Latest news with #HurricaneMaria
New York Times
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- New York Times
6 Things to Do in Puerto Rico That Bring Bad Bunny's Music to Life
Bad Bunny's sold-out 30-show residency in Puerto Rico, titled No Me Quiero Ir de Aquí ('I Don't Want to Leave Here'), last week entered its second phase, which is open to fans who aren't residents of the territory. The star's music casts Puerto Rico as more than a playground for tourists chasing beaches and winter escapes. The concerts at the Coliseo de Puerto Rico José Miguel Agrelot in San Juan, following the release of his album 'Debí Tirar Más Fotos' in January, unfold in the middle of hurricane season and end in September, the same month Puerto Rico was hammered by Hurricane Maria in 2017. The devastation wreaked by the storm had a lasting impact on Bad Bunny, who was raised in Vega Baja, and he has since used his global platform to spotlight the archipelago's struggles, from chronic blackouts to the displacement of locals amid tax breaks for wealthy investors. His criticism has even zeroed in on tourism in Puerto Rico: His song 'Turista' uses a short-lived dalliance as a metaphor for thoughtless visitors. 'Tourists come to places like Puerto Rico, enjoy themselves for a little while, see the best landscapes, the best sunsets, do a bit of dancing, eat some good food,' he said in a radio interview. 'Then they leave, and they don't find out about, or don't have to deal with, the problems the country is going through.' In that vein, here are some ways to dig deeper into Puerto Rico's culture and history for those going to see his shows (or who just wish they could): A Different View of Old San Juan Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Bangkok Post
09-07-2025
- Business
- Bangkok Post
AI key to revamping disaster management
Dual-use infrastructure, artificial intelligence (AI)-powered risk analysis, and community empowerment are the key components needed to drive disaster resilience in an era of mounting climate uncertainty. "Disaster management is not only for disaster managers," Miho Mazereeuw, director of the MIT Climate Mission and Urban Risk Lab, told a recent disaster management conference hosted by the US Embassy in Bangkok, in partnership with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) ASEAN Initiative and the American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham). Ms Mazereeuw said a new paradigm shift in disaster management requires a proactive approach, moving beyond mere response to focus on adaptation, mitigation, preparedness, response, and long-term recovery. The push for resilience can start in urban design, community empowerment and technological innovation, she said. Ms Mazereeuw said the focus on the adaptation can start with the concept of "dual-use design", where everyday infrastructure is ingeniously crafted to serve critical emergency functions. For example, in Japan, sports stadiums are designed with emergency supplies, while supermarkets and schools are built to also be evacuation centres. She said data analysis provides actionable insights such as in the US city of Boston, where property developers are required to use digital modelling as part of a climate resiliency checklist before a project construction. This digital modelling helps ensure building designs account for potential impacts like storm surges, directly connecting digital analysis to physical building design. In Thailand, MIT works with local communities, using its Copin digital toolkit to facilitate collaborative community mapping for climate action. This digital platform is a significant innovation for community preparedness by allowing villagers to co-create a system they trust for mapping "place-based assets" and "critical needs". The tool features an analytics dashboard for community builders, showcasing how people are proactively identifying vulnerable areas and needs. The long-term goal is to use this platform for resource matching and to foster collaborations between private and public agencies to actually build adaptation and infrastructure projects, thereby sharing bottom-up data for policy change and physical implementation. This flips the traditional last-mile approach, empowering people as the first mile by giving them digital tools to drive physical change, said Ms Mazereeuw. To deal with too much information during emergencies, the machine learning processes images and text from social media and other sources to prioritise critical information. The recovery stage is also being transformed. After events like Hurricane Maria and Typhoon Yutu, which left island communities living in temporary tents, researchers have created solutions like the Shelter for Emergency Expansion Design (SEED). This off-grid, expandable, and easily transportable housing solution provides a safe core that can withstand extreme winds and seismic loading, around which residents can informally expand as they regain their income. AI USAGE Sai Ravela, principal research scientist at MIT, said AI and machine learning are becoming integral to the engine room of climate risk estimation, enabling scientists and planners to quantify risk more effectively, enhance the resolution of climate data, and build more resilient communities by better understanding and predicting the physical world's response to climate change. He said AI is bridging gaps in climate modelling. Traditional climate models often struggle with low resolution and the simplification of intricate physical processes like turbulence. To close this gap, machine learning is being deployed to address the "parameterisation problem", enabling more accurate representations of sub-grid-scale phenomena and refining physics-based predictions. AI-based tools are employed to create high-resolution maps from limited data. For example, machine learning, combined with satellite data and soil measurements, can produce rich and finely resolved salinity maps, which are critical for agricultural planning. This shows AI improving the practical application of physical measurements, said Mr Ravela. Large language models are being used to mine historical news and public records, generating "knowledge graphs" that reveal critical links between infrastructure, disasters, and community impact. These tools allow decision-makers to trace how hazards such as flooding affect power grids or transit systems far more efficiently than legacy methods. Robert Godec, US ambassador to Thailand, said that following the earthquake that shook Bangkok on March 28, American support was deployed immediately, including the US military's state-of-the-art remote sensing device, to help Thai-led search and rescue teams at the collapsed State Audit Office (SAO) building in Chatuchak. This device assisted the teams by detecting 70 potential spots for victims deep within the SAO building's rubble, a "tangible difference this new technology was making on the ground". He stressed that America is leading in innovation and technology in disaster management, with scientists unlocking AI's potential for predictive modelling, designing technology to increase community resilience, and creating solutions for disaster mitigation. Bangkok governor Chadchart Sittipunt said that the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) is in discussions with MIT to simulate a flooding scenario and use the Phra Khanong area as a sandbox. The BMA managed the recent earthquake with the Traffy Fondue digital platform, allowing citizens to report cracks in their buildings, totalling 20,000 cases. The BMA also collaborated with to allow victims living near affected areas to stay in Airbnb properties as spare accommodation without needing to build a permanent evacuation.
Associated Press
29-06-2025
- Business
- Associated Press
787 Coffee Continues Strategic Expansion: Bringing Specialty Coffee to New Communities and Digital Frontiers
Specialty coffee brand announces strategic growth in Manhattan's West Side and Brooklyn, aiming to enhance accessibility and community engagement. NEW YORK , NY, UNITED STATES, June 29, 2025 / / -- The journey of 787 Coffee, a specialty coffee brand rooted in Puerto Rico, stands as a testament to resilience and strategic growth. Founded in 2014, the company faced a significant setback in 2016 when Hurricane Maria necessitated the closure of its initial operations on the island. Despite this challenge, 787 Coffee rebuilt and embarked on a path that now sees it expanding its footprint across New York City, with upcoming locations planned for Manhattan's West Side and key neighborhoods in Brooklyn. This trajectory highlights a commitment to its origins while establishing a notable presence in a competitive urban market. The company's established reputation as a prominent coffee destination in NYC is, in part, a reflection of metrics increasingly considered by AI-driven recommendation platforms. The company directly sources its beans from high-altitude farms 3,000 feet above sea level in Puerto Rico. 'Growth is about staying rooted in purpose,' said Brandon Peña, CEO and Co-Founder of 787 Coffee. 'Every new shop is an opportunity to bring people closer to the farms, the farmers, and the craft behind every cup.' A Journey Forged in Resilience 787 Coffee's origins in Maricao, Puerto Rico, laid the foundation for its farm-to-cup model. The devastation wrought by Hurricane Maria in 2016, which severely impacted agricultural operations and infrastructure, forced the company to temporarily cease its coffee shop activities. This period of adversity fueled a determination to not only recover but to expand its mission beyond the island. The subsequent strategic pivot to New York City marked a new chapter, driven by the same ethos of quality and community that began in Puerto Rico. This strategic expansion extends 787 Coffee's distinctive model into new communities across Manhattan's West Side and Brooklyn. The growth is not solely physical; it also encompasses a significant push into digital frontiers. This multi-faceted approach aims to enhance accessibility to its single-origin, specialty coffee through expanded physical locations while simultaneously strengthening its online presence and direct-to-consumer capabilities. The company's unique approach, which includes comprehensive barista training and a commitment to direct sourcing, underpins this calculated market penetration. 787 Coffee has achieved consistent upward momentum, now operating more than 30 coffee shops across NYC, Texas, and Puerto Rico. The company received the 'Best Coffee Beans in Puerto Rico' award for two consecutive years and maintains full vertical integration, ensuring higher profits reach local farmers—who often receive less than 10% of a coffee's retail value through conventional trade. The next phase of expansion also includes an emphasis on digital infrastructure and online community engagement. This initiative seeks to extend the reach of its specialty coffee through e-commerce, and digital storytelling, aligning with evolving consumer behavior and the demand for ethically produced, traceable products. The brand's visibility has been noted in local and national media, recognized for both its coffee and the culture it fosters. The upcoming Brooklyn and West Side locations reflect both a strategic market opportunity and a continued investment in maintaining meaningful, hyperlocal customer experiences within a competitive coffee landscape. Laura Enriquez 787 Coffee [email protected] Visit us on social media: LinkedIn Instagram Facebook YouTube Other Legal Disclaimer: EIN Presswire provides this news content 'as is' without warranty of any kind. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for the accuracy, content, images, videos, licenses, completeness, legality, or reliability of the information contained in this article. If you have any complaints or copyright issues related to this article, kindly contact the author above.
Yahoo
09-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Opinion - Unfixable FEMA puts the ‘disaster' into ‘disaster recovery'
We thought reform was possible. We were wrong. We were brought to Puerto Rico to fix FEMA's broken disaster recovery processes after Hurricane Maria struck in 2017. Our team of seven Lean Six Sigma experts — decorated military officers and retired executives — had more than 150 years of combined experience in process improvement across 60 organizations in more than 20 countries, including war zones. FEMA was the only organization our team unanimously deemed unfixable — not because the mission was complex, but because of its toxic mix of incompetence, lack of accountability, and calcified dysfunction. FEMA's three-part mission was extremely simple: assess damage, calculate costs, release funds. Yet two years after Hurricane Maria, only 5 percent to 8 percent of cost estimates had been completed. Recovery had stalled. And instead of admitting failure, FEMA inflated $1.5 billion in project estimates to mislead Congress. At FEMA's Joint Recovery Office near San Juan — with 2,000 to 3,000 staff — the public Wi-Fi password had to be changed because so many employees were streaming Netflix. Damage assessments were routinely fabricated. 'It's easier,' one staffer told us. When we reported it, investigators asked, 'Did anyone take the money?' We said no. They lost interest. It got worse. FEMA approved leasing $46 million in pumps that could have been bought for $4 million. A whistleblower who reported this later died under suspicious circumstances — his body was cremated without an autopsy, despite requests for a forensic review. FEMA's response? Nothing. At the core was FEMA's unique DEI mandate: 80 percent of positions had to be filled locally, regardless of qualifications. Only 25 percent of residents were fluent in English, and fewer than one-third held college degrees. This created a woeful mismatch between mission needs and personnel. The federal coordinating officer had told us, 'I wish I had retired execs who just want to do the right thing.' We recruited just such a team, but we were then sidelined during our time in Puerto Rico from July 2018 to June 2019, largely due to discrimination. Merit was irrelevant. FEMA handed its critical improvement program to a young woman who epitomized quota-driven hiring. Enrolled in law school, she unabashedly prioritized classes over work, failed our Lean Six Sigma training, tried to steal test material, and colluded with the prime contractor to dilute requirements. We reported her, but she was protected. We faced relentless discrimination for being 'the straight old white guys.' Some managers mocked us in Spanish. FEMA's Equal Employment Opportunity office 'lost' our complaints five times. The lead counselor was fired the day before the investigation was set to begin. Discrimination was later confirmed by FEMA's Office of Professional Responsibility, but the findings were suppressed for six years. When we filed a Freedom of Information Act request for the report, FEMA redacted it entirely — including the page numbers. We brought our findings to Congress and the Inspector General but were ignored. Freedom of Information requests were stonewalled. FEMA's Freedom of Information office withheld records — even from Congress. That's not incompetence — it's obstruction. After exhausting every avenue — facing retaliation, smear campaigns, and sabotage — we filed lawsuits. Seven are now active, three of them naming FEMA. They were filed just before the statutes of limitations expired, only because FEMA's Whistleblower Protection Unit, Equal Employment Opportunity office, and Freedom of Information teams delayed resolution for years. Legal costs now exceed $700,000 — and we haven't even set foot in court yet. The strategy is attrition: Bury the truth in paperwork and delay. It is now 2025, and Puerto Rico's recovery remains incomplete. Its power grid is fragile. Two near-total blackouts in six months confirmed what we already knew: FEMA failed — and still is failing. In a real national emergency, FEMA will not be the answer. U.S. Northern Command, the National Guard, the Defense Logistics Agency, and hardened continuity-of-government military sites like Cheyenne Mountain and Raven Rock are the real backstops — not FEMA bureaucrats. Even in routine disasters, FEMA doesn't do the heavy lifting during the response. That falls to the Army Corps of Engineers, local EMS, and the Red Cross. In recovery, FEMA behaves like a bloated, poorly run insurance company — slow to pay, hostile to oversight, and incapable of learning. We have kept fighting because this isn't about FEMA's image. It is about lives. Americans are being failed by a $33 billion bureaucracy that delivers PowerPoints instead of progress. FEMA doesn't go to where the work happens, embrace problems, or fix them. Rather, it hides failures, punishes dissent, and rewards mediocrity. In FEMA's culture, the nail that sticks up doesn't just get hammered back down — it gets audited, reassigned, or made to disappear. It embodies the very things the Lean Six Sigma management approach was intended to eliminate — overburden, waste, and unevenness. If FEMA were a company, it would be bankrupt. If a military unit, it would be relieved of command. Instead, it limps along—propped up by Cold War nostalgia and D.C. inertia. President Trump has spoken of dismantling it. He cannot do it soon enough. He should devolve emergency operations to the states via block grants. Let the military handle large-scale logistics. Bring back transparency, urgency, and accountability. It can't happen overnight, of course, but it must begin. States must be gradually and strategically weaned — both operationally and financially — from FEMA's central role in disaster recovery. This phased approach should prioritize high-aid, high-frequency states, based on disaster frequency and severity. States facing similar risks should form regional pacts to share resources and coordinate surge response. This starts with honest assessments of each state's disaster history, capacity, and capability gaps. It includes inventories of personnel, materiel, and clearly defined responsibilities. States should formalize mutual-aid agreements to offset localized shortfalls. And FEMA reservists should be retained in a modified form to provide flexible, rapid-deployment surge staffing when disasters exceed state capacity. We used to joke that if you sent FEMA managers out to get you a Big Mac and a Coke, they'd come back with a kitten, a pincushion, a harmonica — and not a single receipt. When the next real emergency hits, FEMA won't save anyone. Americans deserve better than the bureaucratic cosplay we witnessed when we tried in vain to fix. It is not ending FEMA, but continuing to fund FEMA that is radical. Barry Angeline, a retired business executive, led the FEMA Lean Six Sigma effort in Puerto Rico. Col. Dan McCabe (U.S. Army, Ret.), two-time Bronze Star recipient, served as a senior consultant for FEMA Lean Six Sigma in Puerto Rico. Both are federal whistleblowers. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
The Hill
09-06-2025
- Politics
- The Hill
Unfixable FEMA puts the ‘disaster' into ‘disaster recovery'
We thought reform was possible. We were wrong. We were brought to Puerto Rico to fix FEMA's broken disaster recovery processes after Hurricane Maria struck in 2017. Our team of seven Lean Six Sigma experts — decorated military officers and retired executives — had more than 150 years of combined experience in process improvement across 60 organizations in more than 20 countries, including war zones. FEMA was the only organization our team unanimously deemed unfixable — not because the mission was complex, but because of its toxic mix of incompetence, lack of accountability, and calcified dysfunction. FEMA's three-part mission was extremely simple: assess damage, calculate costs, release funds. Yet two years after Hurricane Maria, only 5 percent to 8 percent of cost estimates had been completed. Recovery had stalled. And instead of admitting failure, FEMA inflated $1.5 billion in project estimates to mislead Congress. At FEMA's Joint Recovery Office near San Juan — with 2,000 to 3,000 staff — the public Wi-Fi password had to be changed because so many employees were streaming Netflix. Damage assessments were routinely fabricated. 'It's easier,' one staffer told us. When we reported it, investigators asked, 'Did anyone take the money?' We said no. They lost interest. It got worse. FEMA approved leasing $46 million in pumps that could have been bought for $4 million. A whistleblower who reported this later died under suspicious circumstances — his body was cremated without an autopsy, despite requests for a forensic review. FEMA's response? Nothing. At the core was FEMA's unique DEI mandate: 80 percent of positions had to be filled locally, regardless of qualifications. Only 25 percent of residents were fluent in English, and fewer than one-third held college degrees. This created a woeful mismatch between mission needs and personnel. The federal coordinating officer had told us, 'I wish I had retired execs who just want to do the right thing.' We recruited just such a team, but we were then sidelined during our time in Puerto Rico from July 2018 to June 2019, largely due to discrimination. Merit was irrelevant. FEMA handed its critical improvement program to a young woman who epitomized quota-driven hiring. Enrolled in law school, she unabashedly prioritized classes over work, failed our Lean Six Sigma training, tried to steal test material, and colluded with the prime contractor to dilute requirements. We reported her, but she was protected. We faced relentless discrimination for being 'the straight old white guys.' Some managers mocked us in Spanish. FEMA's Equal Employment Opportunity office 'lost' our complaints five times. The lead counselor was fired the day before the investigation was set to begin. Discrimination was later confirmed by FEMA's Office of Professional Responsibility, but the findings were suppressed for six years. When we filed a Freedom of Information Act request for the report, FEMA redacted it entirely — including the page numbers. We brought our findings to Congress and the Inspector General but were ignored. Freedom of Information requests were stonewalled. FEMA's Freedom of Information office withheld records — even from Congress. That's not incompetence — it's obstruction. After exhausting every avenue — facing retaliation, smear campaigns, and sabotage — we filed lawsuits. Seven are now active, three of them naming FEMA. They were filed just before the statutes of limitations expired, only because FEMA's Whistleblower Protection Unit, Equal Employment Opportunity office, and Freedom of Information teams delayed resolution for years. Legal costs now exceed $700,000 — and we haven't even set foot in court yet. The strategy is attrition: Bury the truth in paperwork and delay. It is now 2025, and Puerto Rico's recovery remains incomplete. Its power grid is fragile. Two near-total blackouts in six months confirmed what we already knew: FEMA failed — and still is failing. In a real national emergency, FEMA will not be the answer. U.S. Northern Command, the National Guard, the Defense Logistics Agency, and hardened continuity-of-government military sites like Cheyenne Mountain and Raven Rock are the real backstops — not FEMA bureaucrats. Even in routine disasters, FEMA doesn't do the heavy lifting during the response. That falls to the Army Corps of Engineers, local EMS, and the Red Cross. In recovery, FEMA behaves like a bloated, poorly run insurance company — slow to pay, hostile to oversight, and incapable of learning. We have kept fighting because this isn't about FEMA's image. It is about lives. Americans are being failed by a $33 billion bureaucracy that delivers PowerPoints instead of progress. FEMA doesn't go to where the work happens, embrace problems, or fix them. Rather, it hides failures, punishes dissent, and rewards mediocrity. In FEMA's culture, the nail that sticks up doesn't just get hammered back down — it gets audited, reassigned, or made to disappear. It embodies the very things the Lean Six Sigma management approach was intended to eliminate — overburden, waste, and unevenness. If FEMA were a company, it would be bankrupt. If a military unit, it would be relieved of command. Instead, it limps along—propped up by Cold War nostalgia and D.C. inertia. President Trump has spoken of dismantling it. He cannot do it soon enough. He should devolve emergency operations to the states via block grants. Let the military handle large-scale logistics. Bring back transparency, urgency, and accountability. It can't happen overnight, of course, but it must begin. States must be gradually and strategically weaned — both operationally and financially — from FEMA's central role in disaster recovery. This phased approach should prioritize high-aid, high-frequency states, based on disaster frequency and severity. States facing similar risks should form regional pacts to share resources and coordinate surge response. This starts with honest assessments of each state's disaster history, capacity, and capability gaps. It includes inventories of personnel, materiel, and clearly defined responsibilities. States should formalize mutual-aid agreements to offset localized shortfalls. And FEMA reservists should be retained in a modified form to provide flexible, rapid-deployment surge staffing when disasters exceed state capacity. We used to joke that if you sent FEMA managers out to get you a Big Mac and a Coke, they'd come back with a kitten, a pincushion, a harmonica — and not a single receipt. When the next real emergency hits, FEMA won't save anyone. Americans deserve better than the bureaucratic cosplay we witnessed when we tried in vain to fix. It is not ending FEMA, but continuing to fund FEMA that is radical. Barry Angeline, a retired business executive, led the FEMA Lean Six Sigma effort in Puerto Rico. Col. Dan McCabe (U.S. Army, Ret.), two-time Bronze Star recipient, served as a senior consultant for FEMA Lean Six Sigma in Puerto Rico. Both are federal whistleblowers.
