Lending a Hand to Americans in Need

J.A. Stakenburg, Director of NYCHA’s Office of Emergency Management (OEM), spent 15 days in Puerto Rico helping with recovery efforts from Hurricane Maria’s catastrophic destruction on the island.

NYCHA’s OEM Director Provides Critical Support to Relief and Recovery Efforts in Puerto Rico

J.A. Stakenburg, Director of NYCHA’s Office of Emergency Management (OEM), spent 15 days in Puerto Rico helping with recovery efforts from Hurricane Maria’s catastrophic destruction on the island. As the co-lead and operations section chief of an interagency team sent by the State of New York, he managed a team of experts from many New York City agencies, including the Office of Emergency Management, Department of Citywide Administrative Services, and Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. Based in the Puerto Rico Convention Center, they worked 12-hour days to support the efforts of Puerto Rico’s emergency management agency.

“We improved the distribution of resources to people in need by addressing information flow and gaps in command and control,” Mr. Stakenburg explains. Other members of the team provided emergency support, including managing medical issues, taking care of people in shelters, and distributing basic commodities.

Mr. Stakenburg also assisted Puerto Rico’s Secretary of Education by coordinating the agencies needed to reopen schools. “Over the course of five days, we got 146 schools open at 119 sites. To do that, we created a basic plan for all the agencies to work together to organize the funding, debris removal, and disinfection necessary to open them. And we requested a team from the NYC school system to help replicate that plan to bring back more schools throughout the island.”

In addition, he connected Puerto Rico’s housing officials to NYCHA leadership, including Chair and CEO Shola Olatoye and General Manager Michael Kelly, to share lessons learned from NYCHA’s Superstorm Sandy recovery process.

News about additional employee efforts to help the people of Puerto Rico…

Andre Cirilo, NYCHA’s Deputy Director for Community Safety Strategies organized the “Dance for a Cause” fundraiser in October at Joe Broadway’s pub on Staten Island. Members of NYCHA’s Culture & Arts Exchange employee organization and other attendees raised more than $1,000 for victims of Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico. The group also collected or purchased nearly two dozen boxes of supplies including hygiene products, water purification tablets, flashlights and batteries, solar/crank-powered radios, and canned food, which they shipped to Puerto Rico for distribution in the community.