likely continue to be significantly delayed. Particular capacity challenges include complex government management staffing and coordination needs; difficulty in navigating the financing of recovery; a shortage of more than 5,000 workers to support recovery; and constraints on supply-chain capacity, especially in acquisition and distribution.
• Multiple barriers delay recovery of physical infrastructure. These include the sheer amount of damage requiring restoration and long-standing financial, institutional, and technical issues associated with aging infrastructure. Interdependencies among reconstruction projects call for coordination and prioritization among projects.
• Recovery of the tourism economy, education, and health faces constraints related to infrastructure, workforce, regulatory, and other factors. Other challenges related to these include ongoing pressures on individuals' well-being after the storms, gaps in services for vulnerable populations, and difficulty in adapting infrastructure, institutions, and plans to future needs.

Soon after Hurricanes Irma and Maria hit the U.S. Virgin Islands (USVI) in September 2017, recovery activities began. But more than three years after the hurricanes, the territory still has substantial recovery needs. The USVI government estimates that, to fully recover from the damage, it will need to execute $11.25 billion in recovery work—nearly three times its annual gross domestic product. Project timing, complexity, and scale add to the challenge. The recovery process is also a chance for the USVI to reenvision its future, leveraging recovery funding to create a more modern, resilient, and equitable territory.

The authors of this report aim to help the USVI accelerate its recovery by identifying key recovery goals and accomplishments to date, assessing roadblocks and challenges, and suggesting actionable recommendations to more efficiently implement recovery. They reviewed the USVI's prior recovery plans, analyzed available data, considered good practice in other disaster recovery settings, and held more than 170 group discussions with stakeholders. They provide 76 recommendations to enhance recovery efforts, each including steps to support implementation.

The report covers multiple recovery needs: a set of crosscutting capacities required for progress in multiple sectors (management, fiscal, workforce, and supply chain), the rebuilding of physical infrastructure (infrastructure services, energy, housing, and natural and cultural resources), and the development of key aspects of the economy and public services (the tourism economy, education, and health).

• Chapter One

  Introduction

• Chapter Two

  Government Management Capacity in the U.S. Virgin Islands

  Andrew Lauland, Brian Koski, Shreyas Bharadwaj, Alexandra Mendoza-Graf, Etienne Rosas, Paige Rudin, Melissa Shostak

• Chapter Three

  Government Fiscal Capacity

  Howard J. Shatz, Benjamin M. Miller

• Chapter Four

  Workforce Capacity

  Shanthi Nataraj, Troy D. Smith, Sean McKenna

• Chapter Five

  The Supply Chain

  Adam C. Resnick, Jeremy M. Eckhause, Vikram Kilambi, Keenan D. Yoho

• Chapter Six

  Infrastructure Services

  Benjamin Lee Preston, Michelle E. Miro

• Chapter Seven

  Energy

  Benjamin Lee Preston, Noha Abdel-Karim

• Chapter Eight

  Housing

  Patrick Roberts, Sean McKenna, Cynthia R. Cook, Max Izenberg

• Chapter Nine

  Natural and Cultural Resources

  Susan A. Resetar, Rahim Ali, Rachel Liang

• Chapter Ten

  The Tourism Economy

  Shanthi Nataraj, Troy D. Smith, Sean McKenna

• Chapter Eleven

  Education

  Shelly Culbertson, Shreyas Bharadwaj, Katheryn Giglio, Michelle Grisé, Alexandra Mendoza-Graf, Paige Rudin

• Chapter Twelve

  Health and Human Services

  Joie D. Acosta, Molly M. Simmons

• Chapter Thirteen

  Conclusion

• Appendix A

  Agency Profiles

• Appendix B

  Difference Model for the Tourism Economy Chapter